faces in time The Weathered Fisherman

This photo of a weathered fisherman is taken with the D300 Nikon, and

is essentially unedited -- straight from camera, as well as full

frame. Image shot in 'color' and desaturated using 'in

camera' 'desaturate' command -- a one-step command. 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

The light touching his battered face and his reflective gaze makes for an intriguing composition. I like his pensive expression deep in his thoughts.

I have a friend who's a pro photographer who runs a photofinishing store. He took one look at the color capture and said 'let me download this, OK?', and 'do you mind if I make a print of this one?' and he printed it desaturated, almost exactly like this treatment.

 

He had seen something in this capture I hadn't, and wonderfully so.

 

This is not my usual style or one I'd usually pursue, but it turned out a more than an OK photograph -- one that is classically 'good' to more than 'good'.

 

As to the fisherman's thoughts - he's probably wondering how I managed to get that huge lens so close to his face and whether he could get away with saying anything, since he volunteered (probably out of boredom as much as vanity) to have his photo taken.

 

I'm glad this one appealed to you; it does to me too, but you won't suddenly see 100 like shots in my portfolio -- this is first and maybe last of the genre.

 

Thanks for your watchful eye.

 

John (Crosley)

Super image. My small preference would be to see more detail in one eye.

I might have 'selected' the guy's right eye (as he views us) and lightened it a little, but I wanted this as it was 'from the camera' with a little bit of darkening (to suppress the beard, right).

 

I might work it a little more, though not for this post.

 

Your view is helpful to me in case I do exhibit this anywhere, which is a possibility.

 

Thank you for a helpful contribution.

 

John (Crosley)

... Don't know how, it is a wonderful shot to me. Gentle and compassionate, in a way that your photos often are not. You know that is not intended as an insult, John, but you are a pretty cold-blooded shooter, all business. I admire that trait in you, but I also admire this side as well. Congratulations.

'Cold-Blooded' I may be, (or appear to be) sometimes, but sometimes I'm a real soft touch -- it's just that sometimes I have to keep that distance, just as physicians do, or lose my marbles -- I see way too much pain and suffering.

 

If I took it all in personally, as I once did as a young student, I would be carrying around acres -- even states full of hurt and depression -- but the better way I have decided is to do what I can to show what I can and to live within my abilities, demonstrating along the way my personal insights -- my whole varying trove of them.

 

I always appreciate your comments.

 

(I posted on another service today a photo you might want to look at; it's a variant on a post you liked very much posted here (same two kids) in a much different encounter, but part of the same series that the one posted here was taken from). I had you and your favorable comment in mind (about not messing with good things) when I posted it.

 

As to this one, I had taken it, went into a friend who is a photo finisher, he looked at my captures, and instantly decided this should be printed as it is (he's a pro photographer as well, and a very good one).

 

I just take the darn things -- maybe my heart was as cold as the chill Pacific Wind that day, but the photos are the photos and sometimes they show some warmth just because I persevere and among other things, I aim to catch the warmth in life.

 

(You'd be surprised that there's seldom a couple kissing that I don't capture . . . . I'm really also a hopeless romantic at heart . . . couldn't you guess? I even like many 'chick flicks' and real dramas -- much more than the 'blow-em-ups' that are supposed to appeal to 'real men'.

 

Best wishes to you Dennis, and thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

... is that you are always looking, evaluating, planning, scouting. You have the restless eye and it is informed by intelligence. Others look until they feel, and then they take the camera. Yours is a probe, a filter, and an analyzer. This, on the other hand, felt like a shot where you were at one with the subject. It is a matter of empathy, not compassion. You felt what he felt, as opposed to feeling something about what he felt.