TATTOO PARLOUR

Best viewed large.

Another visual treat of yours! You're so good at this!

On this one, all the elements seem right. The composition is perfect! And the exit sign is a great element.

Frank: Thanks again. Glad you enjoy my little guided tours through insanity.

 

Jeff: I have this image with and without the exit sign. Without is sharper and more close in the the dude sitting there, so I like it better for that, but I agree with you that the EXIT sign does add another element, and could be fraught with meaning.

It is saying NO TATTOO'S :o) This is very interesting and I like this composition! Take care

Good morning, and thanks for looking.

i don't know. although i agree that the exit sign adds a message here, to me it is too dominant. i have a hard time moving into the image. my eye keeps going back to the sign. i would like to suggest an alternate crop. hope you don't mind.

Nothing wrong with your view of it, and I understand what you are saying. I have one zoomed in much closer, but unfortunately I had cut off the lettering of tattoo, which I think is critical. So I opted against that one. You are right in that I have thrown a lot of elements at the viewer, so I can understand the revolt. Another element that I thought was an addition, but to which you may object is the tree limb. To me this took the image out of the gritty urban ghetto type of surround to a more neighborhoodly charming tattoo parlour. Kind of a concession to the common place ness of tattoos in this day and age. They're not just for drunks and lowlifes anymore. I can hardly wait for the major upscale shopping meccas to install tattoo parlours right next to the hair and nail salons. And let's not forget piercing. But I digress.......

A bit closer

not too long ago, i saw a sorority girl outside a tattoo parlor...i kid you not. she was wearing pink sweat pants, a white t-shirt and had a little miniature yorkie on a pink leash. she was talking to a big burly leather-clad dude. oh and of course she was blonde. oh how i wish i'd had my camera with me that day!

 

by the way, i prefer your original post to the close up.

Interesting the different crops and completely different feeling of the resulting photos. OK, I'm going to play critique and deconstruct the picture for you. (fancy spelling of critic so that you know something important is on the way) This picture has been very carefully assembled. Note how the artist has taken pains to include the socially ambiguous term "Loading" in the lower right corner which aligns perfectly with the door and its cryptic "For Rent" sign. The commanding "Exit" notice serves ironically as a warning that we are approaching the composition backwards and intercepts and negates the "open" sign in the shop window, simultaneously inviting and denying entry to the "Tattoo" parlor. This conflict has failed to deter the slacker/skateboarder who (in a better considered composition), should should have been moved to the more provocative position between the "loading" and "for rent" signs. I haven't accounted for the branch intruding from the left but noting its position between the "Exit" sign and the "Tattoo" parlor, it must mean something.

 

Actually, David, it kind of reminds me of my "This..is the city" picture, a playground full of monkey bars for people to swing on.

Wonderfully seen and composed. A very fine shot, amigo! Regards...

Did you say "deconstruct" or "reconstruct?" LOL Hey that guy you are calling a slacker skateboard dude is probably the owner of the shop. Shop proprietors don't look like they used to. Looking at his arms, we know he believes in the product.

Much appreciated.

I was "loading" my truck to make a fast "exit" from my rundown apartment while looking for another place "for rent" but they weren't "open" so I got a "tattoo" instead, now I'm just hanging out on a "branch" waiting for the ink to dry.

Stop that! If you come visit me, I'll take you here and pay the first hundred for your tattoo. How can you refuse an offer like that?

Having read both Linda and Jack's comment, I fall rather somewhere in the middle. For me, the strength of the picture is the very dominant Exit sign. Seeing it in thumbnail, it comes across as a very humorous play on the idea that a store would have a giant Exit sign right in front, a message clearly telling the prospective customer to stay out, as of some nefarious activity is currently going on inside, like the gross scene from "Pulp Fiction where Marcellus Wallace stumbles into the store off an accident only to run into two characters straight out of a nightmare. The man in front with the Fedora somewhat reinforces this image in my mind, not one of your "kinder, gentler" mom and pop.

Well, clearly I would have to agree with the importance of the Exit sign. It was how I saw it from the start. I'm still a believer that it belongs as part of the way I (underlined I) saw this being presented. I don't think I could have made the same statement without being somewhat surreptitious in taking the image. And Jack, with his usual perspicacity noted the Loading painted on the curb. That again could easily have not been a part of the image, but was integral to my thoughts on the outcome. Thanks for your thoughts. I haven't heard much from you lately, and I'm always intrigued by your take on things.

I enjoy the composition (fore- to BG) and color mix David...these two lines of green anchor the composition and provide a frame for the rest of the scene...I am a fan of these color composition where color areas organize and gives volume to the scene...

Thanks for the look. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It's nice to see places like this.

Colorful and meaningful too.