Red, Rushing

Red, Rushing, is a color-dependant 'street' photo from the Paris

Metro recently. Your ratings and critiques are invited and most

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

helpful and constructive comment; please share your superior

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! John

Very original..!!!!

Thanks for the comment.

 

I thought this would score higher with the rest of the PN audience.

 

It's a favorite of mine; I couldn't wait to post it (well, actually I DID wait some substantial time, but still, it was with greater anticipation than justified. Oh well . . . .)

 

John (Crosley)

Very nice work, John! Best regards, Ruud.

Why am I not surprised that a photo entirely composed of 'red' (and white and black) would appeal to you?

 

By the way, your most recent work is surely destined for galleries, if not there already.

 

I will be able to say 'I knew Ruud * way back when * . . . proudly.

 

John (Crosley)

I love his works!

 

I love the motion of this picture! I also am a big fan of the color Red but that is not the reason to like a picture.

 

The main reason to like this picture is the ABSTRACT qualities and the motion that it convays. The depth of this picture is something out of the ordinar in photography here at PN when applied to motion.

 

This is more something learned in ART class. How to present Depth in art. The eyes go back and forth from the lines in the mural to the tile to the motion of the person with the red handbag.

 

It makes you wonder if the person was not carrying the red bag would the picture not be the same.

 

The black floor is perfect for this effect!

 

I personally find this picture facinating.

 

I like it like you do!

 

Ok, I could almost use the word love (because it has red in it).

 

YEAH! ~ micki

Have a look at my bio. It states I feel that 'I'm the chameleon of Photo.net for the various styles in which I photograph' or words to that effect.

 

This is just one of them.

 

I just go out with a camera, and if something looks 'interesting' I press the shutter.

 

I have a huge experience in viewing illustrations, art, photography, etc., and a wonderful memory, as well as an amazing ability to synthesize in a split second.

 

So, when I saw this work, which I was studying for all of about three to five seconds, and this guy came running by with a red bag (shopping bag), there it was, and I fired one shot.

 

I even waited until he was here, and didn't fire a 'continuous sequence'. I have been criticized elsewhere for taking too many shots, but those people have no idea of who I really am or how I really can analyze on the spot.

 

One shot and this was it.

 

Not another shot taken or attempted.

 

I just moved on, satisfied.

 

I was saddened this didn't capture others' imaginations when it was first posted, but it seems to be doing better now, and that heartens me, as I like it quite a lot.

 

When I believe in a photo, I don't have to have anybody's endorsement, but when everyone says a photo is a horrible photo and I think it's wonderful, it's time to re-evaluate.

 

Thankfully, these days that seldom happens, especially if I am patient and wait.

 

It just goes to show you, if one believes in his work and thinks it has merit enough to post it (not throw it open just to see if anyone likes it, but genuinely believes in it), then post it and don't take it down.

 

Some of my lowest-rated photos have ended up my highest-viewed over time.

 

Go figure.

 

Thanks as always.

 

My heart's cockles are warmed.

 

And by a true 'artist' no less.

 

Not one of photographer types with our 'unoriginal thinking'.

 

I guess 'synthesis' has a place in 'street' photography as well . . . if done carefully . . .

 

Wait'll you see my 'take' on Dolce & Gabanna . . . (or maybe not . . . as it is nothing like this and has some humor in it . . . . ).

 

Best wishes.

 

John (Crosley)

Beautifully observed and captured John. Red is always strong in a composition and this being only red, white and black has it all. one of your strongest pictures to my mind (that means I wish I'd taken it).

This photo is singular for me, and people can wonder, (as I did), how did I 'see' this?

 

I had a wife (first wife of 17 years), who in her first job as a married young woman of 22 or 23, worked at the magazine 'Art in America' which is a pompous publication which forever brags about how rich its readers are; she was pretty, perky, smart and very well mannered and fit well in their office.

 

She brought home the publication with its mostly boring 'art' which I found not very interesting, with my photographic credentials, and I was then working as a photo editor for Associated Press, where there was 'real action' during the Viet Nam war.

 

I found most of the 'art' very 'artsy-fartsy', and much of it I still do, especially, so-called 'modern art'.

 

But I do have an appreciation for some of it.

 

And some of it did seep into my being, which is probably how this photo came about.

 

I saw the art on the wall, someone came walking by, I looked at them and predicted where they'd have to be as a human 'accent' to 'flesh out' the painting photo as a true photograph rather than a recording of a 'piece of art' which would have had no photographic merit at all -- I do not take photos of art for that reason.

 

Then this guy came rushing by with his red shoppping bag and the rest is history.

 

It all happened in a thrice -- so fast I hardly appreciated it, or even reviewed this capture more than a second on my digital screen.

 

I've come to appreciate this as a fine capture, and very different photograph, from a time when I took some of my best series of photographs -- a few days in Paris where my airline dumped me inadvertently, then forgot about me, costing me thousands.

 

This is a small reward.

 

(And don't ask about the airline and its series of missteps and mishaps . . . or its clumsiness and ineptness for one of its most frequent and therefore most valuable flyers).

 

Thanks for the feedback -- it's highly valuable to me.

 

John (Crosley)

I cheated a little.

 

This was a red, white, black and 'green' photo.

 

The circular green thing in the left was 'green' and totally distracting.

 

I desaturated it, and ran the contrast slider to one side, after selecting it, effectively destroying it's 'bad' qualities.

 

Occasionally I'll engage in such legerdemain (lightness of hand in literal French, I think -- three words, actually in French).

 

I hope you'll forgive me.

 

I don't keep secrets, or at least very many. There's little to be learned from that or accomplished by self-aggrandizing by suggesting 'I didn't see any green that was distracting' I did, I wondered what to do with it, and when I edited this photo, I was presented with two choices, deal with the green as a 'stop and go' matter, as in 'traffic lights' (which was a failure) or desaturate the green, and that was a winning idea. So I went with it.

 

There you have it. I used 'manipulation' Gasp!

 

Just a little.

 

John (Crosley)

 

If I said I didn't, you can amend that.

 

I seldom do such things, and in fact can remember only one other such instance.

 

JC

After being posted for some time, but only getting lower to mediocre ratings, this photo has proved a viewing 'hit' -- it exceeds by anywhere from two to six times the views of neighboring photos -- nearly all of which got higher ratings -- with one exception, a photo which is much, much better, but in a different area of the 'street' genre -- one which tells a story, and this one is more an 'aesthetic' photo, although it too, tells a story.

 

So, on this day, 11/3/07, this photo has been clicked on between 1,700 and 1,800 times for a 'larger' view, and it is not on anybody's 'highest-rated' list, so that means browsers in my portfolio are clicking through to make it larger in an extraordinary number that belies the ratings.

 

That's one reason I almost never take a photo down; sometimes ratings of 'poor' or 'mediocre' are belied by the vast number of viewers who stop to take a look, and I hope admire a photo.

 

This is not a 'great' photo by any meanings, but it has a 'worth' that I don't think was recognized initially by raters.

 

In others words, despite low ratings, this photo is what I call 'clickworthy'.

 

And happily so for me; since I am very proud of this photo; taken in a fraction of a second or so.

 

John (Crosley)