Hold the Line!!!

Hands, ears, faces, and communication are the subjects of this photo

taken during my early evening stroll in Kyiv, Ukraine recently. The

advertisement is for a mobile phone company -- ('cell phone' for US

residents). 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

All look in the camera! Excellent work

This is a favorite that got a few excellent ratings, then just about 'disappeared' -- nobody wanted to look or rate a photo with a frowning subject, I think.

 

Oh, well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

I think it is among my best recent photos. (and I've taken some pretty good ones lately, if you look at this service - and the other one I post on).

 

Best. And thanks for noticing.

 

John (Crosley)

The woman has her hand on her ear as if she is listening on the phone. She's not sure she likes what she hears. The angle in which you took the faces on the poster make them all look like they are mocking us..fake smiles and all... perhaps she dosn't like to be the butt of their strange, fake smiles..and fake greetings...? The image creates a disturbing mood...very well done..Marjorie

You noted elsewhere you are a new member, but your analytic abilities seem very mature -- perhaps you are very highly educated in the arts or in another area in which high analytical skills are transferable, for you have analyzed this photo well.

 

Of course, another view is that somehow I as photographer have temporarily caught her attention, for I was quite near her, and actually had reversed directions, doubling back to take this photo -- and only then for almost a second or so.

 

I can frame and take a photo in just a second or three, and just walk on as though I were doing nothing -- a product of 'visualizing a photo beforehand' then looking through a viewfinder with very good ability to 'see', and to know that when something unusual happens, such as a subject's vigilant look or someone crossing in front of the camera that was unexpected, THAT often is the time to release the shutter.

 

I try to take advantage of the unexpected, and then release the shutter.

 

Other photographers often wait while those who cross the field of vision end their crossing and thus miss the capture I get, and if they saw this woman's look, might have been discouraged from shooting at all.

 

In fact, I am encouraged, for her look actually makes this photo.

 

Everybody else depicted is happy and full of happy hands, but she is a little sour and surprised and her hands are close to her head and body -- signs of defensiveness.-- a contrast if you will, and you may note many of my photos take full advantage of contrasts.

 

Contrasts are important in photography.

 

One places a sharp subject in front of a blurred background to make the sharp subject really 'pop'.

 

Think of a lone wildflower in front of a blurred field of flowers and other plants, taken with a very long telephoto, so everything else but the flower is indistinct.

 

Similarly we look for sharpness against soft backgrounds, or conversely softness against strong backgrounds. Anything that is a contrast tends to accentuate the subject.

 

This is just one variation on that.

 

I was very pleased to 'see' this photo and take it.

 

It was just about my last photo of the day, taken just about at darkness at high iso, and followed a day when my FIRST capture was the stunner.

 

It just goes to show you, it can be the first or the last (or anything else in between) -- you just gotta plug along.

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)