maria_s.

So graceful Moxie, so graceful...

Beaten Black and Blue

.... right Rick. But I was thinking of hundreds of times the elves picked my photos for POW and I said NO, thank you but No :0) I believe Andrew was ready for this.

Hi there, David ... your eye "was caught" for a reason I would say. Shots like this always make me jelous ... grrr...Anyway, how goes it? I see you got Bailey on your tail now, so sorry sweetheart. BTW ... will you call me a girl when I am 70?

Don't mind Toshio, Vicki. I love those gloves but what I'd like to see is your lady sitting elegantly with her leopard-gloved hands at the round, perhaps, white-clothed table looking on the upcoming NYC traffic. And you tell her not to worry that much.

Hi Predrag,

you have a good composition here with hard to miss social context: the extended hand of a dissilusioned beggar and the disappearing legs of a passerby. You have a perfect exposure and I like the contrast. I think that zoom doesn't help this kind of phtography. Getting closer to a man would empower him and your photo. Even if you could not get him to look at you, you could shoot his hand from a very close distance and still have the passing person in the picture. The perfect situation would be if the man was en face or with his face half turned into your direction and a sidewalk behind his back. As it is, the picture shows a beggar just as oblivious as the passerby. That's how most of them probably feel and that's why they are not likely to look at you. And that's where you come as a photographer. If you don't mind I want to refer you to Ian MacEachern http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=362144

and Haluk Ozozlu http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=372385 B&W folders on photo.netfor that type of photography. I admire them both immensly and hope you agree with me.

Piotr, thank you for your explanation. I think you ought to put some info on PS (like i.e. scanned from neg & printed in PS in your technical comments field just to be ready for comments on digital manipulations (I scan prints on a flat bed scanner but am thinking of buying a neg scanner and do my prints in PS. I still "alter" my scans recovering lost contrast and sharpness and am at loss as to what is already a digital manipulation and what is not. So, as long as my photo.net images look like my photographs [usually worse due to the compression], I feel i have my ass covered. But I wonder how I would feel once I do all my darkroom in PS).

And Marc, I have to respectfully disagree (again) with you... have Pieter made changes you suggested, he would've destroyed the mood we both like here. The traditional sharpness and tonality would make his one of your standard shots, which, while technically perfect, please forgive me, are often emotionally disengaging. This shot's "imperfections" only add to the unreal feel and that's what I like about this shot. And I totally disagree with your remark on burning-in, it does help her to stand out and you still have enough visible details to retain a sense of depth. Also, her white coat and the white walls form an almost triangle of light balanced by the shadow triangle (I would even darken the very left bottom of the building to make this definition more pronounced). I think this is very classy and very standard if one is looking for standards.

I can't believe you shot this at ISO 25 hand-held? Is that so? I love it.

Good shot David... I used to take this train years ago and wonder what Brooklyn station is this. You must be standing at the end of the platform and I bet you wished that damn fence wasn't there... The fact that fence is out of focus is absolutely irrelevant. I like the way you composed it your shot -- the upcoming train (although frozen) seems to gain motion when you look down the rails to the right... very clever.

I just noticed you shot this on TCN 400 ... wow...what a great result!

Piotr, I really love this but wonder how much photoshop, if any, went into making it? I am just not sure what I am looking at. If that's a straight shot, I am going to shoot myself. Be back to check if you posted any technical details. Regards, M.

I thought that's a commercial photo of Absolut Vodka ... what do you know...

I know this is getting boring now but, if you forgive me, I wanted to share my first computer art piece ... I am off to learn more of this exciting technique ... I think I'll start with Kertesz and add a tad of Pieter Breughel, both my favorites. Ciao all.

I saw Clifford in New York City the other day. I think he belongs there.

One of the best candid portraits in B&W

Hilarious ...staged or not

Fruit en Maas?

Excellent lighting!

Brian, it's not Tom. Clifford just called me and we had a long talk about another Roger trashing my photographs. Clifford wants meet at Meat Market this coming Sunday 2.30 PM sharp. I will keep you updated.

I keep coming back here ... everything in this photograph provokes my feelings. We all owe something to Clifford -- this "poetic wellspring" as Brassai would put it, evokes uncontrollable emotions, a quality that is essential for a great photographer. And no wonder that, along with an insatiable curiosity about the world, about life, and a precise sense of form, this phtograph belated well deserved accolades. Thank you Clifford, thank Mr. Spinak ... I may now recline in my old armchair and re-examine my collective memories. You gave me back hope and strong sense of identity. I wish you to maintain your freshness of seeing and your uncorrupted attitude toward the world.

Hilarious .... rofl ... truly an inspiration. Have a long and good ride, Clifford. How could anyone grade this 3/3? BTW -- I recently got an e-mail from Bailey saying that my post was deleted ... oh no, that wasn't Bailey.

Nice catch, Elisabet ... the full frame actually works for me much better than this crop. You don't have to worry that a little girl checking on her dress will get lost in the crowd.

Eye catching photo and excellent tonality but I would also like to see a whole cello instead ... Mark is also right about the lady on the left -- gotta tell her to wear a darker dress next time :0)... burning-in in the wet darkroom could be painful and time-consuming here ... oh, well we always have photoshop.

E.T. home ...

Congratulations -- this is aesthetically a very fine image and certainly involving a lot of skill and thought. I really, sincerely, think this is a brilliant piece of computer graphics. I also sincerely think that the elves are way off suggesting that we should consider this piece as emotionally engaging. The technique used, the concept employed and above all, the resulting aesthetics so obviously force the intellectual response that I suspect elves were either drinking or wickedly projecting emotional responses involving the genre of this image (most of them deleted by now).

 

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This one has a feel and texture of an old illustration to a history book... I was just wondering how did you achieve this effect. I thought it might be slightly underexposed and printed on high grade filter (which would explain the grain) but am not sure. Do you do wet printing or negs scans?