The Woman on the Street (And the Mysterious Woman Behind Her)

This woman didn't seem to mind being very close to my camera's very

wide angle lens, but what is that woman behind her doing? Did I

avert a stickup, or is she just scratching or adjusting her clothes?

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

Hello John,

I like the photo . The woman at the front works well , the ones at the back also works very well. Was thinking that you could try to keep the background to the right in one colour - it would give it a different look - maybe worth playing around with it.

This IS a color dependent photo as posted. Colors are important to this, but when it comes to manipulating my photos, I almost always just let manipulations pass.

I feel if I can't take a good photo by pointing my camera and lens at something, I probably shouldn't be deluding myself that I am a photographer.

So, I won't be changing the colors at the right. I not sure to what purpose in any case, as they don't seem distracting.

This is a photo about the color 'blue' as well as the subjects depicted: the woman (or is it a slight man) in the rear is wearing blue, the woman, foreground is in blue, and even the plastic 'seller's bag' on the sidewalk to her right (as we view her) is blue.

The red in the background also is complemented by a frame of 'blue'.

There have been only about two cases where I've actually manipulated a very distracting color -- in each case I 'selected' the item then desaturated it and adjusted its contrast down -- one way to get rid of something that detracts from an otherwise good photo.

But I'm not sure why you suggest making the change you propose. Maybe you can enlighten me.

I am glad you like the photo, and I DO take every suggestion seriously (I just don't adopt them all, but it's no reflection on you).

Best wishes,

John (Crosley)

'Weird and funky' and why not the word 'surreal' as well?

Yes, and 'camp' too.

I had framed the woman to include the passerby.

I have found that for 'originality' simple portraits of less than very old people or highly unusual expressions, there is little interest.

And the raters are right, so when I can, I try to include some environmental aspect.

Now who could have foreseen that the person (I think a woman) behind her would be reaching into her jacket (on a very warm evening) in what looks like she's going for a pistol in a shoulder holster?

Of course, there surely is a more innocent explanation, as street crime is not common in this particular place -- although if you leave something and expect to see it again, you're probably delusional. Even packages on buses or even 'checked baggage' in 'left baggage at the Kyiv airport gets gone through and highly valuable things just 'disappear'. Lesson, don't trust 'left baggage' at Kyiv airport, but that is 8-1/2 bus drive hours away.

I once put a packet with meat in it for my trip on a bus floor, and the person behind me didn't steal the valuable DVDs with my life's work -- they just stole the meat from the package, from beneath my seat!!! Meat is for 'holidays' in this part of the world, unlike equally poor Argentina which has fabulous food and plentiful (overly plentiful) portions of beef/lamb/fish for incredibly cheap prices.

I really can't think of a reasonable explanation for why that person's arm is like it is.

Think Antonioni's movie 'Blow Up' and the premise behind it (the photographer comes across something weird in a shot he's taken, and it leads to an unusual stream of events).

Hare Hare

John (Crosley)