The Kiosk Vendor -- On the Seine at Notre Dame

This bookshop kiosk vendor pauses to survey the reaction of his

words on a customer browsing books for sale in his kiosk/stall on

the 'Left Bank' of the Seine, at a bridge that connects the 'Left

Bank' with the island where the Cathedral Notre Dame -- Paris's

giant Gothic cathedral -- is situated. Your ratings and critiques

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please attach a helpful and constructive comment; Please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Hello John, a very good character study.

 

Peter

Thanks for the nice comment; this is a serious 'look' on this guy -- something very rarely attained by my lens, and when I get a capture like this, I'm very serious about working up the photo to its highest level, though I seldom Photoshop very much (this has a little light area, right, cloned out, but with that included, it also stands well on its own).

 

(When I 'touch' a photo, I own up to it.)

 

This is with a super sharp 70~200 Nikkor f 2.8 E.D. and it's so sharp it never needed sharpening (though I did just a tad, and you can see the hairs growing from the pores on the 'outside' of his nose and guess when he last washed his face.

 

There's more to the story than just that, also.

 

Thanks for the kind word; yours are read with care and seriousness as you are a well known quantity and not an 'easy rater' in my book.

 

John (Crosley)

Beautiful . Great light

I always find my best light is shaded sidelight, whether outside as here, on a somewhat overcast day, or inside when lighted by a window.

 

Side lighting is wonderful, in part because it reveals such things as the folds of the man's shirt, which in turn mirrors the 'V' neck of his knitted shirt, and in turn those folds mirror the folds of his jacket.

 

Moreover, there is a further 'mirroring' or 'echoing' of the 'fold' theme, from his dress to his face -- with his forehead furrowed (folded) and his under-eyes drooping heavily.

 

This is a photo of 'drooping' and 'folds' emphasizing the man's character as 'used' much like the unseen books he is vending at his riverside kiosk (on a sidewalk high above the Seine's banks, opposite the Cathedral Notre Dame in case you want to have a look at him when you're in Paris.

 

A warning, however, he doesn't like to be photographed.

 

Here's the secret to photographing this man - Parisian or at least French to the core.

 

Stand there with your camera.

 

Say nothing and cross your arms, submissively.

 

Just stand there as he talks with others and don't raise your camera.

 

It will be obvious you want to photograph him and he'll know it; he's been the object of photographers before, and he really doesn't like it.

 

But being French and probably Parisian, he likes to reward politesse (politeness), and if you politely ask (try using French if you can -- he'll respect that), he'll probably say as he said to me in French.

 

'Monsieur, ordinarily I don't like being photographed, but since you were so polite, you may photograph me freely (and I stood back politely with my telephoto zoom and politely took many photos as he dealt with customers, and among those was this particular photo).

 

I hate posing, and so does he. He and I saw 'eye to eye' on this matter.

 

Each subject must be approached in a particular way.

 

This is the way to approach this guy.

 

The result speaks for itself; he was entirely natural and at ease, as I 'stood off' respectfully snapping away, but discretely.

 

La Politesse (The Politeness)

 

One tool in the street photographer's grab bag of tools.

 

John (Crosley)

I found when photographing snowy egrets (herons) that because they're all white, they 'blow out' if photographed with Nikon's Matrix Metering either in bright shade or in the sun.

 

That was a blow to me, with snowy egrets or even great egrets to find that among the white feathers, there were blown areas.

 

I fixed that with those bird photos; I always have Nikon's Easy Exposure Compensation system turned on and with a simple turn of the command dial, I learned with the bird photos that a -0.7 exposure compensation setting would result in 'no blowouts'.

 

I looked at the 'blowout screen' view of this guy's first photos and his beard was 'blown out' and I thought, 'If I were shooting transparencies, I would have ruined them all, (since transparencies, once blown, are ruined, like digital captures).

 

When I saw that, I tried a -0.7 setting on Nikon's Easy Exposure setting, and the results were no blowouts.

 

The second result was that the 'whites' stood out, and his dark jacket and dark hair blended into the background shadows, effectively framing his head. That's now the work of Photoshop -- that work is entirely minimal and limited only to a small area of lightness, right, that was cloned out AND NOTHING MORE.

 

There was some brightness/contrast adjustment, but hardly any of that; this photo looks almost as good unretouched on thumbnail as it does here, though it has been cropped a little.

 

There is good reason for mastering exposure in the field and not depending as some will tell you 'I'll just get it in the field and I can correct it in my digital darkroom, if I shoot RAW'.

 

Well, I wasn't shooting 'RAW' that day, though now I am shooting raw and jpegs today, because I lacked enough space on my limited compact flash card (left without enough flash cards that day and raw eats up space.)

 

And, I consider that editing should be minimal. Sure, one should make a photo the best it can be, but who wants to spend all day in front of a computer instead of doing other stuff, including taking photos?

 

I opt for taking photos (or doing other stuff), rather than adjusting 'gain' or apparent ISO, through some 'scrubby slider' in Adobe Photoshop Raw or whatever they call it. Doing that takes time; why not just do it right the first time.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

 

 

Amazing portrait!

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

This man's face is exactly as captured by the camera, without one whit of alteration.

 

Although this photo was 'sharpened' and minimally, it really didn't need that, as it was truly crystal clear, especially in the man's eyes, on which I had a focal point when I aimed, and my depth of field was more than the minimal f 2.8 allowed by my lens.

 

Although he has the look of having been 'worked on' and although I did 'clone out' a tiny distration, right, the man's body and face and almost all of his clothing has not been retouched.

 

That's the result of having exposure control and a digital readout screen -- and taking a series of photos to get the exposure correct. The exposure was set at -0.7 of what Matrix Metering said it should be, and that kept the highlights of his hair/beard/face from blowing slightly, and that was just right to make this photo, all essentially without any retouching (not even healing brush on his face or any cloning, selecting, etc. on his face of his clothes around his face).

 

John (Crosley)

 

Excellent expression and lighting John. The sharpness is superb and physical. Thanks for your kind comments. Michael.

I may have taken 20 photos before I saw the 'blowout' problem, maybe fewer, then corrected it. (thank God!)

 

As I circled this man and his kiosk from a distance, I drew him into the best position as he spoke with a customer, and I was shooting from far away enough that this was not quite a full frame shot with my 70~200 zoom Nikkor at its full extension and the original full frame shot was quite nice and this is just about a 3/4 crop from that, which I would have made if I had a longer focal length available (and not things between me and him so I could have approached him more closely, which I could not, as there were obstructions -- books in piles and things as I recall.

 

Everything did work out well, and the lens achieved its legendary sharpness -- I often shoot in 'marginal' conditions so don't often get a chance to shoot in light skies with time to frame fully, as I did here.

 

And I shot in bursts or groups of several, so that when the man began to become expressive, I got the expressions I thought were important -- as here. This was by far the best of the bunch.

 

I think even he would say 'Bravo'.

 

I have an idea that this guy is a very intelligent guy who lives for his books and for his intellect and that this photo flatters him greatly -- he doesn't need to look like a movie star to be a 'hit' so long as he is seen as 'cerebral' and treated with respect due his intellect.

 

Thank you again, Michael,

 

John (Crosley)

Very, very nice. His face has so much character. Happy New Year, John...

Happy New Year!!!

 

I have learned that one thing that conveys to any audience (PN Critiques and Rates have taught me) is that a moving face with much character captivates viewers = such a face is like a magnet.

 

Earlier in my main portfolio, single folder, color, is a photo of a boatyard worker with a sly smile on his face, and it's so radiant though the lighting is mixed that the photo was a sure winner, though the photo as a whole violates lots of rules, and it was the man's expression, caught dead on.

 

This man has the expression, and he's also well-captured, with excellent side lighting, and somehow because of that it succeeds. I wish now that I have the 'formula' I had the faces, but 'alas'. Probably it takes a 'casting director' to assure a steady supply of such faces, and I just run across people in my peregrinations.

 

Again, Happy New Year, Joan. Your visits always delight me.

 

Thank you.

 

John (Crosley)

A superb portrait, great light, depth and compostion, intense, a very fine capture.................

Thanks,

 

This is the result of sidelighting. He was under/inside a book stall.

 

I absolutely 'love' sidelighting. I did obliterate some slight details from the stall, far right, but that's all I did to it.

 

He's still there, across the Seine from Notre Dame, I think; you can point your lens at him, but he's snippy; he responds only if you do NOT point your lens at him, but only if you first ask permission . . . as I did in this unusual case.

 

Thanks for the nice comment. Welcome to my pages.

 

John (Crosley)

This guy is a bookseller photographed as he worked at a kiosk aside the Seine River near the Cathedral Notre Dame, Paris.

 

It is one of my best portraits ever -- and that is partly just because I spotted what I thought was a worthy subject.

 

It also is partly because I stopped down a little bit to avoid distracting background from being captured -- and exposed enough to capture the highlights of his beard, which otherwise would have been 'blown out' under Nikon's standard 'matrix metering' -- a common occurrence under Matrix metering in some situations where there is white facial hair, especially beards/mustaches under some low light conditions.

 

He is dressed in ordinary, casual cool weather clothing, but it doesn't seem to matter -- his face is wonderful.

 

He saw me waiting with my camera down. I wanted to take his photo, but he's French. French are very big sticklers for courtesy, and I wanted to take more than just one 'candid' photo of him while he worked -- he was such a wonderful, potential subject, and I hoped for his cooperation.

 

I asked him if I could photograph him, and his reply was that he always refuses the many such requests he gets, But because of my politeness, he would allow it JUST FOR ME, and I told him that best results would just result from my standing back while he worked, shooting when the time was right, and he should just carry one and try not to be aware of the camera. He went about his business, as here.

 

This is full frame. He was partially shaded from the sunlight by the roof of his bookseller's kiosk -- resulting in his being lighted by sidelight -- a most flattering light, which also has a modeling effect.

 

Whenever I see a subject of situation that may be interesting where sidelighting is available, I always am extra alert, as sidelighting can make for wonderful captures.

 

Sidelighting, for instance, allows the shadows under his eyes to be emphasized, and also to bring out the folds in his shirt. And, in fact, the folds in his shirt echo the droopiness under his eyes - giving an overall theme of 'tiredness' or 'world weariness' to this photo.

 

I offer this as evidence of the effectiveness of side lighting.

 

Frankly, for my purposes, as I shoot, (aside from a very small amount of touch-up Photoshopping by a very skilled expert), I can really not envision improving on this street portrait -- I regard it as among my best ever.

 

Jan. 1, 2009

 

John (Crosley)

... astonished that I hadn't commented before, since I've seen it several times. Agree that this is one of your finest portraits; great framing, the blackness around is perfect for setting off the man himself. This is fine work, John.

I've been thinking of you for weeks and 'how you've changed my life' here as I am in Lotus Land following my muse.

 

This indeed is one of my favorites and a paean to patience and politesse.

 

I stood by with my camera down as this Seine-side bookseller across from the Cathedral Notre Dame did his business then politely asked if I could take his photo/portrait.

 

Ordinarily no, he replied, but because you are so polite, he said, yes, and I said, please do not let me interfere, just go about your daily business, and I'll stand back and shoot with my telephoto and not interfere at all.

 

And that's what I did.

 

When I next go to Paris, I'll take a copy with me to give to him to show more politesse.

 

I went as guest of the mercurial Michel to an opening a week ago which he curated (McHugh) (we saw each other for 4 minutes tops) but haven't heard from him since and may not. He hasn't replied to a 'thank you' e-mail. We had seen each other at a previous opening. Normally he eschews openings, but he now is self-employed and frankly in in public (as well as private) he is one of the most magnetic and energetic individuals you ever might encounter -- 100% devoted to pursuit of 'art' and its relationship to 'photography'.

 

He's very busy, and I'm now of the past, alas, and my living situation is very unstable to say the least -- the price of following my muse in the most unstable economic times in modern history.

 

My shooting is better and better, and more predictable; I'm getting to be a local fixture in certain places after only a couple or three weeks, getting priceless shots and making acquaintances everywhere, )even published a one-off book at A&I, as you know but high prices are keeping multiple copies from coming into existence as they should).

 

I owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude, which I wish you to know I carry in my heart at all times, no matter how much another name may come up now or in the future -- whenever his name comes up, yours precedes it in my heart. Please remember that as I am SO grateful just to have a chance to have my work considered at the level it is aimed at. (tear).

 

Please don't be a stranger.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

... but you just need to follow your muse. Your thanks have been more than enough for what little that I did. Some of your recent work has moved me greatly, I like it very much. The humanity is what appeals to me so much. I'm sorry I've been removed from PN, but it has been a busy time, working on the book and some other projects as well (PJ directed a wonderful production of Nicky Silver's "Raised in Captivity"). But you know I'll be back and look forward to more exchanges with you.

 

Your friend, Dennis