The (Failed) Bike Trick

Photographers most often aim for the epitome -- people and events who

(and which) exemplify certain behaviors and represent the best of

certain types. Here, the 'subject' is in the background and soundly

failing at his intended 'bike trick' -- riding over the side of a small wall.

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

I've bee watching for new posts from you, John... you're back. Love the timing. Did you know he was going lose it ahead of time? Why black and whit on this one? Just curious.

If you read another post, you see I had a huge theft. I had some cameras, but not the best, and my shooting was completely interrupted, then I had been told when I bought insurance it only covered $5,000, and only later did I learn it covered full value (whew), but it will take time. Meantime ,I'm replacing some equipment.

 

Sorry you had to wait and sorry for me I couldn't shoot with such ease.

 

I really like this one, and it's taken a pasting in the ratings -- oh well.

 

And as to why black and white? Well, the bike was on green grass and it greatly distracted from the subject -- the background bike -- so it called for desaturation. My rule -- if color isn't central or greatly help or detracts -- desaturate.

 

I had formed a composition with these guys foreground and the bike, background, the the bike began to move. I saw he was going to dump it when he approached the edge and decided to record it and NOT raise the camera to get the top of the bike rider and to keep the composition and hence the mystery (heh heh heh)

 

I say again, I really do like this one, whether others do or not, and it'll stay posted.

 

I think it's very droll and somewhat mysterious -- of the same vein as an early post showing a nude in Saran Wrap in front of an open truck back with two guys on it -- somewhat surreal, I think.

 

And intentionally so.

 

Notice also that the curve is a 'C' curve which is second only to an 'S' curve for drawing the viewer from foreground to background, and the bike got dumped right at the point where the 'C' curve exits the frame -- or the 'C' curve here serves much like a diagonal since it's a shallow 'C' curve.

 

Keep on looking. I'll take up shooting again, as the cameras and lenses come available to me again and I can travel once more (which seems certain).

 

Best to you and thanks for waiting.

 

(Look on Photocritiq.com for a good one I took with equipment they didn't steal a couple of weeks ago, in downtown San Jose, CA. -- it's got it's own listing in Google.com under my name -- a photo of a half a guy's head and a woman striding by ((I think it's very good . . . . and taken with other, non-stolen equipment).

 

John (Crosley)

Sorry to hear about such misfortune. I'd rather be that guy on the bike twenty times than to have my equipment stolen. Glad to hear you'll be able to recover most, if not all, from your insurance.

 

I appreciate the composition and the "C" curve. Your decision for allowing the biker's head to escape the frame makes more sense now.

Very interesting street photo. The quite static foreground contrasts with the very dynamic background.

You represent the real "street" category, where we find pictures which are not street at all but rather documentary.

By the way, I did find the photo you described 'Lurking Near You.' Brilliant photo! Now that one is mysterious as well. The slower shutter speed makes the picture. And something about the forms too. I don't know how to relate it in words, but the variety and pattern of squares/rectangles in this image hold their own power as well.

I have learned, and I hope you do to an extent, to take low ratings on PN as a badge of honor. After all, look what gets rated highest! Are those the kinds of photos you'd want to produce or do you prefer this type of honest, thoughtful, caught-in-the-moment image? Your framing is beautiful, adds an amazing amount of tension and photographer statement to the image. It is street shooting with your own creativity superimposed. It makes me conscious of the photographer's timing and perspective without the photographer getting in the way.

incredible timing, what else? Yes, the dof and b/w suit well this photo, thank you, Giuseppe

Yes, the composition I had originally decided on, where the cyclist was static, before he started rolling forward, was good enough,, and I decided to keep it especially when it became apparent he was going over the top. ). I had good enough composition, and I didn't want to change a thing and try to recompose.

 

This is a photo, as Pougue Mahoney said of my photo of the woman wrapped in Saran Wrap, which is full of absurdity -- which long ago he (an Andy Eulass pseudonym) said is 'hard for viewers to process' but which is around us every day, and he urged me to continue to capture and post as much as I could.

 

This is just one more attempt at capturing absurdity -- my own little bit of humor.

 

A normal scene, but look, there in the upper left corner -- a bicyclist dumping his bike. How strange!

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

 

I noted that this image took in several very low scores before those more friendly or accepting moved in, but also noted I like it very much. And I announced when it had lowest averages that not only did I like it but it would stay; I almost never take down a photo that is low rated.

 

And this is a photo that is both surreal and absurd, as noted above in my comment to Terry Good.

 

You often wonder 'how did XXX photographer get that capture -- he was soo lucky . . . . ' Well, no, he wasn't so lucky as much as he had his camera he and and his camera were ready to take photos and tracking a subject that turned interesting even if it didn't start out so interesting, as here. I just have the ability to track likely scenes often from afar without attracting too much attention, and to see them through to their natural conclusions (as here). Many times they end up 'nothing' but sometimes they get better or better and better.

 

This is not the height of my shooting, of course. I urge you to go to Photocritiq.com to see 'Lurking Near You' as Terry Good did above, for a recent street post which was very successful. It's a specialty service, though, and I don't post much there, and also don't cross-post much.

 

Low rates never make me happy, but if oversaturated seascapes are required for high ratings,count me out.

 

;~)

 

John (Crosley)

The timing is more like a function of having framed my composition in this and having 'followed through' -- this bicycle youth was impetuous and soon dumped his bike. I did not know or anticipate he wiould until he waas near the edge, so I kept firing. I hoped to get the 'jump' over the edge; instead I got a spill -- he was going to slowly.

 

But I'll take credit for 'good timing' ;~))

 

Thank for the comment.

 

John (Crosley)

Street or documentary, documentary or street; I no longer know which is which, nor, actually, do I care much.

 

I just take my photos, and I'll leave it for others to decide.

 

I'm glad to have a good audience in you guys -- very fortunate indeed; one could not hope for a better audience than my commentators here, and I am profoundly grateful, especially after a prolonged absence (due to stolen equipment).

 

Thanks so much.

 

John (Crosley)

 

I like it because these guys in the foreground are sitting so calmly..it makes this shot funny (for me)..I quess that bike guy is not so happy now, what happened to him?

I was reviewing an old comment (as noted above) from a commentator on a photo of a nude woman wrapped in Saran Wrap in front of a truck in San Francisco. He (PN member Andy Eulass under a pseudonym) opined that absurdity is extremely hard for members to process, yet it underlies the heart of some of the best work, and of course this is a most absurd photo (not saying, of course, that it is the best, or even good).

 

But it is absurdity which caused it to be posted. It is absurd, and that absurdity is emphasized here because only one guy is looking and then only slightly.

 

Others are not even bothering to look or notice. That's life in a nutshell. Your troubles are just 'your troubles' and no one else's.

 

They'll go unnoticed by those around you.

 

The guy on the bike lived to fall another time within the hour. He seemed to be pushing the envelope (at least with his bike -- testing the limits -- 'bikewise' to use an awful phrase).

 

Best to you and thanks for noticing. I think that's what the bike rider wanted most of all -- to be noticed. (he did see this capture and liked it.)

 

John (Crosley)