'SPLAT!'

A windless early season snowstorm, crowds in a fashionable district,

and a little fun between the sexes all added up to this snowball

fight in an Eastern County recently. 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...you have captured a moment. Looking at this image makes me smile; it reminds me of a very happy time in my life. I can feel the cold and the sting of the snow against my face. The faces are obscured, so it leaves it up to my (perhaps overactive) imagination to create the story behind the photograph, which makes me want to linger over it and examine it closely.

(And, it's a week and a half before Christmas and perhaps I am missing the snow...)

Perhaps you had best head to the Sierra, including Tahoe if you want to see real snow; it's been a while since it snowed in San Francisco (I know, right now I'm 90 minutes away, and it's a rather warm mist outside. When there's noisture on the Central California Coast area, it's almost always warmer than when it's dry; so moisture (almost) never falls as snow, though one only has to look at the tops of Mts. Hamilton, Diablo and others in the winter, or even at 2,000 feet in the coastal range or less, such as Highway 17), to see snow, or on the way to LA, over the Grapevine (Interstate 5, through Tejon Pass).

 

But here in this scene, in Kyiv, Ukraine a week or so ago, the snow was newly fallen (second snow of the season I understand), it was falling quietly and not so coldly, so winter sports were called for.

 

I have a similar and perhaps better shot from last year, also, which shows well in color, which has never been posted -- and it has 'better light' since it was taken at the newly-named 'Independence Square' where the 'Orange Revolution's crowds brought down the results of a fraudulent election.

 

This country did not have a president at the moment and things were still in limbo after the last election, but as shown here, street life goes on as normal . . . and the residents of Kyiv (and other major cities in Ukraine) seem to enjoy themselves and the company of the opposite sex very much.

 

I have little doubt this scene evokes personal memories if you grew up or matured where there is snow, and not bitterly blowing stuff, either.

 

And I'm glad it evoked those memories.

 

In a way, this is both a poorly focused shot because primarily of subject movement and slow shutter speed.

 

But in its final goal -- capturing a moment, I think (as you point out), it does rather well.

 

I felt the moment was somewhat 'magic' and wondered if I could capture it. (notice the snow is so dry that it 'explodes' when it hits the guy's face, and further, that the slow shutter speed causes the 'splay' of it's striking to record, kind of like streaks from a shooting star . . . )

 

I'm so glad you like it, and it 'speaks' to you.

 

John (Crosley)

 

Copyright notice: This image is Copyright 2007, John Crosley, All rights reserved.

One of the tests of a good or even great photograph is its ability to engage the viewer and not have the viewer 'blow it off' as 'been there, seen that' and move on quickly.

 

For you, as you note, you 'lingered' over this photo; and that is one true test of whether a photo engaged you and thus, as your rate which I just viewed shows, caused you to evaluate it highly.

 

Such feelings are idiosyncratic sometimes; one can hardly expect a surf bunny from Florida to feel the same thing as someone who had a snow fight with her boyfriend in Minneapolis's first snowfall, or maybe some fancy (or not so fancy) Northeastern university, etc.

 

The point is that differeing audiences react differently to the same photo because not only its intrinsic artistic merit, but also because it 'connects' somehow to some place in their experiences -- their psyche -- that is personal to their own experiences, though that may be shared with others with like experiences.

 

I'm glad you lingered; it means that for you this photo was a success.

 

Thank you for letting me know.

 

John (Crosley)

... gives a sense of the swirling of the snow and the impact of the snowball on the man. The resulting impression is what moves us, the viewers, to engage. C'est un geste.

A joyous and fun moment perfectly captured. The three shadowy figures walking in the distance add a nice touch to the composition. They make the moment more "spontaneous" because the couple is having a good time irrespective of the presence of others. The snow hitting the guy's face and splattering is just a magical moment. I can almost hear the laughters.

I had plenty of time to take this one -- their snowball fight (with a third person) lasted for ten to 12 minutes.

 

And there I was, at considerable distance, with my 70~200 mm f 2.8 set at a pretty slow shutter speed (I don't have it in front of me, or I'd say).

 

I was trying to time their throws, and this is one that really worked well -- as you say it is 'magical'.

 

The snow was 'loose' and 'cold' and 'dry' enough that it didn't stick together well and make 'hardballs' -- they just exploded on striking, which made this almost 'time release' photo all the better, one sees the striking snowball and its continuation in the splayed snow that emanates from the strike -- it's really a 'time exposure' which is rare and probably impossible to plan unless one has taken a similar photo like this before.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

And as Adan W. said, maybe a 'magical' one.

 

Everything's akimbo and full of ill-defined movement, yet overall this one seems to hang together.

 

I had to do a lot of contrast adjustment on this one -- the scene was rather whited out, and I had to hit 'contrast' somewhat hard just to make it viewable as I wished it to be.

 

It has worked out well; I'm very glad I posted it.

 

Notice, I'm breaking a lot of 'rules' lately?

 

I'm going with my 'gut' more, and am sheltered by rates on thousands of photos, and they never really meant too much anyway (I'm not a candidate for 'top photogapher on anyone's list, at least for artistic merit . . . .)

 

I have a lot of fun, taking different photos each and almost every time.

 

It's very rewarding, psychically.

 

Thanks for your comment, Dennis.

 

(You have a part in my newfound 'artistic' freedom..)

 

John (Crosley)

This photo is dedicated to my friend, Michel, who expressed sadness he no longer experiences snowy Christmasses and asked me to come back from Ukraine with a snow scene.

 

Here it is -- your requested winter scene; it could have come from the years of your later youth in Switzerland.

 

May your Christmas be merry, and the coming new year full of good things. As the Chinese say 'may you live in interesting times' -- well you lead a most interesting life - few could ask for more.

 

John (Crosley)

Did I get right?

 

'Geste' changes meaning if used as a masculin noun compared to its use as a feminine noun, and I chose the indicated gender -- does the feminine version make more sense?

 

In any way, I learned something (nouns can have more than one gender in French -- and gender can vastly -- or subtly -- change the nouns's meaning. That's one of the subtleties they never taught me in high school French (where I learned what French I have).

 

I would have loved to have schooled in France; the Viet Nam war fouled up my plans to go to Science Politique . . . which was my dream, then.

 

In those days of 'Europe on $5 a Day'.

 

Long past.

 

John (Crosley)

.... the whole image is a gesture, something that gives us a whole range of feelings, thoughts, and reactions. The comments on this page are an attempt to capture the meanings captured in this completely physical display. C'est un geste.

You were educated in French, in France, and I had two years au lycee (and a half year of French Lit at Columbia where I had the lowest entering French SAT scores in all the French lit classes of Columbia -- the one guy just above the cutoff mark for going into introductory French.

 

Probably I should have gone into introductory French, but I had a great French lit professor, Nathan Gross, who taught us Rimbaud, Beudelaire, et al., -- my notes from his class -- such was the wonder and height of his teaching -- that my then girlfriend from Vassar, the next year used my notes in her major, French lit, to earn herself an 'A', because her Vassar French lit professor credited her (so I understand) with originality for many of the ideas from my professsor, which were found in my notes. (hah!, as Micki Ferguson would say)

 

So, at least my notes got an 'A' even if I got a C or a C+ -- about the level that George Bush got on everything, but he is now President, (and of course I aM not)and had daddy's friends to cover his business losses -- the Saudi Arabians, including the Bin Laudens, mostly and a few business friends, and even showed some elegant gains from businesses he drove into the ground).

 

This time the American people have to pick up the lossses -- the Saudis have neither enough money nor the motivation to pick up our present losses from this President's having driven our nation into Trillions of dollars in debt after having taken over a so-called budget 'surplus' (actually a diminishing deficit, under the 'hated and reviled Clinton' as the Republicans generally are seen to refer to the previous president).

 

But this photo is apolitical.

 

It refers to a simpler time.

 

Perhaps the Eisenhower years or the hopefulness of the Kennedy years or even the first years of LBJ as he shepherded the Civil Rights bills through Congress, before he escalated the Viet Nam war using a phoneyed 'Gulf of Tonkin so-called incident (which now is admitted never realy happened) to drive the nation into a disaster -- so LBJ was a war-time president, just as George W. Bush's biographer said he was told by W. that W. wanted to be when he became President -- because of the broad powers given a war-time president and because they earn war-time presidents a place in history.

 

This president surely will gain a place in history.

 

It won't be in the same place that Eisenhower of my youth and growing up days is remembered, that's for sure.

 

Or even the revered place that is reserved for a Kennedy (however ill-deserved, primarily because Kennedy did little, but maybe mainly because he wasn't president very long. . . .)

 

Those years are depicted above.

 

I can't make an awful enough photo to depict my feelings about the present administration -- perhaps Brueghel could or some carver of medievel statuary for roof ornaments on some cathedral somewhere, high above eye's sight.

 

(sorry about the politics -- as a businessman, perhaps you appreciate that Bush has been very pro-business and perhaps you disagree, Dennis, and I will respect that as a philosophical difference. I suspect however, that you give no stock to furthering a career by lying and cheating - such as by 'salting' gold mines by blowing buckshots full of gold into the interior, or perhaps telling people there are drones with nuclear or biological weapons ready to hit the Eastern seaboard, unless we make war first, and saying that the 'invasion of Iraq' was something acceded to out of necessity and only at the last minute when it was made the centerpiece and urged on by the President at his first cabinet meeting as reported by a Cabinet secretary (Lawrence Summers, Secretary of Treasury)

 

Oh, how I long for the simpler times of Eisenhower et al., depicted above.

 

(respectfully to you, Dennis, with apologies if there is offense anywhere within)

 

(must be something I ate for dinner)

 

(something must have stuck in my craw)

 

John (Crosley)

I have not read any of the above....well except something about your craw.

I am just here to tell you that I love the "shot" It rings of the holidays. Some really happy times come to mind. I hope you have a Merry Christmas John.

J

Thanks.

 

Happy Holidays, too.

 

John (Crosley)

Before I went to Ukraine the penultimate time, Michel said to me 'bring me back a winter photograph, something that will remind me of Switzerland' where he spent many of his formative years, after a forced evacuation at 6 from the Belgian Congo.

 

So, when I was out one evening for a stroll after a meal, I thought of Michel when I saw a snowball fight after one of the first snows in the winter -- a cold and dry snow in which snowballs did not hold together well.

 

As I watched this couple throwing snowballs at each other in a fun snowball fight, I thought of Michel and his request, or I might have passeed this by.

 

I showed this to him when I returned, told him the story, and he said he was indeed touched, and, furthermore, the photo was a very, very good photo.

 

Here's to you Michel, and winters in Switzerland where you spent your adolescence, a place where they have true winters -- not those occasionally rainy LA things you endure now.

 

John (Crosley)