black and white: then to now 'Soul Man'

This is 'Soul Man', observed recently on a major and well-known street

in a tourist destination. 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

John! This is wonderful! One of my favorites from your collection. Graceful, yet packs a punch! My hat off to you my friend. What a scene to stumble upon. Blessings.

I drove around a HUGE block three times -- and blocked traffic twice -- to get this capture. Luckily he stayed in one place a long time. Pedestrians blocked my view with my zoom tele from across the broad boulevard, and lack of a real, real long tele means this is a crop. Lots more than 'stumbling' across something . . . . but I know what you mean.

 

The fact is I cruise around, 'see' things like this, figure out fervently how to capture such a scene, and then wonder after cropping how it might be received on posting.

 

The cropping was necessary because of a line of text below (accounting for the cut off hand, on his left (our right) and the cut off elbow on his right (our left) because of the presence of pedestrians nearby who crowded the frame.

 

There is LOTS of work going into 'stumbling upon' such a capture (sometimes).

 

Then he walked away, having finished his drink. I got no futher chances, just one or two chances . . . with a failing telephoto that was returning totally 'black' frames a number of times.

 

But I GOT IT!

 

That's what counts.

 

It all seems too easy just to look at it, as though I were just standing nearby, saw it, and pressed the shutter after a quick focus job; I was not easy at all (this time).

 

Best to you Geoff, and thanks for the accolade.

 

John (Crosley)

Fantastic! A street capture at its best. It's one of those scenes that earns a special power and impact when put on photo, and for that we must thank you for the talent of seeing and capture it. Congrats and regards.

Thank you so much for such kind words. There was almost many a slip 'twist the cup and the lip (camerawise) but the guy blessedly stayed there for a very long time and I GOT IT.

 

All else is just talk.

 

Thank you again.

 

John (Crosley)

One of those shots where you say to yourself 'I can't believe that guy is standing in front (or near) that sign and wandering around 'that sign', and the only thing is to get near enough (across a busy boulevard of six lanes and down a side street, to get the capture, at the same time he was not blocked by pedestrians (much of the time), vehicular traffic, and when he was lined up with the sign (seldom).

 

It seems like such an easy shot, and might have been if I had been walking across the street, but I was driving by on a busy boulevard with strict traffic controls and heavy traffic,and could not stop in traffic with traffic obscuring my view across the boulevard, so I had to circle and circle and circle this vast block and finally wait on a side street (elevated) and wait for a break in vehicular and pedestrian traffic for a view, blocking traffic a little. (I waived them aroujnd and blessedly did not get honked at.)

 

All kvetching aside (or just explanation) -- the capture is the thing. I enumerate the rest, just to illustrate that some shots are taken in 1 second, and others take 15 minutes or more.

 

It doesn't matter.

 

The main thing is the capture.

 

And the photographer's staying power in getting it.

 

John (Crosley)

Good shots, like this one, are seldom easy; evidently the image has a huge soul, and I'm not talking about the sign, though I could ;)

Personally I think this type of images reflect the soul, of the photographer that takes them, as much as of the people in it......so: Who's the soul man, the one with the coffee, the one behind the lens, both?

Congratulations on a fantastic capture!

 

John, it's impressive to me that you suffer so much to get the shot. I think you are way cool to do that. I do the same thing, but I'm never this lucky; people move, traffic happens etc. I think you did a great job getting this guy just like he's standing. Wonderful documentary.

John, you need to get out of your car. Photos from the car with telephoto lens don't count.

You pose an interesting question: Who's the one with the soul? The one being photographed or the one behind the lens.

 

Perhaps both: maybe we both need each other. Without me, there is no 'him' to be depicted; he's just a guy standing in front of a coffee shop and with my lens, he's a sort of image celebrity, with 'meaning' to his image.

 

We each need each other, in a sort of photographic symbiosis, I think.

 

I never look down at my subjects, which often surprises them. I could walk up to this man, if near him and talk to him as to any other human being, because that's who I am. Is that 'soul' or just being true to myself as a photographer (and former attorney who dealt with people who didn't have life handed to them on a silver platter and were undergoing often great distress?)

 

I know that the years practicing law helped me be comfortable around less fortunate people - especially in understanding them and how to speak to them and understand their thought processes (which can vary widely, but are largely centered around 'being comfortable just like all of us, but often in more simple ways, for guys in reduced circumstances like this).

 

Maybe, like comedienne Roxanne Barr, who lived in a car at one time in her life, she KNEW how to communicate with people because she actually had LIVED 'ALL' of life - much as I have.

 

She 'knew' the motivations of the common man because she was 'of them'. I am not suggesting I am anything like her, just that we may have some similarity borne of our vastly varying experiences.

 

'Soul Man' here just wants a warm cup of coffee to make him feel good inside.

 

John, the photographer, wants a good capture, and will go to great lengths (sometimes) to get it, because he LOVES to take good photographs (and didn't even think this was very good if truth be told -- because of defects obvious to John, the photographer.

 

Live and learn.

 

Thanks Juan C.B.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

Liz,

 

I travel with one or two cameras on the car seat next to me everywhere, and when I walk, the same around my neck.

 

I am 'the guy with the camera(s), to almost everyone.

 

No clandestine Leica(s) either.

 

I'm open about it, generally.

 

It has been suggested above by my perpetual naysayer that i shouldn't photograph from my car, and perhaps should just abandon my car when I see something like this while driving and maybe allow it to be towed from the middle of Hollywood Boulevard together with my life's work on hard drives hidden inside (no parking allowed)..

 

Feh!

 

I'll take photos and go to great effort to get them however.

 

Sometimes I have to alight from my car, and other times the car is perfect subterfuge and camouflage.

 

Some captures you will see I'm just walking around and others not.

 

It is true that with my auto I can cover a lot of territory, and my productivity in a large metro area (not Kyiv) is in large part due to the ability to drive (as well as alight, but one cannot always alight when one wants as there are traffic laws, police who follow one with tickets to give, traffic piled up behind, traffic signs to obey, rush hour traffic, stop (and 'go' signs), and no way one can walk and expect to get captures such as this.

 

So, to the naysayers who kvetch, I say let them kvetch and I'll just take photos the way I take photos -- which is any way that lets me get my photo and doesn't cause a traffic jam or wreck and allows for perfect safety, as that always comes first. (you'd be surprised how safe a driver I am despite surveying for potential photos).

 

And I do get out when I can to take that great photo. And how many 'great' photos can ONLY be taken from a car, because there is no other possible vantage -- especially from the center of broad boulevards such as 'bus stop' photos where the only other way to get them is to stand in the middle of streets where one is exposed to getting run over by wild drivers.

 

Liz, I am very grateful for your understanding comment, Please pardon my own kvetching, which is well-earned, and NOT directed at you at all.

 

I always will follow my own instincts about photographing.

 

I drive around from place to place as I wish, often doing appointments and during those trips often 'see' things I want to record.

 

If I can, and traffic allows, I sometimes I capture them from my car where I can hide my camera beneath the driver's side window, and only raise it intermittently, then lower it, and the same for the passenger side.

 

I can zoom, and change lenses with ease and not cause a spectacle or disturb subjects who often are unaware of my presence.

 

Walking would be entirely different. In a major city such as NYC, that would be NO problem, but in this city (LA) it would be a huge distraction. In Kyiv, shooting from a car would be almost impossible, but in LA it is often compelled, or at least extremely helpful to find captures such as this.

 

If one is truly 'on assignment' or has a subject to document, then parking and exploring (where safe .. . . and things are not always safe) may be well called for.

 

It all depends . . . .as Roseanne Roseannadanna said.

 

'If it isn't this, it's that, and if it isn't that it's the other thing.. . . .'

 

And if you do something well -- even perfectly -- there's always someone to kvetch.

 

Thankfully, not you.

 

I'm always happy to see a comment by you; your comments always brighten my day (pardon my irritation at other's undeserved and poorly thought out criticism).

 

My best to you, Liz.

 

John (Crosley)

Maybe not.

 

This guy may be a Hollywood writer or screen guru; perhaps a director on a late morning jog stopped for a cup of Joe.

 

I may have assumed from facial and other hair that he is less fortunate; he may just be a jogger rather than a guy who is too poor to afford modern clothing (jogging suits are passe for other than jogging)

 

I apologize to my subject if he is more 'fortunate' than I have assumed.

 

I was never 'close' to him, and viewed him only driving by, then through a tele lens.

 

;~))

 

'The truth will out.'

 

I try to be fair to my subjects.

 

Always.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

"I was brought up, on a side street.

Learned how to love, before I could eat."

Isaac Hayes-David Porter

 

John, who doesnt see the continue of the S with his left hand ? :-) a very good one! :-)

I actually did see the continuation of the 'S' with the stripes on his jogging outfit, but felt it would be overmuch for me to point it out.

 

Also, it is not terrifically clear, so i decided to see if someone clear-eyed would notice it and say something.

 

Thanks.

 

Thanks also for the apt lyrics.

 

Every once in a while I take something that is better than I think when I just look it in my downloads.

 

Perhaps that's because I saw it before I chopped (sorry, cropped) it up.

 

Also, worked with the contrast to de-emphasize those barely-seen words in the background which were more prominehnt in the original and made it barely viewable and destroyed 'the point'.

 

Post-processing 'made' this photo what it was intended to be and as I sawi it across a boulevard up an elevated side street.

 

Thank God.

 

I'm getting a little better with Photoshop but have no aspirations.

 

I'm a shooter, not a manipulator.

 

That's good enough for me.

 

I'd rather take new photos than just 'save' the bad ones.

 

But this one was special AND the guy finished his cup of JOE, then moved on promptly after this capture - after all those trips around the block to get this capture while he was there.

 

Perseverance sometimes pays off; sometimes the subject just disappears.

 

Ya never know.

 

Thanks Billy.

 

You're always welcome here.

 

John (Crosley)

this is a real street shot indeed,

and what he got more than his soul I wonder !!!

a great catch,very efficiently presented,6/6.with my regards.

Sometimes a photo takes on new meaning when posted -- it seems to 'stand for something' that I didn't expect when I viewed it in a folder of unposted photos, because I could then see all the defects and the way 'it mght have been if perfect.'

 

This is one of those photos, but in the end, it has turned out most viewable, and as you have said, 'a great catch'.

 

Thank you for that.

 

It is a big ego boost; I needed that today (more than you could know).

 

John (Crosley)

Why should it be a "kvetch"? It is true; I learned it from experience. I did much better with a motorcycle when I had one and it was all I had, then with a car when I had one of those and could still drive. The motorcycle was the best of both worlds.you cover a lot of ground, can park it anywhere; and you connect because the disenfranshised (sp? its a real word) take you for one of their own. Now I have only buses and feet and it is a very good thing. Sorry you had the bad day. Get a bike!!

Hi John, very interesting and well captured image, graphic black and white...nice one! regards

 

p.s." my soul is not a neat clearing surrounded by a fence, but a deep and dark forest unknown with all that slithers and howls in it...." ref: D.H. Lawrence

Wow! Your quote from D.H. Lawrence is stunning. Thanks for posting it. It's a little unsettling, and at the same time strikes a chord of truth (maybe a whole dischordant synphony).

 

Thanks for sharing your views so ably.

 

I get a good one from time to time, don't I?

 

John (Crosley)

Nice to see you browsed by.

 

I'm glad this pleased you (so much)

 

John