The Hush-Hush Discussion**+

These two Spanish businessmen didn't want to be disturbed (or

photographed) and unwittingly stood in front of a background that

revealed their intent. Your ratings and critiques are invited and

most welcome. If you submit a harsh or very critical rating, please

submit a constructive comment/Please share your superior knowledge

to help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Great eye John, you truely have a talent for capturing this type of shot. (one in which the background somehow relates to the subject in unexpected and often fun ways) Thanks as always for sharing. Ron

I would like to have seen her just a bit more in focus. It looks perfect to me on the thumbnail but in larger format it seems too blurry. As for my overall feeling, I would direct you back to Ron's statement. -Anthony

I actually could have named this Hush-Hush Discussion No. II. See a similar portrayal under a statue of famous Russian Poet Pushkin with two businessmen.

 

Thanks for the kind remark. I do seem to have a talent for this to the point where I tend to dismiss these kinds of photos as hardly anything special -- they're just so easy.

 

This one sat on my hard drive since April or May, all ready to upload, and I hardly thought it would have any sort of reaction.

 

Thanks for setting me straight about its merits.

 

John (Crosley)

You may be right about the 'fuzziness, but I made no attempt at 'sharpening' which, after I think it over' I may attempt, and then you can see how you like it after a day or so (If I do attempt to sharpen the background -- I'm not sure yet).

 

Thanks for the accolade, also.

 

John (Crosley)

John,

 

What a keen eye you have. Perhaps a tighter crop, taking some off the top, to add a bit more intimacy to the moment?

 

-Tammy

You should have been at my side.

 

I generally crop in the camera, unless there's a disaster, or some higher calling.

 

However, nobody from Hebrew National's 'Higher Calling' has rung me up lately about my cropping on this one, so it'll stay as it is; I hope you'll understand about your ranking on the celestial hierarchy ;~))

 

(Ed.) I'm glad it pleased you so much (I don't look at the rates before I comment -- or remark in kind, as it keeps my remarks free of ratings prejudice -- I hope you understand. I look at them, but not with as much earnestness as I look at the comments, which to me are very important).

 

John (Crosley)

John,

That's obviously an interesting photo and at the first look it became a new one in my fave list of yours - not simply because of the devilish look of that girl... : ))

The first noteworthy thing is the juxtaposition of two colours: blue vs orange/gold (let's say "copper"). The immediate impact is to make a clear limit between the two parts of the photo but not especially to make an opposition.

In one hand, in the foreground and "into the blue": the two men. Quite close one each other, speaking and wearing the same kind of suit. They create a pretty cold feeling, or at least a strict one. Businessmen?, they look like. It's only possible to see a small part of their face (I'd say that their clean short haircut has to be noticed as well but the tallest one has been awfully disheveled by some wind) but that's quite easy to see they aren't especially having fun - but is it possible to have fun when one's a businessman? well... I hope so indeed! : )) -, they seem to be enclosed in a very serious discussion, tension is visible.

What I've defined like a default in a first time is the blue cast on their skin and hairs but I must now admit that the effect got works well with the ambiance... Is it a default from the white balance of your D2x? I don't think so (although I've already noticed that my D200 increases red hues under incandescent light when set up in auto WB), I'd better go for a cast made by the reflect of the sky on buildings windows. Whatever, this cast increases even more the level of importance of the blue colour in the foreground.

In the other hand, in the background and less in focus (well chosen one): the girl in "copper". Is that an advertising saying to businessmen that beautiful girls can be dangerous for them? No, do not say that I'm right!? : )) Just kidding. Whatever the goal of this picture, the effect is immediate: impossible to not see her look, what I've previously said as a devilish one. Perfectly placed in the diagonal, above the two businessmen heads, those eyes are THE catching point, the point from where all this photo is built. Let's say that the white part of the eyes into this warm orange-golden part helps for their impact.

As you wrote it, the two men don't want to be disturb and she - because of her deep and stare look - says that to you. "Do not disturb, else..."

So the limit made by the juxtaposition of two different colours doesn't create an opposition between the two parts. The background works for the scene in the foreground, that's a complete scene.

Looking at the whole composition, I'm only a bit disturb by the place of the head of the tallest man, a bit too close the center for my taste. That's nevertheless not so distracting because of the very good diagonal in the composition.

I can see you used a single focal length lens, so you had to move to compose, that's the kind of "technical details" I like to see in such a photosession, the fact that the eye is more important than the gear.

I'd close this comment by my wish to see the two men a bit sharper (do not touch the background!).

See ya, John!

More later on your superb critique.

 

For technical issues only regarding white balance . . . the men are in shade, so they take on a bluish tinge, rectified by going into the auto white balance menu and increasing the reddishness a little if you want to.

 

And for tungsten lamps or indoors if it is too reddish on your D200, just go to incandescent lamp, dial up to plus 3 and shoot away . . . you will like the white balance then, I think or make variations. Just do not shoot auto on indoors on tungsten with a Nikon.

 

More later.

 

Just a quickie as they say.

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

Don't know if the critique is superb, let's say that your photo is inspiring : ))

Again, briefly.

 

Let's say that this 'orphan' has been turned into a 'little gem', at least in the estimation of others.

 

Such surprises are why I keep posting my work on Photo.net; the one reason overall is that sometimes my myopia can be overcome by the collective opinions of the raters.

 

Sometimes I am at a total loss to explain, why, in the totality of things a master image such as my recent posting of a man and woman on the street, 'Goths for Girls' should get such high comments but such low rates, and yet this get such universal ratings, and pretty high ones at that.

 

Long time ago, when I was a photo editor, I was very successful because I knew (1) good photos just as standalones. whether to illustrate stories or not; and (2) how to illustrate stories that were passing over Associated Press's wires, but even then sometimes I would miss the point by a mile (judging public popularity, not in understanding fundamentals -- and sometimes I underestimated it -- sometimes the reverse).

 

I suppose this photo does stand for something, and one only hopes that these men really were having a 'business' discussion and not talking about their children or something more mundane . . . to justify the caption, as (1) I did not overhear them and (2) they were speaking Catalonian Spanish, which I do not understand at all -- I'm have a little familiarity (precious little) with Castillian) and the rest of it, is fieldworker Spanish from my amigos who work near mi casa.

 

Best to you, happily shooting away with your new D200.

 

By the way, if your exposures suddenly vary and you cannot control them, look for two sources.

 

1. The spot meter, matrix meter, and Nikon Center weight meter button/switch is located on the upper right back. It is easily turned accidentally, and if it gets turned, say, to 'spot meter' it will cause havoc with your metering. Beware.

 

2. If you have Easy Exposure adjustment on, the exposure is changed by a turn of the (rear) command wheel, and shown on the top display as over or under exposed on a scale. It normally should be centered. One menu choice is to turn that scale off (it should not be). If your exposures suddenly are all wrong (all too light or all too dark) you probably have set your easy exposure adjustment off 'normal' and need to reset it (depress the shutter halfway to turn on the meter first).

 

Hope these hints will speed you on your way (keep them in mind for ready reference.)

 

The first problem is due to bad design/execution -- about the only one on the D200 except for problems with the multi-battery pack, which I do not presently recommend anyone purchase (they fall apart).

 

Best to you.

 

(well it started out briefly, but I have more to say about your critique in time.)

 

John (Crosley)

After I read your (very) encouraging and inspiring comments in my portfolio, I thought that I would come by to see what you were up to. Indeed, you continue to live up to my expectation of the photonet photographer with a consistantly impeccable sense of well timed humor (Thank you!). I love this shot...bravo!

Hopefully, I can do some art stuff soon. Business has been doing well and I have a 7month old baby, so I haven't had much photonet/input/art output etc time...you know.I always find your images inspiring...thanks for the giggle and life observations.

Wonderful, John. Your own PN article on backgrounds comes to mind:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=270302

 

--Lannie

Lannie--I seldom even look to that Presentation -- 'Photographers -- Watch Your Background', but tonight, for some reason, I reviewed the comments underneath it, all 43 of them, and was drawn to yours -- God bless you for your notice.

 

And also for directing others to the presentation -- I'll be sending other photos soon to that presentation -- it's probably book fodder, and I'm looking to get published.

 

I seem to be able to churn these out with stunning regularity -- often a trip through a mall or a cab ride through a city will provide me with a number of such photos that are highly viewable -- all keepers in my opinion. How I ever got that talent, I'll never know, but I do remember reading 'Life', 'Look', 'Colliers' and other magazines which prominently featured interesting photography, including often some of the world's best photographs from world famous photographers (names we now understand are icons) -- so I guess I just absorbed their teachings subliminally and it stewed inside me and came out as this 'hidden talent'.

 

What a lucky gift.

 

Thanks Lannie.

 

John (Crosley)

John, not only is it publishable, but you probably have several volumes of publishable material, maybe more. I'll be watching for them.

 

--Lannie

Thanks for the valuable feedback -- any others feel the same way?

 

I am at a point in my life, right now, where I actively can solicit publishing contracts based on what I have produced up to now (as well as other related things).

 

Lannie, after 31 months behind a camera, I finally have confidence that each time I go out I can get new, interesting and original photos -- almost always unlike anything ever taken by anybody -- whatever the genre (except perhaps nudes, where I'm still in my photographic infancy, but eagerly learning).

 

I wish you could see a flash card (they're now 8 gigs and only $179.99 for 120x speed, from my cameras -- if anyone ever questions my abilities now, I just play back a few of my recent captures to some of my better ones, and I take far fewer 'junk' shots, than I did 30 to 20 months ago -- all from taking lots of chances and honing my skills by carefully studying my own captures and carefully listening to (and reading) the critiques of able critics such as yourself (and the thousand(s) of comments left by some of the most able reviewers a photographer ever has had the honor to receive -- I read and consider them all, even if they 'bite' a little bit or rankle sometimes.)

 

One I remember greatly, was from a member who told me I 'cut off the head tops' too much, but other than that I had some talent, and I wrote a very studied (and somewhat critical) reply, but I studied my photography in light of that criticism -- all of it and still do to this day (and still think I'm correct in my analysis), but the commentator's comments were on the mark for raising my consciousness about the subject (and for that I thank him -- thank you Peter).

 

I'm blessed with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of comments (many are mine and I haven't separated how many are originals from others for an exact count). I'm greatly blessed, as almost to a one, these comments have been made in good faith and the one or two that were made 'in bad faith' were given blistering replies (and mysteriously disappeared, perhaps embarrassed by being made to appear juvenile against so much good will and erudition.

 

I am a very blessed individual with regard to my journey through photography (this second time around. I never really got very far my first time around, despite loads of talent, but nowhere to display it, no one to critique it, and feeling uncomfortable with 'camera club chic' (pipes and cigars, talk of 'sandwiches' made of overlapping 'slides' -- transparencies -- people were 'manipulating' even then, and nobody gave a whit about my photography at the one and only camera club meeting I went to -- only in self-congratulation.

 

I figured I had something different, and even on Photo.net I didn't really have an audience at first -- I actually think I had to create my own audience by drawing people in to my 'scattered genre' style of photography.

 

Matt Vargas had a very difficult trying to do 'payback' when I gave him a stunning comment in his portfolio (he's an amazing photographer who happens to be very young), and he happened to hit the nail on the head, but one can feel him struggling for the words trying to compliment my photography . . . trying to figure out what holds all these vagaries together that comprise the photos of my various folders. (see comments under my portfolio).

 

It's guys like you, Lannie, and various others who pass through my life and my portfolio who are my audience and without an audience, I'd probably throw away my cameras.

 

But now I'm looking for a more enduring audience and possibly in some way to impart some of the knowledge that others have shared with me (or helped me to synthesize by their generous comments and help).

 

John (Crosley)

John, You can SEE, cheers Jana

Short and sweet.

 

Yes, I think I'm learning to 'see', just as you write.

 

It's exciting, as I 'see' more and more.

 

It's kind of like learning that one has x-ray vision -- always had it, never realized it because the images were indistinct and fuzzy, and one then only has to practice it to learn how to use it.

 

The more one practices the easier it becomes.

 

I'm getting better every day, and at a pace that was unimaginable just a year or so ago.

 

It astonishes even me.

 

(Thanks for such a wonderful comment, Jana.)

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

There is some subtle evil working here.

 

The girl in the background is like ominous an cloud.

 

cg

You should have seen me 'working this' photo. I had a telephoto on my camera and was lining up to include the poster and these guys kept moving out of my line of sight, then turned their backs to me and voila, I got them lined up with the movie theater poster (advertising who-knows-what movie in Barcelona).

 

It probably just looks like they're up to 'no good'. They're probably talking about their sons' use of semi-illicit drugs (of the type that light up and are inhaled, their children's 'grades' or perhaps how to manipulate the price of oil for the world -- or possibly, being Spain, how to launder half of Russia's oil trillions . . . ;~)) One never knows.

 

Probably it's entirely innocent and whatever evil there is, lurks in the 'evil' part of our minds, and is just suggested by this photo.

 

If that is the case, then this photo is a success, for that was its purpose; its actors are a piece of poster board, and two guys -- nothing more and if you see evil in it, so much the better, and I'll accept compliments for making the transformation.

 

There's another photo in my single photo (color) folder of two guys having a similar discussion beneath a statue of Russia's esteemed poet, Pushkin, for a similar look.

 

I'm happy to hear from you.

 

Happy New Year!!!

 

John (Crosley)

Sometimes I don't even know where it comes from.

 

Maybe a gift from some God creature, or just a lot of shots I've taken and 'missed' that clutter my hard drives, reminding me of my own mortality.

 

Hare Hare.

 

John (Crosley)