color -- then and now The Barrio

This is the barrio somewhere in California, at night. 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

Well seen. Very good composition with strong colours.It seems that the moving man is being watched by the man out of the wall. Regards.

This is entirely a color dependant photo -- one of few I have taken. I saw the 'wall art' on the pull-down panels in front of this market and saw an opportunity, pushed my ISO up to 2500 and waited for passersby.

 

A longer shutter speed caused this guy to become 'elongated' in his stride, and that was all this photo needed.

 

It's completely different from anything I've shot, but I could do it again.

 

Thanks for letting me know your kind thoughts.

 

John (Crosley)

A well concieved and executed statement of contempoary life and art. Regards, Mark

That's a well-executed statement. I wish I'd known that was what I was doing when I pressed the shutter release and I'd have paid more attention and maybe stood a little taller.

 

;~))

 

Thanks for the nice compliment.

 

Don't mind the humor, please.

 

John (Crosley)

I experiment quite frequently with long shutter speeds; it's difficult to get a capture that is really 'good' when doing so, but when one 'clicks' it can be wonderful.

 

Whether or not this is 'wonderful' or worth anything at all is open to your judgment, but the main reason I downloaded my flash card was to get at this capture . . . . that's how much I thought of it.

 

There were some decent photos others also from this scene. In fact, I drove by once, identified this scene as a likely area to be photographed, parked, got out of my car and just stood there as though I were going to take a photo of the security panels with their mural and waited for passersby to walk by.

 

I actually got several good captures, but this is really the very best of them (in my judgment).

 

I'm glad this has pleased both of you.

 

ISO on this was 2500 on a D300, with perfect exposure through Nikon Matrix Metering. This required very, very little adjustment in Photoshop, and only globally -- no selections at all - thus not manipulated.

 

Thanks for both of you for commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

This photo was taken during a drive through San Francisco from the waterfront at Hunter's Point to Mission Street, and it turned out, after I took this photo, that it was a few blocks on a major thoroughfare, from Mission Street, in an area I was unfamiliar with.

 

I indicated it as 'somewhere in California' in details, but now I feel like revealing the location.

 

John (Crosley)

Thanks for your comment, on this photo, and on so many others. I always appreciate finding your name among those who critique or rate.

 

Somehow, I think this is your kind of photo -- with so much color throughout.

 

Thanks again.

 

John (Crosley)

Interesting shot, well captured...regards

I used to wonder how photographers took such shots -- or anything at all similar to this -- but gradually I have learned just to shoot away and sooner or later the circumstance will present itself when you come across a scene that will work out in ways you never imagined when you start (if you take chances).

 

For instance, I try to shoot even after the sun goes down and 90% or more is pure crap, and long shutter speeds are sometimes a hazard, but sometimes they are a boon.

 

Here it was a boon, as well as the sense of lighting I have developed.

 

It is just growing and growing and growing.

 

Now, I know that I could take a similar photo again -- or at least recognize the circumstances in which to make such a capture. It helps to have good equipment -- a Nikon D300 with its enhanced low-light capabilities helped bring this to fruition without horrible digital noise at ISO 2500. For that alone it's a success, to know the range of my equipment as I never before have shot at ISO 2500 but am trying it more and more. (Imagine shooting with a Nikon D3 or a D700 . . . . . with their increased low-light capabilities).

 

I predicted when the D300 came about (and its cousins named above), that we'd see a whole new range of shooting and new shots -- this is my prediction carried forth in my personal shooting. Better, I wasn't just 'walking around shooting everything. I was driving, saw this backdrop, stopped my car and absolutely KNEW I could take a good photo of it, if the appropriate person walked by, and just waited.)

 

Life gets better some days. (Other days I can't shoot a decent photo if my life depended on it. Often if someone asks 'what do you shoot' I just play back some photos I've taken for them, but the other day after shooting a lot, someone asked me that question,and I had absolutely nothing to show them.

 

So, I just told them 'I'm a fake' -- all this equipment is just a ruse. I really can't take a decent photo. I'm just a normal guy posing as a photographer (for that's the way I felt -- and sometimes feel at other times as well).

 

But not everyday, thank God.

 

Thanks for your comment.

 

I'm glad this pleased you.

 

John (Crosley)