joseph_chapman1

I like the group as a whole a lot, in particular the factory interior which is dead on. A couple of very minor quibbles. I like stone and blue stone like that is cool. Wonder if that upper corner needed to be there. I can't decide myself. 

The view through the yellowish brick blue metal, red stripe, etc. I'm a little bothered  (i.e. not a lot at all) about the verticals. The left is straight; the right isn't. I understand how and why. Nothing is as bad as my built-in tilt that can be quite a bit, but given that it's a somewhat formal setup... 

It's not at all a criticism,  but I wonder if you had considered  bit more pop in the HDR of this shot given the strongness of the overall interior which opens it.  

Whatever, a very nice day of shooting you've done and pulling it together.

Nahoj:

I like this picture a lot, it makes a lovely period piece that one might imagine in the 1930s, or if you will, many rail stations in the U.S. or Europe during the 1940s as older lines slowly phased out steam engine. My memory adds the sounds of a 1949 L&N mainline station, steam haze in the air against the the train shed lights. There's the sound as we board,steam hissing, the sharp sound of couplers mating cars, explosive sounds of air or steam escaping, trains trundling through on passing trains. .. .

The atmospherics bring out the memory to some and an imagined past for others. It has the look of authentic example of the old school of street photography. You might compare it to some of the work in the 30s by leaders of that genre. It's an interesting approach to dealing with the old cliches of railway museum kitsch.

At first, it looks like a clever staging but from the look of it, it is a mix of a good eye and a hand that's fast on the trigger. Simpelveld is home to a tourist railway with a mix on antique steam and diesel and period cars, One assumes that you were either fortunate in a spontaneous moment to be fixed or scouted out the light. The rivets and ancient glass are part of the set. The old woman could be a cliche but isn't.

I think the one thing that might be use would be a bit of the process. What led you to the day and time you photographed it. How random. My wife has never understood the eye for light. Sometimes I'm lucky that time and image meet. But there are the days that you see and image that will work tomorrow at 4.32 p.m. - ora.m.

One extraneous detail that probably have been cloned out is the name badge (or whatever) on the standing man wears.I guess he has some responsibility with the station. But he is in any event the anchor for the image. The old lady is the real center. The image is disrupted by the name-badge or whatever the white blob is. It's not needed in the dream quality and it helps to enhance the possibilities of a connection with the old many.I can't tell how prominent it is in a larger print, but there might need to be more softness on the left edge characters.

Lastly on the question of reversal. The eye moves first along converging lines to the Mr. X and then back to Madam Y (and the ghostly character behind her). The visual pull between the two is part of the tension that makes such a nice piece. (so do the train's lines, that bulge and bend, and the spot of rust). Given the face and car, you might wonder if she is Russian and this is perhaps in some provincial Russian town (but we know better). Ultimately the question of balance for standalone photography are in the eyes of the photographer. We all have a natural balance visually and you have presented a dense image.Consider the simpler choice of 120 military men (r sports team) lined and you're just going to each of them. Here we're looking for clues.

In newspaper layout, there are some general rules followed. On page one, you want an image to lead you into the page, not out of the page. Multiple photographs are spotted so that there is no unwarrented graphic conflict. Bad example but imagine two sports arguing over a call. You have two picture of them shouting. Should you point them nose to nose, or backs turned. Assuming it meets the reality test, face to face is better. This isn't a newspaper page.

If this was going into a book of photographs full page, I might want to reverse it so that the anytime you look at it, you look at the woman and then the man, leading the eye off the page, rather than into another photograph page confusing the viewer.

But all that aside, it got me a startle by stirring a memory from nearly 60 years back. The excess of works should not take away for a very strong work. FWIW, after looking at this, I looked at your portfolio and I though it's a very strong collection.

I think the one thing that might be use would be a bit of the process. What led you to the day and time you photographed it. My wife has never understood the eye for light. Sometimes I'm lucky that time and image meet. But there are the days that you see and image that will work tomorrow at 4.32 p.m. - or a.m. Film, digital, lens, etc.

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