Paris (through my eyes)

This 'street' scene from Paris was taken near the Gard du Nord (North

train station) recently just a stone's throw from the tracks leading

into the nearby Gare de L'Est (East train station), and continues the

use of the theme of 'threes' within a certain portion of my

photography. 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

A really beautiful shot, John!

Thanks so much.

 

A mention from you is worth its weight in gold.

 

John (Crosley)

 

(This photo is copyright 2007, John Crosley, All rights reserved.)

An interesting capture in which the 3's are evident throughout the composition forming two major triangles. The first one is made up between the poster, the walking man and the street sign while the second one is composed of the man framed by the two black poles. The poster seems to be mocking at the passing man, an instance in which life laughs at you.

I was so interested in the compositional elements, I didn't figure out the 'story' of the man being laughed at. Score one for you.

 

I already had posted my photo 'The Progression of Age' - the old bearded man (younger than me probably) being 'mocked' by two poster women (POW), so this 'story' was less clear to me.

 

But you're probably right (as usual)

 

John (Crosley)

John

this is a great example of street photography the three elements combine beautifully well done I would be interested to see what it would look like cropping at the line in the wall on the left might be worth looking at. Anyway a great shot

 

Steve

About your suggestion, there is symmetry of the man between the two curb post tops, so if you crop where you suggest, that would destroy that spacing.

 

Additionally, a crop at the building line also would change this from 'rule of thirds' view (approximately) into having the guy more jammed up against the edge of the frame; again it would destroy its wonderful symmetry. See how the guy is approximately one-third across the frame, and part of the face depiction is also one-third into the frame (an edge albeit). I think that qualifies for 'rule of thirds' evaluation, although just barely.

 

This is a very precise arrangement, which is why it was chosen from many (and I knew it was very wonderful when I took it).

 

We need proper spacing in this photo (or at least I do) to make it work. It is precise spacing that make it successful, I think. While it might be a 'photo' with your proposed crop, it would be an entirely different photo, lacking in symmetry, I think.

 

I am glad the photo greatly pleased you, as is. I do take all suggestions that appear serious with the seriousness they deserve and if I don't try them out in actuality, I visualize them . . . and see if they might work.

 

Sometimes the suggestions pan out and I change my post or repost the photo.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

One of your very best recent street shots.

 

Everything is just where it should be, the man is precisely midway between the two posts (the Decisive Moment) and together with the street sign and face they create a pleasing triangle (3's again, John) giving a nice balance. The texture on the wall adds another layer of interest thus making it, all in all, a very rich photograph.

 

Your use of long lenses in street photography is a break from the norm where generally 35mm or 50mm focal lengths are, or were, employed and is original because of that. This is worthy of note/discussion in itself.

 

Regards,

 

Miles.

Welcome back to these pages; you've been missed.

 

I don't always use a long lens, as you can see; I use whatever it is I need to make the photo I want.

 

My equipment is large and so it is harder to be surreptitious in photographing, but that doesn't stop me from using an ultrawide at times -- people captured near the edges cannot even believe they were in the field of view, so they're entirely unaware often they were being photographed.

 

But the long lens does have its place, when the alternative is no photo at all -- this photo could not have been captured with a shorter focal length, which also placed me in a position of safety on an opposite sidewalk.

 

Again, welcome back.

 

Are you 'in' or 'going to' S.E. Asia right now or soom, and will you see any old 'friend(s)' I might have met?

 

John (Crosley)

Yes, I'm in Bangkok and just off to pick up my D300!

 

Are you "on location?"

 

I've posted a few pictures recently - the first for nearly two years! I intend to contribute more now as I have quite a backlog.

 

Regards,

 

Miles.

I have been working with a new D300 (that's redundant, isn't it?), and I'm more than satisfied, almost astonished -- particular at three features, including one I got the camera for.

 

The first is high iso sensitivity and fidelity without significant noise. I can shoot at night in a restaurant available light and get a good portrait after adjusting for white balance under K (elvin) at 2,500 degrees K (notice the ability not only to adjust Kelvin on the diagram with axes but also -- what I presume -- is tint.

 

The second is its amazing ability to shoot (and convert to) black and white. It's more than I hoped for and easy to use.

 

Moreover, the 'edit in the camera' functions are astonishingly good, even if the 'trim' function is 'detente' setting and not infinitely adjustable (or I haven't figured out how to make it 'zoom' properly, and rather it stops at fixed settings.

 

But when you do make an in-camera adjustment, it adds a file to your camera, rather than changing the existing file.

 

I also have used 'd-lighting' tonight, (with an adjustment on NEF -- I shoot jpeg and NEF), on the NEF file. The result was stunning, in my view - a dark face lighted up in the background, and it was a face essential to the composition. Result -- the photo won't need any Photoshop at all.

 

But it appears you can only make one adjustment on a file, not successive changes -- a significant deficit, in my opinion. I tried to use d-light, trim and desaturate in a row, and the controls wouldn't move to make these successive changes. I could only make one. So, best to make the 'most essential' change and leave the rest to Photoshopping.

 

You can still make successive adjustments (one at a time and ending after one adjustment) to an original file -- that's OK, but not an adjustment on an adjustment on an adjustment.

 

Or so that's the word as of today; maybe someone will show me how to do otherwise or there's a software glitch -- I haven't been through the manual on the issue tonight.

 

I'd love to join you in SE Asia -- I have a basketfull of 'free tickets' but I don't know if I could get a seat to SE Asia (Bangkok, and also would love to spend some time in Viet Nam, where I haven't been since 1968, shortly after the Tet offensive.

 

Please start posting your work (maybe you already have). You're an outstanding 'street' photographer, and your work has been missed.

 

Have you browsed the 'top photos by views' these days? Street, which once was held in poor esteem on this service (and still gets disproportionately low rates) has come into its own -- a fact I just discovered tonight.

 

Go look at that 'view' in the top rated engine and see.

 

Addendum: Well I looked again, because disbelief crept in. I found my browser was stuck on 'street' and that 'street' actually is very low rated on this service still, and that even the very best 'street' photos don't rank very highly in the 'highest viewed' photos for the last year, under the 'new' rating system. Apologies for a misleading statement above. I thought about it critically, divined that I must have made an error, checked and that was proved correct.

 

End Addendum.

 

Addendum II

 

I have checked and if one makes changes in a 'certain order' in the 'edit' menus on the Nikon D300, then one can make them serially -- e.g., one after another. I won't go into which one is the final one, at this time (it escapes me, but one of the edits is the one that stops everything, and then there is no more and all the choices are then 'grayed out' except 'side by side' comparison (with the original) which allows the original to be chosen for a second try at editing -- good planning again by Nikon.

end Addendum II.

 

Even so, your work has been outstanding; which reinforces my view that good 'street' is the work of an intelligent mind -- the photographer is in charge of finding and identifying 'significant relationships' while 'on the run' sometimes.

 

That's your (and my) kind of shooting.

 

Notice my style has morphed somewhat in black and white; it's partly due to the influence of watching your photos and their success. My analysios of the composition and way you took your street photos in some cases has been important to me and it has taught me something that I've used for (I hope) the better.

 

Best wishes.

 

John (Crosley)