'Tres Hamburguesas Por Favor'

This Mexican mother presents a regal, almost royal image as she

orders typical luncheon food in a America's largest fast food restaurant

for herself and her children a while ago. 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

I love how you are able to capture spontaneous expressions throughout all of your work. I first looked upon the expressions of the children and then the mother in this particular shot. Unfortunately, I then noticed the black rectangle of the counter structure within the composition of the family. Now, this irrelevant element stands out like a sore thumb for me. Not much you can do about it in a candid shot. Just pointing it out as part of my opinion.

 

Paste a Happy Meal poster ad over top of it. ; )

 

Fantastic portfolio by the way.

I have no such problems; this is 'street' photography' after all, but you're entitled . . .

 

Thanks for the compliment(s).

 

John (Crosley)

This is photoethnography at its best.

That is a new term for me, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

 

I like this photo very much just for its composition; for the woman's stance, and for the regal way she holds her head, as well as the spacing of her and her children, and the various ways each looks. To me, that is the virtue of the photo.

 

That she is Hispanic is helpful, but not dispositive; I take photos of everyone, without much regard to who they are, where they come from or anything of that nature, in general -- unless it fits into a general 'story idea' that is suggested by current themes in news or some such.

 

This didn't.

 

It was just a good scene, whether she was Polish or Mexican.

 

She and her kids just happened to be Mexican (or of Mexican extraction).

 

And of course the US treats them favorably and doesn't truly acknowledge the real reason -- the high Mexican birth rate means the kids will be taxed to finance my Social Security. Hooray!

 

Thanks for your comment.

 

John (Crosley)

A few days ago I gave this a good rating; it captures a "moment" and has good contrast and texture in the high end, but........There is no texture in the dark zones (III and IV) and there should be (as in The "Kiosk Vendor" photo) --almost a universal fault on photo.net. I think this might be in part a digital problem. If the exposure was set for the "blacks" as generally it should be, could photoshop adjust just like develpment time to hold the good contrast and also not let the counter wash out? I do not know; I do not know much about photoshop. I am not clear on the comment about the "sore thumb" . I do not know which area it refers to. As for pasting --that's "off the wall".

This exposure was made with Nikon matrix metering and was a little 'dark' because of some backlighting . . . . probably not in the algorithm of shots referenced by the Matrix metering library of 35,000 reference shots . . . . but I liked the way it looked in its darker rendition.

 

Specifically, it brought out the grain in the wooden paneling, center, right and specifically, also it kept darker the clothing of the three principal subjects of this photo. I could have lightened them in 'raw' or by using 'shadow-highlight tool' but made a conscious decision not to.

 

Why?

 

Because specifically, I liked the way the white shoes of the boy, the whiteness of the mother's feet, and the three heads all made a composition, and to 'connect' them by emphasizing patterns or texture in their clothes would have broken that composition or disrupted it. Sometimes there are 'designs within a photograph that one sees that one does NOT want to interrupt, whether it was there 'intentionally' or by 'accident'.

 

Sometimes 'mistakes' or just plain old difficulties with things like metering -- as here with Nikon matrix metering -- can bring out something that one might not see in an ordinary, fully-lighted capture.

 

One of my favorite photos on Photo.net is one of three youths with completely blocked out background -- and a complete 'dud' under Nikon matrix metering -- but it's wonderful.

 

There has to be a time to use Ansel Adams' zone system and times to judiciously just eschew it entirely, and for me, because of the composition made by the whites (lights) in this photo, I chose to let the 'darks' block up a little even though I easily could have remedied that.

 

That is part of the 'art' in photography - not being 'hidebound' by rules but learning to use the flexibility of one's craft and one's medium, and to pursue the vision inspired by each and every photograph.

 

That may be the reason that I do not and cannot envision using 'Lightroom' alone to open my files and must individually open each one of them, preferably using a custom editor such as found in Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw, followed by Photoshop itself with its ability to do 'selections' (not here, of course, as this one is hardly touched at all . . . maybe not at all.)

 

John (Crosley)

I know ziltch about this "lightroom" and those phot

But the lighting in this photo is really very, very good in my personal opinion.

 

If I were showing this in color, it certainly would show -- in part because the tones and the hues are well presented.

 

This is another (I presented one a few days before) side lighted photo. The light on the face of the mother and her children is partially daylight from the windows of this establishment, and it provides a modeling effect.

 

That, combined with allowing their clothes to 'block up' into darkness, as the photo presented itself (correctable through use of 'levels' and using Adobe Raw Converter to expand the brightness) first to me, I decided that I vastly preferred that 'technical flaw' (if indeed there is such a thing as a 'technical flaw when one is making an 'artistic decision') to showing detail and texture in the clothes and breaking the composition I saw with their whitish (light) footwear and their complementing faces -- and of course their faces are rather well lighted -- with highlights and shadows, almost as if they had been shot in a studio by a skilled technician.

 

That is one of the wonders of sidelighting -- which in many circumstances presents itself when one is shooting indoors or under a 'roof' or other 'cover' when the light is streaming in from one side, such as through windows (as here).

 

Sidelighting allows for modeling of features, such as facial features and for areas of light and shadow in faces, which adds 'interest' to them, in my view. and makes them more 'viewable' or 'viewworthy'.

 

That's my opinion.

 

That's a good reason I highly value sidelighting, so when I recognize it, I try to use it to transform an 'ordinary' photo into something more 'interesting' and occasionally more 'dramatic'.

 

John (Crosley)

Your 'sore thumb' -- the black 'board' now has a gourmet coffee advertisment over it.

 

No 'Happy Meal' ad, but you weren't far wrong,.

 

;~))

 

John (Crosley)

You're are been very able to capture 3 different expressions:waiting,curiosity and distrust....Very well done my dear story teller!Salutoni

Somehow I was unable to 'put my finger' exactly on what other part of this photo beside the composition I liked so very much.

 

You have done so with ease, and I am tutored on my own photo.

 

Thank you so much; I an indebted to your analysis.

 

John (Crosley)

The mother's feet are 'turned out' like those of a ballerina at the bar, a very unusual stance for almost anyone but someone who's trained in ballet; it is a most admired stance for ballerinas who have to strain to attain such a stance -- being 'turned out' is difficult for most ballerinas, though very useful in that dance.

 

The boy is diffident. He is unsettled, rocking on the outer parts of his soles, a little wiggly perhaps and full of energy. Perhaps he's protective of his family -- a young macho man?

 

And sister, at the counter, looks over inquiringly, and her stance reflects that. One foot heel upraised, toe down, the other firmly planted.

 

She has to work hard to see everything behind the counter and she is 'interested', has been distracted by seeing the photographer, and is equally interested in him, it appears from her entire 'body language'.

 

This is not just a shot about facial expressions, as initially well noted by Giuseppe di Pasquali, but also about 'body language' in general, as the facial expressions are reflected in whole body attitudes and strongly mirrored in the feet, I think.

 

How do you feel?

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

The more I value this 'little' moment captured, for the three different looks.

 

In a way it reminds me of one of my highest-rateed photos, the three different looks of the old people in a hotel, from long, long ago, taken when I was a youth, with a woman, crossed legs, ignoring me, a man, head back, a man off an elevator noticing me (but not hostile (as the boy here seems to be).

 

Some themes seem to repeat, the more one takes photos.

 

P.S.

 

I now agree with Meir above that just a little detail should show in the darks, but only a very little - they are a little 'blocked up'. I'm getting better trained/skilled in Photoshop now and can make just a little detail shjow now, without distracting.

 

John (Crosley)