kneeling in Church...

Taken at a friends wedding.

Nice snapshot wich had been even better if there had been some more people around. As it is now you cant get a feeling for whats happening around him and way he is bored.

I can't really tell you why I don't like it. It isn't that I hate the picture (my rating scale runs from a 1= Hate it with a passion, 5= completely neutral, 10= Ansel Adams couldn't have done better on a good day), I just don't particularly care for it.

 

And that is strange here. Your depth of field use is perfect, providing good detail in the subject and some context but not so much detail in the background to be distracting. You captured the detail and expression on the boy very well, although I can't entirely tell if he is yawning in boredom or screaming. Your lighiting is very good in the foreground and decent in the background (the windows are too light, dodge them a bit?). You have some good contrasts and your composition is good.

 

Like I said, I don't really know why I don't like it. You seem to have done everything quite well.

I'm afraid I have to agree with Mark. Technically, it's a good photo with fine technique. It looks like he's eating the pew. I guess it's just the expression I don't care for.

The other side of the coin is that maybe a little more detail in the background would be helpful. I think burning in the underexposed windows would help. This image appears to have been taken in a program mode where the meter read to much of the backlight therefore overexposing that area. Yes the image is also missing other information, but I have seen this many times. The wedding pictures are being taken and the kids are chewing the pews with bordom. As one who shoots many weddings per year I can say this type of image is still much more powerful than the posed images being taken by the wedding photographer.

Darron was unique, his ability to digest timber and large parts of small buildings went unchallenged.

This was his first go at a Church, the bell rang and he started with a sizeable mouthful of this bench.

Sadly he drowned in'91 after struggling with a 25 metre pool (his second that afternoon).

 

 

I'm joking of course.

This is one of those pictures that doesn't quite make it, the sort that you keep coming back to in your files and staring at.

So I popped the neg into the scanner to take a look.

I think the reasons that this pic doesn't quite hit the mark are really due to the lack of other people around him, who ideally should be staring in outrage as he 'bites the wood', secondly, his chin is obscured which leaves me a little unsatisfied.

The high key whites in the rear window, well I don't mind these, the light actually played just as you see, and I think to flatten it would just make the pic a little more boring.

 

The exposure was correctly calculated on Darren's face, the Olympus camera doesn't have a program mode, and if it did it would probably confuse the hell out of me.

 

Thanks for your comments. If anything this picture reminds me of one of those that you would see in LIFE in the fifties, you know a kind of weekly round up, or readers pic, maybe you could use it to sell blueberry pie to hungry Catholic schoolboys. The possibilities are endless, as it appears is this comment.

Inspirational. I love this shot.

Well, I like this shot even as it is, but I wonder what it would look like with the background burned in, so that the kids face is more isolated and highlighted.

no, no, leave the image as it is! It is a VERY funny picture that spells boredom for people who really doesn't want to attend a church wedding etc. I can even foresee it being used as a very successful advertising image, as you left a lot of space on top for the copywriters. I've uploaded an example (not good though). Even being a straight shot, the picture talks to me plenty. Could just be my personal experiences with church ceremonies...