faces in time The Crane Operator

This is Rick, the 110-ton Crane Operator before his shift rebuilding a

bridge near Myrtle Creek, Oregon recently, as he shops for victuals to

sustain himself during the work day. 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

Hello John, I really like this, the angle just seems perfect for a crane operator.

 

P

Your comment was so unexpected it made me laugh. Good sense of humour.

 

Glad you like it.

 

He's an American, for sure. (look at that gut)

 

Now I have one too, but I don't drink beer, disproving common sayings . . . .

 

;~)

 

John (Crosley)

He developed..a big paunch!Perfect point of wiew!Regards..

I took some head and shoulders shots of him. He was way too wooden, but compliant.

 

So I asked permission to 'go down on him' if you'll excuse an expression I never used before with relation to a man.

 

It was the perfect point of view as you said. Notice also the sidelighting/shadowing.

 

Worked very well (or it wouldn't have been posted and would have joined those hundreds of thousands of other nonstarters on my disk drives.).

 

Thanks for an observant comment.

 

John (Crosley)

M. Crosley you are a great photographer and I enjoy going about your portfolio. It is very intimating to make a critique on one of your photo so it will be a question. In a shot like this were you on your knee or are you using a camera with a live view. also to have a sharp and focus picture wath wher your setting.

 

Thanks

 

Four years ago, nobody ever heard of me -- perhaps even fewer years ago than than that -- so don't be intimidated.

 

Everybody starts someplace, though this is my second incarnation as a photographer (I took photos as an amateur when I was 22 through 24, and edited photos for Associated Press at NYC World Headquarters, including Pulitzer greats during part of that time). (AP had a standing job opening for me as a photographer, if i had just asked for it; in fact they hired me as a photographer, but I passed it by when they made a writer out of me, and I saw Cartier-Bresson's work, which intimated the he** out of me. He'd done it all in photography, I reasoned, so I took up writing at which I was enormously successful.)

 

But my first roll of film at age 21, with no photo lessons had a genuine keeper in the 'street' genre; that is the same style I have today and it's posted here (Staten Island Ferry -- three men, in Black and White folder).

 

You don't have to be recognized to have style or be good.

 

Just be true to yourself and be absorbed in taking, making and posting good INTERESTING photos. (no one comes here to be bored, and there are so many places here to click if they're bored with yours, they can quickly go elsewhere. I judge that many of my photos are NOT boring, based on the number of viewers and nice commenters.

 

(Also, be nice to commenters - they as easily could go elsewhere)

 

This was taken in the middle of a convenience store, so I dropped down. I had live view, but in order to see the screen properly you have to be mostly directly behind it, and I am not yet its master -- I've only taken one or two photos with it.

 

So I did not use live view; I peered up through the viewfinder. I just am not used to 'live view' -- it takes much practice and to my way of thinking 'behaves erratically' - taking photos when I think it's not and not taking photos when I think it is.

 

I don't have the settings with me this early a.m. in Ukraine where I am now, but it was about ISO 1000, with f 3.5 or so for the aperture and probably 1/60th of a second for exposure, or perhaps I stopped down the aperture more for greater depth of field which would have made a slower shutter speed. (This was a VERY early morning capture, and construction people have to be on the job earliest, and this was before his job.)

 

I do remember the lightning enough to guesstimate, but the EXIF data is the true source and could prove me wrong. If I see it and it proves substantially different, I'll try to post an addendum in about four days or five. (I'm traveling today and for the next few days.)

 

Best to you -- thanks for the fine complement(s).

 

John (Crosley)

This guy looks too happy to be on his way to work , looks like he just won a lottery ticket! Well done !

Yes, he indeed does look happy.

 

I may append this comment later, after all the rates have come in, and the comments too.

 

Then I may reveal the 'secret'.

 

Thanks for stopping by and giving a comment (and a rating -- I just looked)

 

I don't look at ratings when I do comments; so I won't be inhibited or seen to be engaged in tit for tat colloquy for ratings e.g. treating higher raters better than lower raters.

 

It allows me to be honest in my comments, and to treat all comers nearly alike.

 

Best to you.

 

John (Crosley)

I'd sure like a pair of suspenders (braces) like this guy has. They look like they could hold up a suspension bridge.

 

As a matter of fact, bridge support is this guy's profession, and I suppose he's engineered keeping his pants up, given that he has no waist to speak of.

 

(and I could learn a lesson or two from him, being somewhat similarly afflicted ;~)) )

 

John (Crosley)

This is a great image. I like the angle, the expression, the b/w, the perspective and the ambient. You have achieved a very powerful and candid picture.Regards.

Wow!

 

That's a lot of superlatives.

 

I won't turn 'em down.

 

Can you imagine me kneeling on one knee in the middle of an early morning coffee rush at a convenience store beside the freeway in Myrtle Creek, Oregon -- the only freeway exit for miles that has any sort of commerce?

 

This guy had to help me up to standing, I was so creaky from driving all night.

 

I get that way when driving a long time, then I go out and take photos as though I were a young athlete, and find myself caught in a crouched position, unable to get up, maybe with my pants dropping because I've loosened my belt for that long distance drive, and trying to hold steady two big (huge) cameras around my neck so they don't cause my center of gravity to go too far one way or t'other.

 

;~))

 

Oh, the vagaries of chasing such a 'candid' photo.

 

This guy is probably still scratching his head at what he came across that morning -- that 'idiot' photographer who wanted to take 'HIS' photograph -- "HIM' of all people, and for 'WHAT" for God's sake?

 

Well, here is the result.

 

I hope he sees it.

 

It's original, if nothing else.

 

Thanks for such a nice comment.

 

John (Crosley)

 

for sharing your experience and passion!!

It comes as second nature to me.

 

John (Crosley)

Very good photo (imho), what attracts my attention is the point of view, very clever as to see the crane operator in action you usually have to look up:). I also like the choice of the model, nearly everything is interesting about him - his face, his cap, his braces, his a bit torn t-shirt and the sweater underneath, the way he's holding the bottle of water and as befits the operator of a huge crane his posture is impressive. The shop ceiling gives a nice background to the image, would be great if we could see his right hand too but anyway this photo is great. Thank you for sharing, -wm

Well, I don't think this is my greatest portrait ever, but I DO think you make valid points, and they are good points. You DO have to look up to a crane operator, though that was not in my mind when I took the photo.

 

I just tired of trying to take a head and shoulders shot of what I thought would be an interesting man because he was too 'wooden' and his smile too 'frozen' with his 'deer caught in the headlights' expression as though he'd never seen a photographer before and felt he had to look a certain way. He was bewildered at being photographed, so 'I went down' because I saw an interesting way to portray him -- get beneath his larger belly and portray him as a 'giant' who is well fed (nothing is stated or implied about beer intake; I have a large belly too, but I don't drink beer except a bottle or two in the summer) and nothing also is made judgmental about large bellies (as I could be taking a self-portrait).

 

You only get so many interesting and willing subjects, and the idea is not to screw it up when you get someone who's willing to be a subject . . . and is cooperative, so you have to be quick AND inventive. This was my solution. The rest is what viewers have read into it, and they are valid as to WHY this has succeeded, though not all were in my mind's eye as I prepared to take this shot. (my mind can race -- -and it does race-- at only a certain fast speed.)

 

Thank you for the good and challenging critique.

 

John (Crosley)

That this particular photo, taken out of desperation, would gather such a large number of ratings. The 'desperation' was that I couldn't get one decent photo from normal height, so I had to 'go down' or at least adopt some other viewpoint.

 

Raters seem to feel that this photo is 'out of the ordinary' - parhaps from the rather unusual perspective, and the fact it highlights this man's rather large and protuberant belly. (no criticism of his belly intended . . . many men in America are built that way . . . it's a fact of life . . . . but seldom published . . . particularly because, as one newspaper photographer mentioned to me . . . 'my publisher and editor would never allow such an unflattering photo in our newspaper. We only publish flattering photos, or at least not unflattering photos'

 

Yet, I do not feel this is unflattering at all; it captures this man and does it well, and I think it would not surprise any of his friends or hold him up to ridicule. And he seemed to take it in good spirits. He was extremey nice about being photographed, then went his way, completely nonchalant, perhaps wondering 'what's the big deal, anyway?'

 

John (Crosley)