'Mike of Huntington Beach'

Add in a lifetime of counterculture philosophy, a lifetime of the drug

culture, a long-time obsession with women, a superior intellect,

following fringe movements such as the Rajneesh and others, and put

that together with a face that can assume just about any 'look' including

here, a look of suspicion, and you have 'Mike of Huntington Beach, an

antique dealer, who is greatly fascinating and found in Southern

California. 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,

First of all the image is impressive in BW. It conveys the message and is in line with your remarks. The expression is very well captured. Best Regards

I agree with Ati - to add another well decieded element: the landscape orientation and cropping forces the Mike's face into a "box" - this metaphor underlines very well overall impression and message.

Just one idea: the backgound on the left is slitghtly too 'strong' - as it doesn't add much to the overall image, less contrast might help.

Great face, good story.

To me, he looks more "paranoid" than suspicious.

Or, is it me?

;)

This is just one of the various images of Mike of Huntington Beach - they images range from 'wild' to 'bored' to 'suspicious' as here and almost everything in between. He has a marvelous range of expressions; far from what a psychologist would term 'flattened affect' -- poor range of facial expression. In fact he is the polar opposite.

 

He was a wonderful photo study, sitting at a table at McDonald's as I took a break from driving from San Diego to Los Angeles, just to take a little rest, and viewed his interesting 69-year-old face, said 'you look very interesting to me', and requested a chance to photograph him, all of which happened across a booth, as we each had a drink.

 

Then we went our separate ways. He LOVED his captures, by the way, and we parted friends.

 

Thanks Ali for letting me know your impression.

 

John (Crosley)

I might have decided to take quite a different photo, but there we were across a booth table in McDonald's so I was forced to crop tightly.

 

Landscape orientation worked best, it seemed, as the portrait orientation shots,seemed to lack something, and I quickly abandoned them. The landscape orientation 'forced' me to get in tight and crop tightly - causing me to bear down on his aged, weathered features and his facial hair, and his quite impressive face.

 

You would spot him in a minute if you saw him walking anywhere.

 

As to contrast, I believe the higher contrast was called for, but because of posting problems I would have posted this as brighter, and in fact did pull it once to brighten it at the first, and this is the brighter version. It shows much brighter on my computer screen -- a brightness management issue, which I will have to look into.

 

I may again pull and replace the image to brighten it further, then I think the 'contrast' issue would be seen more as a brightness issue.

 

Thanks for the helpful comment.

 

John (Crosley)

This is just one brief moment in photographing a man with an extraordinary range of expressions, so don't read anything more into his expression than just that his look is more like that of a very good facial actor rather than genuine fear, suspicion or paranoia.

 

I do believe to make such an expression that one has had to experience paranoia, and do believe he has had such expression honestly in the past, so it came easily to him, but not at this particular sitting (there across the booth from me in McDonald's).

 

Ever notice how many of my very good photographs were taken across a booth in McDonald's?) Maybe I never enumerated just how many, but some of my best, and most tightly cropped ones were taken in such food stores. Any port in a storm, I say, and they seldom bother you in McDonald's if you buy a drink or french fries.

 

Thanks for taking the trouble to comment. (Other photos show a great range of expression, and I could have made a whole folder just for him to show off his great range; maybe I'll work up one or two others and post them in the far future.)

 

John (Crosley)

Many thanks for your detailed reply. I guess this is a good example of making a virtue out of necessity - you created a powerful image under difficult conditions.

I noticed, I might have been too curt in my comment concerning the contrast: I think, contrast in the face is just fine - it's only the background on the left (a doorcase or whatever), that is slightly distracting me - other ideas would be blurring it more or simply cropping it (with leaving other borders untouched, thus changing aspect ration a little).

There is no need to hold back frank discussion on this forum -- that is one beauty of it, when a person gives his true opinion, it comes from his heart and it is well meant. (and not just fueled, by, say, alcohol).

 

This was meant to be shown somewhat lighter, and does show so on my monitor, but I'll leave this posted this way here for now.

 

Later, I may change it.

 

As to the lightness and the 'door jamb' at his right, that can't be cropped out for two reasons: (1) I prefer the aspect ratio and the use of space I have chosen, and only crop for reasons of necessity or where the aspect ratio doesn't fit. (2) his hair projects into that space, so to crop that area also is to crop his hair, which in itself tells part of the 'story' of who 'Mike of Huntington Beach' is.

 

I do appreciate your care in writing me; it always is appreciated when those who critique show courtesy as you have done.

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

John, my first thought was, what had he done? I love the commentary, it explains a lot about his expression. I bet he is as fascinating in person as he appears here. Great capture.

Even more fascinating in person, with a thousand expressions; this is only one of them.

 

I may post a few at some far future date, just for fun.

 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. You are always welcome.

 

John (Crosley)