'The Ale Festival'

One day I happened onto an 'ale festival' and this is a scene from some

celebrators there. I believe the woman with the 'eyes' stole the photo --

do you agree? 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

Yes, she grabs the attention. But after that I move to him. Just what is he doing that she should look such a way? Most interesting is the matching bracelets. Why? Did you ask? Unfortunate, the plastic bag is on the table. A frequent problem of yours is contrast range where the whites wash out and the darks go into solid black. I am wondering here if this comes in part in the raw file conversion and did not have to be this way. The printing on the mugs washed out There is informative information here that was lost. Maybe could have been saved during conversion and/or by burning. That is my few shekels worth.

By the look of the smiling eyes of the man on the right and the astonished look of the woman I would say something amusing to men and slightly offensive to women was the subject of the toast. I would also say that by the direction of the eyes towards the most envolved toaster the remark came from the short haired woman and judging by the short hair she would have said something like : "to pussy, may they always be warm like the teakettle and wet like the lands we come from." Or something like it. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions here, but I don't think so :)

 

The surprised woman indeed 'makes' this photo. Great moment. I had a lot of fun with it.

Cheers, Marco

All kidding and supposition aside, I had a mentor, a Lucie Award winner, who curated my photo collection for a half year ending last January and of the many, many lessons he taught me was that a photo can have many technical issues (read that faults) and if it had the 'spirit of the photo' then it could be a winner.

 

I shot a lot of photos of rather dull people and most were rather sane and sober and not having all that much fun, but this group was having an enormously good time. And when on review I saw the bulging eyes of this woman, I identified this photo as one that had the 'spirit of the photo' despite any possible technical difficulties.

 

It was shot at iso 1250 under terrible lighting circumstances and most were blurry -- a Nikon D3 would have been the only camera that would have produced acceptable results for most of the photos that evening. But I was a visitor and the choice of cameras was an older one with much lower iso capability, but the woman with 'eyes' was rather motionless (vis a vis side to side movement) for this photo, and I rank it a 'winner' regardless of any technical deficiencies.

 

Those eyes make it a standout, no matter what.

 

This ain't Ansel Adams and a Yosemite Waterfall or a 'Moonrise over Hernandez', after all, it's 'street' where just capturing the image is the most important thing and one can worry about image quality later . . . . if that's really important. One has to be realistic and put image quality in its place in this part of shooting -- all focus has to be placed on her eyes -- and that requires removing distracting detail elsewhere -- assuming it was recorded at all.

 

I'm glad you had fun with this one; I did and so did all who saw it. It was a very popular photo, even with this young woman.

 

(oh, and they're all women, just fyi, except the remote man, right with white cap, not involved -- girlfriends to state it politely.)

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

No is is not Ansel and that is one problem that I have with all "street". I used to think just as you. Some point along in time I changed. After that image quality became important -more than the thing in the photo. Ratings and critiques and your author's comments are all subjective aren't they? Wish you would have addressed the bracelets and the mugs. The iso thing now that I know explains a lot. It could also be a roll of film I developed using Israeli tap water. I never heard such a comment as the tea kettle one but now that I know, I think that must be the case.

 

 

The people toasting here are all women - though some remarking seem to have identified certain of them as 'men'. They are not men, even if one or another has 'short hair'.

 

And, as women, these particular women seemed very 'close' which suggested to me a particular sexual orientation, though of that I cannot be certain, and that might explain certain questions raised. . . .

 

I enjoyed them without regard to who they were or any 'orientation' they might have had -- they were having a joyous time and were fine photo fodder, whereas many others at this particular 'festival' were particularly restrained and ultimately far less interesting to view.

 

John (Crosley)

swell :)

This was posted on a 'whim' --- based almost solely on the strength of this woman's eyes. Without them it would never have been considered for posting. The comraderie also helped, but without those eyes -- digital trashcan.

 

Sometimes things like a strong set of eyes can just carry a photo.

 

And when you started writing so many critiques, you seem to have gotten better with each one and made better and better choices.

 

Best to you, again.

 

Please come back again.

 

I enjoyed your choices very much.

 

John (Crosley)