David and Mimi: The 'Artsy' Couple

This is David, an architect, and Mimi, -- an 'artsy' couple photographed

in Chicago's 'Gold Coast' recently. 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 primarily a photo about tenderness and technically and compositionally about blacks, grays and whites.

It is organized basically into a triangle, but slightly off-center at the base and with lines that are not quite straight, in keeping with the subject -- slightly crooked lines help emphasis the 'love' aspect of this photo.

This couple fancies themselves 'artistic' hence the dress -- they wear 'black' the dress of artists in Big Cities, and the perpetual dress of artists in places like San Francisco. He also formerly wore a pony tail, though he also is an executive as well as an architect. That qualifies as 'artistic' in my book.

And they were very warm and loving; I hope this photo shows it, and quite cordial to me as a stranger-photographer whom they met moments before.

The background is there for a purpose; I took a photo or two of him standing in front of the alley with its fire escapes just as I would a rock star, then continued to use the alley for their portrait.

I'd go there again. It's a great alley-way.

I think, if I had to pose it over, I'd have included more background in this shot, but this was only two or three seconds to frame and shoot, then away they went, after shaking hands.

John (Crosley)