alt.street 'OOOOOHHHH Won't Everything Just Stop for a Moment? I Want to Rest!'

Sometime, nearly everyone has had that moment, when in the middle of

a crowd, one has wanted to press firmly on one's skull with both

hands to relieve the pressure, and just wish that one could make like

Peter Pan and just fly away, even if just for a moment, or maybe make

the world stop still for a moment, just to get a moment's peace.

This particular man, maybe experiencing that moment is on the Metro

in Kyiv, Ukraine. 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

We have all been here and can relate to this man. The faces of the two women having a conversation in the background is engaging. That brunette's expression asserting something is priceless.

Sometimes lens/focus distortions can greatly aid (or detract from) photos. Here the distortion onthe brunette's face, partly from Metro motion and partly from out of focus blur/motion blur combined, and her unique expression, provide one with a unique view, probably never to be duplicated -- not if one hired an actress, and achievable only through cartooning. In fact, it looks almost as though a cartoonist dreamed up her expression, doesn't it?

 

I posted this because I believe in it, though it doesn't have such a clear composition, because it speaks to a universal truth (with the woman in the background as an exaggerated accent, for a touch of irony).

 

She's one of those propitious 'accidents' that one uncovers as one looks closer and closer at one's captures.

 

You point out an important part of this capture -- something which gives it more complexity, which is something that many good captures have (though not all, think of my capture featuring 'The Drollness of Life' with a man stooping under a Soviet-style telephone booth, bending at the shoulders to accommodate an anthropomorphic standing booth which occupies a cement pedestal with the man - as simple a photo as you please).

 

Right?

 

This is a rank up there in complexity - more complex, though not quite as good, as that exceedingly simple (but profound and funny) photo.)

 

And this, as most of my better ones, speaks to some sort of the human experience.

 

A place most of us 'have been' at some time or another, or have known someone who 'has been there'.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

... http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00NxdX

 

and then happened on this shot, which grabbed me immediately. Perfect focus on this one lets us know exactly what the subject and object are here. Great work.

With a lurching train, taking a photo through glass from another coach through two train windows, this is quite an accomplishment, but here it is.

 

We know what this photo is about, don't we. . . . ?

 

We've all been there.

 

It's not as good as I'd have liked, but it's a good exercise anyway -- I needed a photo of someone grabbing their head, and the brunette woman, right rear, added a perfect punctuation - actually an exclamation or an accent.

 

I contributed to that forum on 'subjects' and 'philosophy' if you look -- I think I don't use cliches too often, unless they're 'MY' cliches. . . . ;~)

 

People now say they can spot my photos from some distance.

 

Actually, I think that's good; because so much on Photo.net is stereotypical; I'm glad to be thought of as outside the mold.

 

Thanks to you for providing me the link (and the comment).

 

John (Crosley)

... one is John Crosley in Paris and the other is Ruud Albers in his home town. I think that either choice would be a wonderful way to spend a day.

I think a day following Ruud would be a pleasant day, wandering around, casually taking photos, admiring his remarkable powers of observation.

 

Any day with me might be different than the next; depending on where I am and what possible subject I'm aiming my camera at that particular day.

 

Today it's the porn convention, where I met an admirer, a worker for a camera store who has followed my work and who came on many of the same scenes I did with his Nikon, but he 'didn't take that' time after time, he told me, because he 'didn't see that' or didn't realize its possibilities'.

 

Ruud has remarkable powers of observation, and if I had them, life would be even more fulfilling on my slow days.

 

But sometimes life for me on the streets can get very rough and tumble; people have grabbed (on rare occasions) at my cameras, offended I'd appeared to have taken their photos (or their childrens'), and in most instances they were wrong -- there was on instance in 19th arrondissement in Paris recently that called for the flics, because I took a photo of mannequin heads in a hairdresser shop (black African, animist) who thought I took HER photo or her customers).

 

I can tell you right now, Paris is headed for another series of racial unrest as it had the last time; the police were very, very cautious, less they start a riot, as they quelled the angry woman who was spouting nonsense, and attacting a crowd and trying to grab my cameras. In fact the only persons who've ever tried to grab a camera are people whose photos I didn't take who wrongheadedly thought I had. It's happened three times. Two went to jail; one for a long time, and was made to apologize to me on the spot, also.

 

But it seldom is 'rough and tumble' and often with handshakes, smiles and new friends. I made several today. I take a good photo, show it to someone and I make an unexpected new friend, and often they take my name and google it.

 

I go around the world doing this, and it's now pretty natural for me.

 

(I wouldnt' resist in Brazil if someone wanted to snatch my cameras, but I'd be a fool to go to Brazil with cameras).

 

By the way, Please introduct yourself to Alberto Conde at Photocritiq.com, after looking at his work. I don't recall if I gave him your name, but he knows and has given permission for contact; he is a prolific photographer who has interest in Castles and Romanesque cathedrals and is Spanish based. He is publishing right now. He is (or was recently) a photo.net member, so you may be able to get his e-mail address from PN.

 

He knows some of the ins and outs of European publishing which may be of some help for you, since he is publishing right now about castles in Spain of which he has an encyclopedic landscape collection (see his Photocritiq.com portfolio).

 

You can reference this post to Alberto for me. I think he thinks a lot of me, and for that I am very thankful; he is a superb photographer, and I am pleased to make the introduction. (no need, as I thought before, to keep this private).

 

Alberto also is a generous, sharing man with an able technique and a good eye, who loves photography.

 

I think he'll share whatever interests you (he speaks or writes English like a native speaker -- i didn't inquire about his linguistic heritage, as perhaps might be of interest to both of us.)

 

Some day, you're invited to go walking (or even running) with me, as I chase down my subjects (or even just driving around), to see how I do it. It's really no big deal. If I see something while driving, I just go around the block with windows down and driver's side pointed the correct way to allow a full view, and in safe times get out . . . as the situation dictates.

 

In Ukraine, it's a jitney bus (marshurtka pronounced 'mashootka'), or a tram, never a taxi.

 

Or just walking around.

 

i think you'd find that interesting.

 

I use teles sometimes and wide other times -- and one of my teles has a 'normal' setting (the 17~55 mm E.D. dx Nikkor of which I have two).

 

And I never carry a camera bag. I would rather carry two cameras, each with a lens permanently affixed, changing only in my flat (or hotel room).

 

No dust, no muss, no fuzzed up photos, and moreover, no long waits while the subject goes away or 'that moment' disappears while changing a lens -- something that just can't be done without an assistant in a short time by one person -- and I'm partially paralyzed in my right arm and hand, though you woud not see it. (I just will it not to show.)

 

Best of luck to you.

 

You can follow me anywhere.

 

(did you see my recent comment to Micki F.? referencing your former company and Genuine Fractals (correct?)

 

John (Crosley)