'She Loves Me; She Love Me Not' ('Gads')

Out of the blue, while photographing, the young woman, left,

announced she wanted to marry me; to the delight of the teen behind

her, and to my consternation, as she is not my idea of a 'Ukrainian

beauty'. 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

I like this photo as the both expressions and different ages tell me a kind of story. The only note but its a question of taste is the distortion of the 12/24mm that, for me is a litle bit over limits.

 

Very funny capture, but also dramatic! The distortion is indeed an issue but on the other hand it creates a cartoon-character-like effect on the whole incident. It really shows all the "plans" in her eyes!!! :-) Best 2007 wishes John!

Very Impressive capture here and of wonderful composition

 

All of the best my friend

 

 

When I found the true age of the woman, foreground, I about fell through the ground, she's very young, and the female behind is a young teenager.

 

I was playing around to get them in the frame as they moved, which is why the distortion from the 12~24 mm lens. That's the reason. Get all the important stuff in the lens, damn the bad features, and keep all the bad and distracting stuff back.

 

And to hear a marriage thought from the woman, left, was a bit distracting, especially since I was with my lovely assistant, Annya, photoed elsewhere with turtle neck sweater up over her face.

 

John (Crosley)

To boil your comment down to its essence: Use of a 12~24 mm lens at its widest opening with its distortions creates the comic effect that goes with the scene. A fortuitous choice, and I agree.

 

There was 'm' in that woman's mind, 'm' I tell you . . . after a movie dialogue involving the letter 'm' to stand for 'murder' but in this case, it stands for 'marriage'. I think she thought she'd found a 'live one'.

 

She had no real idea of how she appeared to others; a junior babushka, already 'fleshed out'.

 

The sad part is the beauties, the young stunning ones, also turn into the old babushkas between 35 and 45 years old, or they did before modern cosmetics and style entered the picture. We don't know what today's younger people will look like, only those who endured all those years of privation after Communism failed and there was a transition economy, with privation for all but the most corrupt.

 

Thanks for the sound comment.

 

John (Crosley)

I have found a 'wonderful expression' can save or make an otherwise lousy photo.

 

Unremarked on so far is the radiating pattern in the leather/surreal leather - fake) of the woman's coat/top, as it draws line toward her head. That's why I decided to pay attention to her and photograph her.

 

I photographed her alone, but my preference is to photograph two at once, and the second person was cooperative, so it all took just moments to squeeze off single portraits and this double shot.

 

As you are aware, I work hard with composition, and my subjects always are moving and very seldom expressly posed, and even them encouraged to move around, as I do, looking for that 'precise look' and they're also encouraged to talk among themselves or to me, whcich causes facial movements that ruin some shots, more than paid back by their candidness. (save page for reference).

 

Yours, and best wishes to you.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

I beleive it was fun and distracting and that's why you got a great photo as we know quite well the reality of these people that start to arrive in our country to find a better life and we are a poor country. The right for searching a new and better life belongs to all of us.

my best regards!

John, you have a wonderful way of making each venture into the street an adventure. Thanks for the share. JH

I think that this woman was as taken by the fact that a man could be carrying such wonderful (expensive) cameras and be walking around blithely, as I was, while other photographers across the street always were taking photos of brides (there was a monument across the street and Communist-style weddings, carried on to this day is to take brides and grooms, to city 'landmarks' -- even Communist ones, for their photos, after the wedding ceremony. In part because there were no churches and wedding ceremonies were 15 minutes at a state-run wedding mill and in part because the wedding feast often was almost non-existent, or not really a feast at all.

 

So, she expected that if one had a camera, it would be trained on a bride, and for me to train my camera on her, made her 'bride for a day' in a twisted way of thinking. Possibly living where she did, across from that busy monument, she had grown up with 'weddings on her mind', but, alas, she had not taken personal grooming steps to prepare herself for that dream day.

 

John (Crosley)

You have hit the nail on the head: each foray into the street, I turn into a wonderful adventure, and I try to share it. Otherwise, how dull a boy I'd seem.

 

The 'success' I've had with my photos stems from two things, primarily, (1) my ability to see things differently, or at least snep the shutter at times when others might be frozen, and (2) my ability to draw myself into circumstances with a camera that others might avoid, so I have the ability to be able to release that shutter for that interesting photo.

 

The rest is related to mostly traditional composition studies.

 

I like your astute comment, and may repeat it to others to describe what it is that I do, and why it generally is successsful.

 

(Of course, I take a lot of crap and edit like crazy too.

 

John (Crosley)

You tease, you! You were just too much for that woman - she couldn't help herself. :) I was smiling before reading the thread and now well, you've got me in a full on laugh. Thanks for posting this one, John, it's a gem.

 

-Tammy

Feel free to repeat it if you like, after all, it is because of you, I pay so much attention to my backgrounds now. JH

Never in my wildest nightmares would I be attracted to such a woman!

 

Although many may believe I'm attracted primarily to younger women because they have seen a photo of my wife posted (she's in her low-mid '30s and has brain cancer and still blames me for causing it so we do not live together, and my friends, most of whom (in Ukraine) have not reached their 25th birthday, that's solely because once they turn 25 over there, they are married and struggling with kids and maybe an alcoholic husband plus their own job; too busy to have a social life and struggling with life itself.

 

Little is known that when I was in my early-mid 40s, my girlfriend whom I loved and lived with for a long while was in her mid-late '50s, and except for some major psychological problem on her part relating to relationships, we conceivably might have married. She was wonderful, related well to everyone, knew everyone, and was simply a fabulous individual.

 

As odd as it may seem, age actually means not so much to me; sometimes it's the miles and sometimes it's the whole package; she had it all (except an aversion to commitment that scared the bejesus out of even her), and we did it all -- moonlit walks on beaches, trips to Europe, wine country, etc. -- every cliche in the book.

 

Now I make my own life, having had two wives with cancer, including one who got it at 29 and suddenly fled, convinced I 'caused' it, and worse, she had about a 200 IQ and looked like Uma Thurman, only prettier and younger.

 

In America, if a man my age looks at a younger woman, he's a 'perv'; in other countries, it's a huge compliment.

 

I take the path of least resistance.

 

Except above, of course.

 

I have built-in circuit breakers for such situations.

 

Thanks for making me smile.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

Aha,

 

So you have taken from my presentation 'Photographers, Watch your background' exactly what I had hoped you would (or you simply have analyzed my photographs thoroughly). Notice I am coding them now, slowly, so that I can add to my 'Presentations' that are now being assembled and added to.

 

Here is the non-secret coding next to the caption:

 

** the background relates to the foreground

 

+ the background is a graphic in some way, generally

 

* (In addition to the ** symbol) the photo is composed of 'three' subjects or prominently features 'three' of something.

 

There may be more symbols.

 

I had to resort to 'symbols' added to captions, as the only way or sorting my captures, as I cannot remember all 750+ photo captions and content, and Photo.net's moderator, when they asked for improvement suggestions, returned to me as 'too long' my suggestion that they add 'thumbnails' to the sorting process plus a numbering sort so that when one goes to assemble a presentation one can see thumbnails, then add a sort number to that, and at the end, push a button and it just assembles. That hasn't happened and because the moderator deemed my suggestion 'too long' it never made it to management. (although it had thrice or five times been to prior management, who was too busy running around trying to get paid, I think).

 

That's just life, however.

 

I like the site and have no plans to leave and no beefs presently with management.

 

And I love the reaction this little unknown 'gem' has brought. Little did I ever suspect THIS photo would prove so popular.

 

Thanks for the phrase and for your contribution(s) as well as the compliment.

 

John (Crosley)

'She loves me' relates to the expressed feelings of the woman, foreground left.

 

'She love me not', relates to the imagined feelings of the teenage young woman, right.

 

('Gads!', relates to my feelings on hearing interpreted the leftmost woman's feelings towards me the first time.)

 

'Gulp' was another word I might have used, but it was more ambiguous.

 

John (Crosley)

It must be very difficult, if not impossible, for some individuals to articulate their fears, especially when faced with the possiblity of dying from cancer. Sadly, we lash out at those closest to us, those who love us the most. It must be quite a lonely road to travel. I'm touched by your story, John. Thank you for sharing a bit of your life.

 

-Tammy

 

 

When one moment you're impossibly head over heels in love (yes), 28 years old, beautiful beyond all reason, have an untested IQ so great that when you see those 'test your IQ tests you click on them, take them to the end and ask 'where are the difficult questions? (maybe 200 I.Q.), you're kind, gentle, a great cook, you've lived a life of privation and just moved to the land of opportunity, you've spent a day laughing your head off at silly jokes, and suddenly, pipes come crashing down on your head in a 'big box' store, you get a routine x-ray and they tell you you have a huge, 2" diameter brain tumor, probably cancerous, and you know at that size it'll probably kill you promptly if it is, the world comes crashing down in one instance.

 

Happiness turns to morbidness, as the mind searches for causation, and mistakes are made.

 

I was nearby; I was the dog that got kicked, the mistake was made against me because I was nearest, as you said.

 

Sadly the operation to remove the tumor sealed off the neural pathways that might have allowed reason to re-enter.

 

She lives, but with that idea forever sealed inside . . . almost hermetically, though now she knows intellectually it is unpopular with the medical profession and she no longer will articulate it . . . it's still there. 'there was friction . . . cancer grows where there is tension . . . therefore . . . . . . . . ' and the causation element is skipped over as though all loves in which there is 'friction' should end in brain cancer.

 

And any friction had ceased, with smiles all around and promises of great happiness for a lifetime.

 

Ended in one day.

 

Is it any wonder my photos have irony in them?

 

Actually, I felt the irony years before when I was in my early 20s and picked up a camera; I just can focus it better now, I think because it's more personal.

 

Thanks Tammy V., your words have touched me.

 

John (Crosley)