'Dangerous Dance?'

What appears a 'dance' between these two kickboxers in Thailand

actually is a moment caught as they punch each other and their arms

cross (and maybe their arms tangle, who knows?); they certainly

appear to be on more 'intimate' or at least 'friendly' terms than

they really are. Your ratings and critiques are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment; please share your superior

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Hello John, What a great shot. You are right about their expressions. This could be an elaborate dance of some sort. Did you intend for the skin tone to have a grainy texture? In any case it works here.

Your Friend

Berryl

Thanks for the kind endorsement. This has been sitting for well over a year; I posted another shot which I liked very much from the same session in Bangkok and I seldom post two images from the same setting; I am reviewing old images for the first time to see if I overlooked anything worthy. I guess maybe you're telling me I made a correct choice to post this one.

Thank you for your endorsement.

John (Crosley)

in my opinion..i prefer without grain, the natural color of skin.

and the moment is the perfect one...!!!

regards

This is a film capture, hence the grainy tones to the skin. I was shooting both digital and film and this happened to be film, and I was shooting lots and lots of rolls (now I could just shoot on a 4 gig or 8 gig card all night, or maybe two since I can shoot freely.)

This may be as much a triumph to good photo editing as anything else; Long ago I studied books and books full of images to find what made them successful, and later fond myself editing images for a year for Associated Press at New York world headquarters where I was (second in charge) of international photos as a callow youth of 23-24 and certain days also controlled the worldwide wire-photo network. Heady stuff.

I even represented my department to the general manager and other department heads; my department heads were apathetic, burned out old men who could care less; and I helped improve AP's coverage of much that was going on in those heady times, they told me [personally the General Manager told me that when he took me to lunch -- but then he also personally gave me the check for my own lunch -- DUTCH TREAT (no offense to those of you from the Netherlands)].

I left soon afterward, convinced that that was no place for me, if the General Manager could take out a promising employee to lunch, praise me, then make me pay for my meal (in a coffee shop no less). I quadrupled my salary in one move, and after one year at the next job, went to law school where I even worked for free sometimes to 'get experience' and indeed it was extremely valuable' and worth the sacrifice.

As a photo editor, I often edited photos from world photographic giants as well as lesser luminaries and just plain photos that happened to be timely for the day and otherwise had no merit. I soon learned to separate the good from the bad. But I had more eclectic tastes than just journalism for my own photography, which is probably why I never followed through on their continuing offer to me of a photographer's slot (a former editor left his/my desk and in one year got a Pulitzer -- bandoleers on blacks out of Cornell University).

When I put a photo away and keep coming back to it, that's a sign I should find a place to post it; as here.

I'm glad you like it.

(I went decades without taking a photograph, or barely in any case, just collecting cameras; now I'm using them at a frantic pace.)

John (Crosley)

This is a film capture, cropped a little, and a high speed one at that, so grain is something that is natural for such a capture.

The ambient lighting is pretty good quality, but still 'mixed' in color temperature, so there will be some 'issues' around skin tones, but the only true 'fix' is to desaturate, which I chose not to do.

Glad you liked the 'moment'; it's why I chose this photo from many.

John (Crosley)