And So It Goes . . . .

This is just a slight moment unplanned and caught in passing, and while

very far from perfect, it represents a sort of personal perfection in my

pursuit of 'street photography'. 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

Nice al those squares, the person fits in perfectly....

 

kind regards Els

Not a perfect photo by any means, but somehow to me very appealing.

 

Something to give raters great pause, I note, and with good reason because of a major technical issue.

 

I thank you for the kind compliment; I like this one personally, yet wished it had been better technically, of course, but wanted to share it.

 

I am always happy when you stop by here and leave a comment.

 

John (Crosley)

 

John,

I have tried a thousand times finding MY definition of what "street photography perfection" is, and I never succeeded completely. It always strikes me as unsatisfactory the next day, or at the next photo I like, I consider "street", but I cannot fit to the definition. But as often happens, I have a cloudy, blurred-on-the-edges concept of what "street photography ideal" is for me. From this image of yours, I guess our views on this are not far apart. It has something to do with grasping the moment and the point of view that put together ordinary, or meaningless things, and produces an extraordinary, or meaningful image: discover the language that hides in plain view. But as I told, again this statement looks insufficient to me.

Here, you actually did it a good deal. Together, the man and his background tell something (to me) about how sometimes your ways are fixed and you cannot escape following them. It takes that man with his bent head, his motion blur, AND the background with the precisely angled, locked in place pipe to tell it. The measuring box (whatever it is about... electricity? gas?) which looks as a starting point but also as a mechanisms that measures, classifies you. It is an analogy game.

I also agree it is not perfect, tonal range is a bit weak, but I suspect there is not much to do: some scenes allow a nice, broad display of tones, some don't, and this one is clearly a nasty case, with most of the area occupied by the dark-grey wall.

Cheers!

L.

That's an electrical meter of standard issue on the wall to the left -- every American home has one. It's very familiar to Americans. Most businesses have them also.

 

I read your essay, and rather than comment on it, I will just commend it to readers to read it and then re-read it again.

 

It requires no comment or reply; it is sufficient and self-contained,.

 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts about this photo and the nature of 'street photography'.

 

This is one of those that just wasn't 'perfect' but too good not to share.

 

Thanks again.

 

[additional comment 5-16-09): Your essay still strikes me as more than commendable -- it is a wonderful piece of writing on the nature of 'street phjotography'. I commend it to all viewers of this photograph and suggest that you copy it for use in other venues, as it is very well done and deserves to be reprinted elsewhere as well when the nature of 'street photography' is discussed, with my blessing. - jc]

 

John (Crosley)

It is easier to define street as what it is not rather than what it is. If it does not fit any other category then it is probably street. (edit later) Three points: 1 the photo shoud be sharper. looks like handshake. It could never stand up to enlargment. 2. there could be some burn on the meter tags in order to see the print. 3. The next came up before. He should not have been blurred and the blurring does not resemble motion rather appears to be done in photoshop which you sometimes do. That's about it. Don't recall if I rated.

I don't blur people in Photoshop. I missed that remark or would have replied before. I never have, either.  Your statement that I have before it erroneous and made of whole cloth.

This is subject motion blur, pure and simple from a slower shutter speed than optimal for ultimate sharpness, alas.

john

John (Crosley)