The Joy of It All

'The Joy of it All is a 'Street' Portrait -- meant to eliminate part of the

head, so one can concentrate on the joy of the facial expression and

the smile especially. 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

Brilliant crop! with that smile, you are not in need of any more visual information, in fact more would be less in this instance, I do not want to see this guys eyes. They could only be redundant. The photo comes through both technically in term of composition and B&W treatment as well as the huge emotional impact it brings to the table.

 

The blurred background give a feel of motion - spinning to be precise. That sense of motion fits beautifully with the pure joy captured in this mans expression. The high contrast and sharpness in the shirt and suspender juxtapose well with the grainy and much flatter background. The smile sitting at that intersection between what is sharp and what is blurred seems perfect. I love this one.

This is in a famous supermarket chain.

 

This guy asked me to take his photo.

 

I turned on my Nikon D300 (one of two).

 

I had it on auto with a 17~55 set at more tele and fired away as he moved.

 

No technical things about cropping.

 

This is a full frame capture.

 

No cropping at all -- not one bit.

 

Sometimes things just work out and the only post processing is to use levels or shadow/highlight (as here) and to choose the proper capture.

 

That's all.

 

And to have the guts to post a photo such as this, which breaks all the molds.

 

But gutsy or not, it hit my gut.

 

And the guy said to me 'You're THAT GOOD?'

 

Such high praise from a subject.

 

Wow!

 

I hope he sees your remark.

 

Thanks Gordon.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

it takes a few cajones to post here a 'portrait' in which the eyes are not showing and only the mouth and smile are.

 

But I think it does the job. It did so for me.

 

I think I'm as good a photo editor as photographer, thanks also to help from Michel Karman, the famous photo printer.

 

John (Crosley)

I gotta tell you John , your cajones were never in question in my book:)

 

That this is full frame makes it even better.

 

I recently posted a portrait of my dog were only her nose is visible ... but that's another story :)

I''m entirely self-taught. My first roll from age 22 has one photo posted here and I'm an old guy who took a long hiatus.

Not ever having had any lessons, but having looked at millions of photos, I know what is successful in my own mind, and that's all I need to 'see', nothing more.

If people don't like it, tough noogies, I'm not selling currently, though that may change. I want a photo that's interesting and if rules are broken so be it, and I think it's the same case with you, though you are more the artist than I and we both have our photos stolen by the same people ;!~)) Don't we?

If they weren't perhaps they wouldn't be worth much.

Those people steal them because they're 'viewworthy' and pass over some of the others who have higher rated ones as just too 'ordinary' because they use technical tricks and ordinary viewpoints . . . . not our unexpected views.

I just point my cameras at whatever interests me . . . . then fire away, one shot or many . . . until the subject goes away, I know I've got something, or I know it will not pan out.

That's my general rule. Shoot and see.

Then post after some good editing, but take lots of chances based on experience.

John (Crosley)

Brilliantly done. The sense of joy through that smile is palpable. Perhaps you should contact Colgate and help them create a new campaign. ;)

this one is really good: I see a fusion between modern and classic, and what's more, this one speaks not only to the mind, but also to the soul: thank you, G.

I actually have another frame, at 8 frames per second with the battery booster on one of my two D300s, showing the same smile but I was moving and so was he, so it's appreciably different, but of the same genre and it was hard enough to make a choice, since it was the same smile only a while later (or earlier, I forget).

 

Thanks for the endorsement; I could use some of those Colgate dollars, but alas, no release, who thought of such things, though I am sure I could get one - this guy's a ham and might see a future -- he likes to be photographed and would see a future as a model/actor, I'm sure and I know I could find him again, in a day.

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

Mind/Soul -- that's deep.

 

Same with classic/modern.

 

I just was fooling around with a guy who was foolin' around with me, feeding his vanity (and feeding off of his vanity, as he was a free model at midnight or after midnight at an all-night supermarket where I was buying some microwave food for my hotel room microwave.

 

it just goes to show you -- take a camera or two everywhere and if you try or people evern ask you (as here), good photos will not be far behind. This was 'posed' in a sense that he wanted his photo taken and I swung my fifring "C' drive camera in front of him without focusing (see how low it is -- it was not to my eye and I didn't even set the zoom to wide angle. I'm pretty daring -- I sensed I could do something good either this pass with the camera or the next. I take all sorts of chances.

 

I only delete bird photos. Those I delete when they do not come out perfect now.

 

That means I keep very few bird photos. I learned that from a prominent nature photographer i met in Yosemite who showed me there was almost nothing to be learned from 'misses' in nature/landscape, as opposed to 'people' and for me everything almost is about learning.

 

And people especially.

 

But with birds it's the arrangement, compositoin, and the focus.

 

Either they have it or not.

 

No second looks.

 

delet the nature photos (only)

 

Thanks for encouragement.

 

I'll be shooting birds Sunday late at Elk Horn slough and taking all my cameras and lenses but will be deleting lots. I will be shooting there Monday too, I think. (pretty sure -- anybody can look for me).

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

"it takes a few cajones to post here a 'portrait' in which the eyes are not showing and only the mouth and smile are"

 

no it doesn't. Not if you do it like this. The instant recognisable emotion it radiates is very appealing to view. There's no getting away from it and that's what makes it into a compelling photo. I must say this is also one of your first b&w where I really like your tonality.

You're a hard man to please, but when you're pleased, then the sun, the earth, the moon and the planets are all lined up.

 

Thanks for the kind feedback.

 

I will take it to heart.

 

This ain't your ordinary Photo.net photo, is it?

 

John (Crosley)

No, it's not ordinary in whatever way. It does somehow remind me of a image I once saw. Breaking my head over it ever since I saw yours. Have so many books, so many images, maybe I'll find there what this one reminds me off. Anyhow, this is indeed a great one that you should be proud of. I would.

This guy was farting around, 'photograph me, photograph me', and I put my camera (D300) on 8 frames per second, at waist level and let 'er rip.

 

I didn't even adjust the zoom for wide angle and instead shot slight tele, at 55 mm, which comes out to tele with a reduced size sensor.

 

I sought to capture his playfulness, and I did/just the moment -- him moving and the camera moving both together in one giant swing.

 

Sometimes there's synchronicity, and of course sometimes there's ways to make that work for you. You can't preplan such shots, ever.

 

And I'm proud that I can take such shots because I'm not so hidebound I'm afraid to fool around and to mess around with different settings for a 'new look' -- this is more than an accident, but not exactly pre-envisioned.

 

It is a 'capture' in the true sense.

 

I 'caught' what I was aiming to 'catch' even if I didn't know what it would exactly look like.

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

 

(dont break your head too much -- let's just leave this as a 'john crosley' original)

 

jc (;~))

 

 

Great shot; I love it...says so much by just a smile! Very well done...love the grain in this one too. Thank for sharing. :)

I think I told the story above.

A Safeway clerk challenged my abilty to take a good photo.

I had a D300 with battery pack with 8 frames per second capability.

Without looking at any controls, I just swung the camera in front of his face and chest, resulting in this photo being 'pick of the litter'.

He said 'you really can't be that good, but you really are'.

It's all in how you tackle any task.

And how you look at the results.

This would have been a disaster at nuptials.

For him it was 'amazing'.

Thanks God.

Thanks, Trisha.

I like it too.

john

John (Crosley)

 

P.S.  It was my 30 second demonstration, soup to nuts of 'how good a photographer I really am'.  heh heh heh.

You can do such things too when you have good equipment and know how to handle it.

jc

Are you trying to tell me I don't know how to handle equipment? ha ha.... ;)

I'm trying to tell you that when you get a 'sense' of what you're doing, that the most unconventional handling will often yield great results, even when not focused, or even aimed per se.

My friend who has 'taken a powder of late' Giuseppe Pasquale, has told me that often he has not even looked through the viewfinder of his camera, he knows so well what he will capture in certain instances.

I haven't seen or heard from him since Mid Feb. nor seen any postings from him anywhere, though he was featured (pre-planned as I remember) and I fear his absence.

I am saying aside from the 'proper' way to hold or handle a camera, that is shown or illustrated in photo books/magazines, etc., I have about 50 more ways that work quite well, and this is one of them, albeit on the margin.

And in this case, a 'one-off' (one of a kind sort of deal, if you get my drift).

john

;~))

John (Crosley)

Thanks for clarifying...I appreciate it. I know Guiseppe's work and do hope he is alright, he has been kind and encouraging to me. Again, thanks for the clarification even though I was just sort of teasing with you! Have a good day! :)

John,

I just wanted to let you know that this has become a favorite of mine! I rarely try shooting like this as I do not feel "at home". My "results" agree with my feelings, to say the least! This does not prevent me, however, from enjoying the beauty of images like this particular one :)

 

For me this is a most unusual photo, but I take many 'chances' with photography in hopes of getting something special, and occasionally I do.

I do what less adventuresome photographers never do; which is swing a camera in an arc, in front of a detractor, with continuous shooting at 8 frames per second.

This man could hardly believe his eyes; I had taken a wonderful photo of him in less than a second, including prep to end.

I took about five frames - less than one second, as I swung the camera, firing away.

I am making a book these days featuring my all-time best; it's my second.  Private, regrettably to my admirers and well-wishers -- it's too expensive to sell; printing costs alone are about $100 a copy.

To make it worth while, I'd have to ask $1,000 minimum, and even with 100 pages and 200 photos, that's asking something.

But this photo is featured, and was in my last book, too.

I will never take another.

Sometimes the camera itself can be magic if one just 'pushes the button' as Cartier-Bresson mockingly explained what he did (he just pushes the button, see? -- showing right index finger flexing)

That's basically all I did here.

Thanks so much, Bulent.

john

John (Crosley)