The Fallen

'The Fallen' - a 'street warrior' who is not above a little complaining for

the cause of his own predicament. 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

This is a new breed of photo, the high ISO D300 photo taken at after dusk without maximum aperture and thus some depth of field. This is the 'new paradigm' for evening shots with the new breed of digital camera, I feel, and extends traditional street photography into new parts of the day without using 'selective focus' with the possibility of obtaining acceptable results up to ISO 2500 (this is not necessarily an ISO 2500 shot, though, but ISO 2500 would have produced acceptable results, in my experience, having shot with five D300s to date.

 

John (Crosley)

excellent timing and technique for this interesting work which seems to freeze a "urban ballet". Some photo-purists would say that the balance of the composition would be perfect with a small cropping on the bottom, in order to give perfect symmetry to the right side. Thank you for sharing, Giuseppe

I cropped much off the bottom, as should be evident, but left the symmetry of the large oval in place, hence the symmetry of the oval is evident, top and bottom -- also it's about equidistant between the rear wheel of the bike and the edge of the frame, left and the hand, and edge of frame right. That seemed about right to me.

 

Reasonable minds might differ.

 

I always appreciate your feedback.

 

This one has done surprisingly well. I thought it might, but it is pretty simple. It's just unusual, even if not complex.

 

thanks for the help.

 

John (Crosley)

Very good photo, with great framing and composition. Regards.

For a composition like this, there's only a split second. That hand was there for less than a second, then it was withhdrawn.

 

You gotta know when to fire the shutter or just not take the photo. I'm aggressive about firing in situations like this so I can get a photo; those less aggressive just aren't gonna get the photo, I think.

 

Thanks for the nice commnent.

 

John (Crosley)

Well captured shot. The group of feet in the distance gives a feeling of indifference towards what just happened here. Maybe they think that he is just an exhibitionist craving for attention and got what he deserved for performing his "stunts". I wonder about the line at the bottom and whether it would be better cropped.

In fact, this guy was just an exhibitionist, and in fact he did get what he deserved. The feet, above, do tell the story.

 

One can crop only so much, and cropping out the line, bottom was a possibility, but then one is left with a photo of a guy with a hand outstretched and no context.

 

The bottom curved line is continued in the top curved line as a continuation of a giant oval -- some can see it; others can't.

 

I already did a substantial crop at the bottom, as I was slow in raising my telephoto to 'capture' the guy's gesture, and already left in too much extraneity, but further cropping appeared uncalled for.

 

I prefer a photo with some context -- otherwise the guy might as well be in a studio; this is an area where another commentator made a similar observation, so you have someone on your side.

 

But I usually stick to my cropping guns -- I dislike long, narrow frames and this was getting long and narrow enough, already without an additional crop, bottom.

 

But I always appreciate well thought out input.

 

As you well know.

 

John (Crosley)

a street ballet shot. well caught.and the loitering legs give it a good comic (and compositional) balance.

This was a marginal shot for this folder, but the expression of desperation made the difference.

 

You are right about the legs for compositional value -- they help fill the frame and without them the photo wouldn't have been posted at all.

 

I'm interested that you chose to call this 'street ballet' which in a big sense it is.

 

In fact, many of my photos are, but nobody called them that before. Thank you.

 

John (Crosley)