The Would-be Rap Star

The Would-be Rap Star stops passersby on LA's Venice Beach and

challenges them to listen to his music (which wasn't bad). Your ratings

and critques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please attach an explanatory comment; please share your

superior photographic knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! John

This guy, dressed in white was on LA's (Venice's) Venice Beach, trying to interest passersby in his new CD he had just cut by offering them a listen on a portable CD player, and the music was surprisingly good.

He dressed in white and the contrast with his black skin made a good contrast but was only available from his face and I couldn't make a good portrait from that, but when he pointed I saw hope and focused on his hand and let his face fall into circles of confusion. It worked, Also, notice the diagonal from his face through the diagonal of his hand, for an effective, dynamic device.

Sorry for the late reply, I have been deathly ill and still am.

Just to explain for the confused ones, would-be means 'aspiring'.

John (Crosley)

This guy is some momma's sweet little baby and in person a nice guy who makes some rather nice music, but rap being what it is, the idea is to project some 'power' and that is what I tried to do with this unusual portrait -- to project power in an unusual way.

I'm glad I succeeded in your eyes.

Thanks for the comment.

John (Crosley)

I like it!

I'm glad you like it.

He liked it too.

He wanted it for a CD cover; but I'm not a pro and we are out of touch.

I also imagine he's working on a shoestring.

I'm always glad when I walk past a guy on a place like the Venice Beach walk and end up with an enthusiastic supporter, like him.

And now you.

Maybe some day you and I will cross paths (not now as I'm greatly ill passing a kidney stone).

John (Crosley)

Some photos are only for a small public. Doesn't say anything of the quality.

I love this.

With regards

Joke, what an enchanting comment.

With good insight.

This guy would like this photo to be known worldwide, since he seeks worldwide attention, but of course he wants his face to be known worldwide, not just his hand.

Maybe he'll be in touch one day, as he truly liked this one.

I invite him to contact me (my e-mail is on my biography page).

Nice guy; good music, surprisingly good).

Thanks Joke.

John (Crosley)

I met a professional photographer of note a while before I went into total bed rest, he looked at my work, and he said this to me:

Sooner or later, everybody who's a professional photographer in LA 'sells out'. I look at your work and it is clear you have sold out to no one. Your work is excellent, and it is clear you have kept your integrity'. He applauded my work.

Of course, right now I'm an amateur with perhaps professional aspirations, if I can keep shooting my will -- that is shooting to make the best of every situation with 'my vision' -- which means there will be no preconceived expression of what I will produce, or if there is some preconceived expression or expectation, that I will produce that, but be uninhibited ALSO in what I produce for my personal use.

I learned the other night, after downing some medications, that I am a photographer through and through. I dreamed that I was with a woman photographer who wanted to learn my techniques, I had got one of my stolen Leicas returned to me, and I was practicing using it (I seldom -0- almost never shot with my Leicas because I dislike rangefinder focusing, but they're wonderful for stealth, and have wonderful optics, but my cameras/lenses were film which I eschew because digital is so wonderful).

Anyway we were outside some 'happening' of world significance that also happened to be outside some museum, a gloriously painted performance artist was outside some wonderfully decorated museum wall, swaying two and fro, and the object was to make a wonderful capture of the man and the background, and although I was sick as a dog and dreaming, I was dreaming in Technicolor, about how to capture and frame this performance artist against the outside museum wall, as we approached the scene that had drawn us to this museum (whatever it was) in my dream.

It was then I learned I do dream in Technicolor, that I dream about photography, that I frame photos now in my dreams, and that literally photography has assimilated itself into the way I think AND dream, even when I am greatly sick (but not feverish) (and not really high, either, as I had already mostly weaned myself off most of the pain medication -- toughing it out for the most part).

I raise a camera/lens combination to my eyes, and often I see wonderful things, and after the first year of posting here, I also learned that I can learn to see those things more and more before I raise the camera/lens combination.

It still is a wonder, in a crowd sometimes, to raise the camera and a telephoto and search a crowd, say a political crowd, for expressions among those who don't care they're being scanned, and come up with a great expression, sometimes after dark under street lights if the lens if 'fast' enough or the ISO is 'high' enough.

That's a sort of magic in itself and can surprise.

The other surprise is the ability to 'previsualize' what a photo will look like before raising camera/lens combination, and in a second or three, raise the camera/lens combination, frame it, (auto expose it), snap it, and lower the camera, before anyone is any the wiser.

'Did he take my photo?'

'Probably not' is the answer so often, I can hear people thinking (or so I imagine), because he only had his camera up there for a second to three'.

Little do they know.

Sometimes I may labor over a scene, taking photo after photo until I 'get it right' if I have the luxury, as here, where I can take several, as with this guy's help and encouragement.

He liked what he saw, pronounced me a 'great photographer' and wanted me to shoot his CD album cover, but we never really connected, I have no cards, am not a pro, and really, he's just an amateur too, I think, but possibly not for long.

I really have no idea how to sell my photos or compete in the marketplace -- and could use some directions about that.

Thanks for the encouraging words about my kidney stone.

After being readied for my third Emergency Room discharge, I looked my third discharging doctor in the face and said these words

'Doctor, if you discharge me with this diagnosis (not kidney stone, but bladder problems) you will make a medical diagnostic error, and I think you are too good a doctor to want to do that, and here's why and how you are going to make that errror.'

I then explained why,and he listened. [bless him]

He ordered further tests, and I was right. He found the kidney stone I told him he would find even though I was not quite sure where the hell the tube (ureter) was that the stone was trapped in.

I had diagnosed myself.

I respect that doctor, a Doctor Chang (I think), highly, a skilled resident who was looking for hoofbeats since he saw horses, and didn't think to look for a zebra, since it was not so expected.

I have a scientific mind and put some facts together he overlooked, and he listened to me.

A doctor (even one who is about to make a mistake) who will listen, is a good doctor, in my eyes, and deserving of highest accolades -- he was not too hifalutin to dig in his heels when his ;patient told him he was wrong, told him so reasonably it all made perfect sense, and I conveyed my diagnosis reasonably (despite great pain).

I heard later, from his boss, the doctor was highly chastened by his 'error about to be', but I don't think he should be chastened. That he should feel such empathy and responsibility makes me think he will be a great doctor as he goes from resident through practice, and he is due plaudits for that.

I never had any medical training, just as I never had any photographic training -- I'm entirely self-taught, and never even knew before that where the kidneys were, or the ureter or anything like that, but I learn quickly by watching and I listen to pros carefully.

Ron, thank you for both expressions: Your plaudit for the photo, and for your best wishes for prompt healing.

I take them both to heart.

Both mean very much to me now, as I feel very, very weak.

John (Crosley)