California Beach Chic -- Still Life at Venice Beach

The car belongs to a man touted to be the photographic historian of

Venice Beach, a man who carries an old, beat-up looking Nikon, and

this is his friend. I found this equally beat up car parked on a street

adjoining Venice Beach, and as I was framing the auto against the

mural the friend arrived and pointed to the second story of a nearby

building. 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 (see

addendum in 'critiques' below)

It was a failure.

I saw and recorded the scene above.

I looked at my capture briefly and felt his left foot was out of the frame (wrongly) so I asked him to repeat the gesture, which he did willingly and gamely.

It was wrong for me to do that and it worked out horribly, though he was very helpful and obliging.

He adopted an awkward stance nothing like this and it was nothing that helpd the photo. I took a frame or two and thanked him, determined to consign this series to the hard drive as an 'almost was' photo.

I was surprised to find my intitial capture was complete with the man's foot in the frame, so I could post it, and no coaching, though he appears to be showing something to me (we had talked, and he was trying to point out something in the nearby building to me).

Just the car, signs and mural also made an interesting capture - one I was tempted to post without the guy and may post on another service another day, far from now.

John (Crosley)

At this viewing, early morning on the eighth, there are eight ratings ranging from 3/3 to 7/7 and most in between.

In my view, that's a sign of a photo that evokes interest in viewers - perhaps in some, some strong feelings, whether of 'like' or 'dislike'.

For my view, that's probably a sign of a successful photo.

Of course, there are some photos that are sure-fire winners, but not all are.

Some photos are more controversial; and that includes the more 'artistic' ones - as all 'art' is by nature 'subjective', and this is no exception.

Even I am not clear that this is my 'best' work or that I like this better than the work without the man pointing with the same car there in the same place, taken up closer -- this just has a little 'action' in it and it tends to hold viewers' interest a little better in my view -- whether it's better or not -- well, that's a personal view.

Like it or not, I'll be leaving it up, as I do 98% of all my photos, part of the reason my portfolio is so large. I tend to leave the so-called failures up as well as the successes.

I had a dinner tonight with a fellow photographer -- a professional from long ago who moved into the visual arts in film/cinema/video and lighting and he presented me with a PDF file by e-mail of nine pages (I think) of photos from my portfolio that he had chosen over a two or three day period of what he thought was my best.

Some of the photos were very dear to me, but I'll bet that few were on anyone's list of my 'best' as they saw them. To him, they were my 'best' and he was greatly congratulatory about those particular photos.

And I got a sense of his 'values' in photography from his choices -- those are photos that I might have taken down if I were playing a popularity game, but I had kept them up, in part because I like them (enough to have posted them) and in part because I thought they were good work, if not blockbusters.

I don't require a photo to be a blockbuster to post it; I make some nice 'small' photos from time to time that I like to share.

When it comes down to it, there's almost something for everyone in my portfolio - I shoot 'street' 'fine art' 'nude fine art' 'color', 'portraits -- usually environmental and often what Cartier-Bresson called 'heads', landscapes (few) and other stuff.

If you look long enough and have a particular taste, there's a possibility you might find something that appeals to you; I even have a few flowers posted, and I hope they are not cliches.

I try not to shoot cliches; after all why repeat what others have done or redo the style of someone else who's successful rather than pursue one's own muse. I value originality above all.

I recently shot a little statue of a pig(let) on a butcher's counter, as he appeared to be contemplating behind glass an entire row of hanging carcasses with the intended caption/title of 'contemplating one's future.' I bet the tens of thousands who walked past that particular spot in a year never thought of that juxtaposition and no one with a camera ever would take that particular photo, though surely the butcher who had placed the little statuette there had done so with a purpose. Through the collapsing power of a telephoto lens, I was able to complete the butcher's macabre little jest. Originality.

In a day, or a download, there might be 10 different genres and numerous different styles - differing only by the subject that is presented, as I don't just go looking for one particular style or genre -- though I'm always on the lookout for likely 'street' captures - as they are 'highly valued' by me and 'street' to me is the epitome of my craft, involving the mind, swiftness, mastery of one's equipment, being at the right place at the right time (and often arranging that through special senses) and sometimes just plain luck or superior powers of observation and anticipation.

Plus some good old fashioned 'horse sense' about human behavior - the ability to guess correctly how people will behave and do what they will do often before they themselves form the intention to do that, based on a 'reading' of their prior or present behavior.

That's street -- a great challenge with great rewards for those willing to tackle a difficult subject, and then undergo the difficulties of trying to get in the right or correct position to make the capture and survive amidst sometimes hostile onlookers or subjects (not always but sometimes).

It's great sport that results in sometimes superior photographs and an incredible number of poor photos that are condemned languish forever on the hard drives..

John (Crosley)