kngharv

your ability to capture that magic moment and putting models at ease still amazes me!

you at your best.  good job

While we all know you are comfortable at front of a camera, your friend has done an excellent job of capturing the confidence expressed in your eyes and lips.

Over-contrast, which washed away a lot of details is normally considered something undesirable. But in this case, combines with the crop, geometric background, film grain (real or not) and black blouse underneath, has made this photograph worked.

good job, for both who took the photograph, as well as whoever did the post-processing.

Dear John:

You once mentioned that most of your pictures were taking with flash reflect off the ceiling, is that correct?

This picture's light is different, which made the mood of photograph.

Care to tell us what you've done differently?

Harv

But there is a touch of unease in her expression... that is so unusual compare with rest of your work.

Harv

for shot like these, subject's pose become critically important.

Did you tell her what to do? or she knows what to do? ：p

Personally, I find the rug on the right side slightly distracting... have you tried a tighter crop?

last question. I presume you use flash reflect off the bathroom ceiling. why there is a slight blue-ish tint in the picture?

Harv

for quick sex. There are everywhere in Asia.

Dear Oleg:

I have a 6x6 format camera, a TLR. A difficulty I found using my TLR is that it is not easy to get composition right when I take a full-body portrait using a square format.

This photo has illustrated how square format can be used effectively in an almost full-body (oppose to head and shoulder) portrait. Great job.

May I ask, what is the shortest focus distance for your Hasselbald?

Harv

Dear John:

This is another photo which has your signature on it. Your ability to make your subject relax to a point when she opted not put any clothes back during the break in the midst of New York winter simply amazes me.

At the same time, I do notice that you are trying different things recently: No artist want to stuck in one particular mode for their work. All I want to say is while I appreciate your effort to trying different things, I still felt that your ability to make your non-professional subject comfortable, draws individualities of your subject in your work is still by far most admired traits. Whatever you do, please keep leveraging your strength.

Harv

hard to imagine an amature can be this confident!

Harv

A woman who is completely naked, with black stocking, yet display a touch of innocence.

only you can do that, john. great work.

Harv

What does age has anything to do with this?

She is underaged?

Personally, I think the whites kind of ruined the contrast of the two shirts. Thus, I think it's better without it, nothing more.

Harv

this is how your work differ from others. It will be an interesting to look and get comments/feedback on it.

Harv

it seems as if she just had an intensive lesson and you caught her in that split second of daze.

What kind of light did you use? was it just a flash reflect off a white wall?

Since you are using a flash/strobe anyway, have you consider to step down the f/stop a bit to reduce the DOF?

Again, these are just otherwise minor mechanical details.

Harv

I find this picture very sexy.

Harv

have you consider taking this picture *WITHOUT* the underwear? For some reason I find it a bit out of place.

I am comparing this Zs192 with the untitled picture of the model who you dubbed "dolphin"

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5226668

Same location, same lighting almost, yet yield completely different feel.

Your ability to draw the subject's uniqueness that made a such difference!

Great work!

Harv

one of your greatest ability is to make your subject, without any prior experience, trust you and be comfortable with you in an otherwise rather awkward situation.

This photo shines because of the innocence and shyness radiant from this young, inexperienced subject.

How did you make her feel comfortable at front of camera? I presume she is camera shy at first place, let alone taking her clothes off!

Did you instruct her how to pose?

Why the subject doesn't look stiff, like most of the subjects who are nervous, inexperience, and clothes-less?

You are amazing, John!

the body form, the geometric pattern which draws people's eye to the subject, *AND* the angle which you took the picture... the end result is breathless.

I think you mentioned something about you tend to use simple light set ups. My question to you is, at the upper-right corner. have you tried a shot without having that corner of the floor pattern being cut off? Nothing wrong with your current shot, and that shadow probably made this picture more interesting. But I am just wondering.

Harv

Dear Peter:

In this particular case, I think having film grain from a true silver-halide ISO-1600 film would add a bit charm to this picture.

Really like the fact that you have captured the mood for this moment!

I am just thinking out loud here: how about crop the left edge a bit to remove distraction from the reflection off the door?

Harv