Honestly, I'm not arguing with you in this reply, Shel. Normally I don't comment on comments - I mean after all, I asked for comments, so I don't want to be seen as taking someoen to task for doing exactly what I asked them to do. In fact, I'm not taking you to task, I guess I'm about to indicate a few places where you and I may differ in how we view photos. I should add that every one of your criticisms of the photo are quite valid. I enjoyed reading what you had to say, really. More comments are interspersed with your text:
On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:18:46 -0700, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Frank, > > You've an interesting subject here, and the wall, with its graffiti and > markings could, along with the phone booths (they're not booths, really, > but what ARE they called), could have made a great photo without the guy in > there. I wanted the guy in there. I don't know why, I just did. I do have other phone booth photos with no people; maybe I'll post them one day (but the one I really like has swear words in it...). > That's not to say the pic with the guy in it couldn't be a good > photo, just pointing out that there may be more there.' That could be said about pretty much any photo. > The composition (framing, cropping) is really bad on this one. First > there's that intrusive element in the lower left corner, and then there's > that blur-like darkness on the right side of the image. Neither of those > things adds one whit to the photo, which, by their removal, would improve > the image substantially. All of that is true. > Then we come to the angles, and the way it was shot. I think someone else > commented on that. The guy and the booths in the center might work if the > photo weren't shot at an angle, if it were shot head on. Anyone could have shot it that way. Then my photo would have looked like everyone else's. > As it is now the > pic looks like an afterthought, a quick grab as you walked past the scene, > without giving composition and the elements much thought. It absolutely was a quick grab. It was completely spontaneous, with no thought or planning involved. It was a reaction. I didn't think of composition or any other elements. > Slow down, > Frank. Take time to really look thru the finder, look at the corners, all > around the frame, especially the edges, for that's usually where one finds > many distracting elements. Many of your photos look like they were shot in > haste - in fact, you've mentioned more than once that you need to slow > down, shoot more frames, etc. Sometimes I do need to take more time. Other times, I do take lots of time. This time, I chose not to. It was a fleeting second, almost an afterthought as I walked past. So, while you're right that often I should take more time, there are times that I'm more or less pleased with the results of quick snapshots - this is one of them. I show some of these shots to people (on this list and elsewhere), and some people think it's crap (and they may be right), and others really like them (or they're lying). Enough people seem to tell me they like the stuff that I'll keep doing it - at least some of the time. > Well, just my two cents, Canadian. Probably not worth much more than that. No, worth much more than that. As you know, I always am interested in what you say. Mostly I agree with you. In fact, I pretty much do agree with you here (pretty much...). But, where I do differ with you sometimes, is that I think that sometimes the rules have to be broken. Or to put it another way, breaking the rules sometimes bears pleasing results. Not that I go out and do it on purpose. And, not that I do it all the time. But, sometimes I can see in retrospect that I've "done it all wrong", but ~for me~ it somehow and for some reason just looks right. Now, if everyone universally condemned my stuff, I'd say that I must be wrong. Or, that I'm right, and everyone else is wrong. Or, that I really didn't care what's right or wrong, and I'd just keep doing what I'm doing (whatever that is...). But, some people seem to put up with my nonsense, so if anyone's at fault, it's them... <vbg> Thanks for your thoughts, Shel. I always value them. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
