color -- then and now Hopital des Enfants Malades (Sick Children's Hospital), Paris

This is a Parisian bus stop, named after the nearby major hospital.

Note the diversity of bus riders; Paris has an economical, reliable,

comfortable, and efficient transportation system. 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

Wonderful capture of this group of people , great exposure here and composition

 

All of the best my friend

 

If I were exhibiting in a photo fine art 'street' gallery, this is the sort of work I think would sell.

 

It's just full of fine detail; completely intesting on many levels and holds attention.

 

It also holds its own as a black and white, and I debated how to post it.

 

Thanks for the endorsement, and taking the time to post a comment.

 

Just when you think you have my 'style' figured out, I go and post something entirely different, eh?

 

John (Crosley)

Notice, as one fine point of interest, that the women carry their handbags a certain way: handle around the neck, purse to their chest/bosom. That's so thieves can't grab them and run away with their possessions. Paris, in summer at least, is rife with pickpockets and sundry thieves. On a rainy day like this, it's hardly a problem, especially in front of a hospital, but such are habits.

 

That's just one of the small points one can discern by studying this photograph, let alone how everyone has given leeway to the blind man . . . .

 

John (Crosley)

The appropriately cropped version has been uploaded without any white space at the margins, the PN server must refresh itself. If you have previously viewed this photo or it's appeared in thumbnail, and it still shows some white at a margin, try refreshing your browser, or wait until PN's servers refresh their cache.

 

I discovered of two versions, I had originally uploaded a defectively cropped version and immediately tried to correct it. Sorry for the error.

 

John (Crosley)

An interesting study of human behaviour. I can look at it for a long time.

I only took a frame or two, but this one has fascinated me; it's my art at a whole different level, I think.

 

Most of my work involves 'human understanding', and this one is much more complex than the average work, which is why I think it can withstand such long scrutiny.

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

superb, symbolic, strong..all about us!

 

It seems everybody is on their computer as I post this; I think your comments are right on.

 

This is a most unusual posting for me, and maybe not my last of such scenes.

 

I could fill an entire portfolio or gallery with just such shots, and to think that this was just a moment or two as I walked by, across the street, and it 'interested me'. (I did know, however, that it was 'important'. But soon a bus came along and swept them all away . . . in a roar of exhaust and noise.)

 

Thanks for your kind comments.

 

John (Crosley)

Wonderful! I want to write a story for each personality here.

BTW, I think I'm going to Russia for a couple of weeks in June, something you helped inspire.

A wonderful comment, a story for each individual; I'm considering taking a photo of bus stops around the world -- maybe with a higher resolution, larger format camera -- from Hong Kong to Moscow, to Argentina to Zaire, maybe on a grant.

 

Imagine it as a series in a fine art gallery with this as the anchor.

 

And as to Moscow, also wonderful, but please go with no expectations; the city was designed 'huge' to denigrate the individual citizens and make them seem insignificant in light of the power and size of the 'state' so if you are overwhelmed by each individual's seeming insignificance, don't be surprised.

 

Also, Russians overall, everywhere, are judged as being the rudest of all the Europeans, so steel yourself; it is easy to see that especially in a huge city such as Moscow especially in a world where please is a three syllable world (spacibo pronounced spacibah), which makes it hard to say, and Americans who keep saying 'please' (pazhalsta) and 'thank you' (spacibah) too much for the taste of Russians. Theirs is a society which runs on the principal of we just push past each other except when we have a bottle of vodka and we're with friends, so best to get alone with Russians relaxing and speak about close things for long periods which can develop into a sort of intimacy which you will never find on the street.

 

Each Moscow metro has a clock at the end of the platform and every two to three minutes all hours of the day on every line there's a new train. If five minutes goes by, don't shove into the first train that comes along; it'll be backed up and supercrowded -- just wait ten minutes and an emptier train will come along three or four trains later.

 

Don't cross your legs on the Metro; it's a sign of disrespect and the Russians are super superstitious people, with a host of 'no-no's. It is not uncommon to be asked to sit on a stool at the front door before embarking on a long trip, lest harm befall you on that long trip, even from professional people!!! Pravda.

 

In the Soviet Far East, at least, there was in Soviet times warnings that the Americans would nuclear bomb them, and there were fallout shelters (sound familiar?). And for a while, a joke was that very briefly the Russians should declare war on the US, then immediately surrender so we'd shower them with foreign aid. ;-))

 

All this is from my own experience, that of my last spouse, or past girlfriends who were not funning me -- all serious.

 

I hope you have a wonderful time.

 

John (Crosley)

I enjoy reading your posts as much as your photographs, John. Patricularly, I liked the part on no-can-do crossing legs in Moscow's metro. Ha, ha. It depends how much space you take on a bench. If you practice that anywhere akin to wild west fashion (feet on table or ankle-to-knee western style), oh, yeah you'll be eyeballed and hissed upon. You take too much room and people just won't like that. On the contrary, hop in a midnight train. You got all the room to sway head down from the railings. I saw that once. Didn't have a camera.

 

 

OK, now give me the reasons I should go to Moscow. I'm sure I could take my daughter to Spain, where I can at least stumble along in the language, or Italy, where I spent some time as a boy (Florence), or Prague or Vienna (never been).

The people there are warm and friendly once you get to know them; it's exotic, and the younger people (women) hardly discriminate about age.

 

I was 'picked up' in Red Square the day after Russian Christmas Jan. 2006 by a 21-year-old graduating student who was not only beautiful but supersmart.

 

We stayed in touch by e-mail through the year and just finished spending 22 days in Ukraine together; she's my new assistant. She has a boyfriend, but we have a relationship that will endure; it's stronger than anything I've seen in more than a decade except for my marriage and even there, she has many strengths my wife did not have -- we laughed every day, all day, for 22 days living together in an apartment.

 

No age discrimination there.

 

And it is not impossible to get picked up by someone half your age and end up marrying them, as I have.

 

Is that enough?

 

(Oh, and my bride looked prettier than Uma Thurman, whom she resembled, younger, and considerably smarter).

 

What more do you need?

 

Oh, a way to slip away from your daughter.

 

'-))

 

John

Yes, the metro is crowded, but at the same time, not so crowded and anxious as New York's subway, nor as Japan's subway which has white gloved pushers who jam you into the cars.

 

And, according to my onetime bride, it was not just space considerations, but social considerations in crossing your legs, but she had all sorts of various 'rules' that others were not always aware of like her - she was very strict in that regard.

 

On the other hand, as midnight rolls around and they're going to shut down the metro, the drunks have to get home, and they certainly can swing and sway (and puke and do other more than obnoxious things) as well as sometimes be very aggressive. (Never look a drunk young Russian man in the eye defiantly, or you'll find out just how aggressive a young drunk can be, and they often travel in drunken gangs.)

 

But generally the Metro is pretty safe and sane, for a big city; I feel comfortable, even with my large cameras, even towards midnght, and that's saying a lot. That's because the high class as well as the low class use the Metro -- it's egalitarian and without peer for getting around Moscow and without peer in the Metro world.

 

thanks for the tutorial, however.

 

John (Crosley)

 

(I would have had my camera out, as I always carry one.;-))

 

J

John, I am past "don't do this don't do that" social considerations an outsider often notices in the Russians lol, unless it gets socialy dangerous.

Seriously, all you've said is amazingly true. Time to get rid of being street shy.

 

 

 

 

I guess you mean, Konstantin, that YOU are stree shy.

 

I no longer am. Give me a camera and I'm driven. I'll withhold taking photogrphs under certain circumstances for safety's sake, or for social sake if I'm with a social party, but that's seldom; it's understood that photography is what I do and allowances are made.

 

I guess the 'steet shyness' was you talking about you.

 

Thanks for your endorsement about my knowledge of Russian mores, habits and society . . . I'm picked it up by osmosis, but I'd be crushed if it turned out to be untrue. And I'd be amazingly surprised if it had been untrue.

 

Thanks for giving me a native's endorsement.

 

John (Crosley)

Another great capture John! It is interesting to think of each person's circumstances... and whether they are on their way to, or leaving, the hospital. You managed to frame it very well.. looks like the perfect focal length for the shot, the only thing I wish for is to see more of the leaves on the curb and perhaps a bit of the street itself to add some colour. I love the dull, autumn colours! Very nice A6/O6

PS. my email addresses are:

infocu5 (@) hotmail (.) com

mvardy (@) mattvardy (.) com

The latter probably won't be able to accept any attachments or images (very limited storage space).

I look forward to hearing from you in the future. Best Regards,

I think other captures had more leaves and street, but the people were not properly interspersed for the most interesting capture. Such are the tradeoffs. Nothing is perfect.

 

But this is a whole different sort of capture for me; complex on a different level, and I like it very much.

 

I was in Paris for Photo Paris 2006, the photo exposition, and this is more the sort of thing (that if street photography were shown at all, which it wasn't), one would have expected to find in galleries and on exhibition there.

 

Regrettably privacy laws in France have left the street photographer out cold, but not me, as I live elsewhere, and whose privacy is invaded when they're on a public street, in a town rife with cameras and tourists for goodness (God's) sake?

 

I'm proud of this work.

 

I've posted some of the works I wanted to e-mail you, but I will keep your e-mail on file, and maybe slip you a preview from time to time.

 

Best wishes.

 

John (Crosley)