Hi Boris ... First, good for you, going out with a camera every day is a great way to learn and to develop your vision and style. Also, it's important to be familiar with the environment in which you're photographing. Revisiting a place frequently (such as walking the same route every day) or sitting and observing a place for a while, is good technique. You can study the light, the neighborhood characters and the dynamics of the area, and, most important, you become part of the scenery yourself, and both you and your camera become accepted.
On to the pic. I think the framing is a bit too tight. Would love to see more of the sign. The guy on the phone is clich� and annoying in that he's not doing anything interesting, and his being there doesn't lend much to the pic. What's his relationship to the sign? What's the story here? More sign may tell more story. People on cell phones are becoming all too common, so in order to make a person on a cell phone interesting, you've gotta catch them doing something interesting or have them in a more interesting situation. A couple of people have commented on the flat colors. Yeah, they're a little flat, but perhaps more interesting than having them "pop." The overdone "Velvia look" and super saturated colors are becoming boring and overdone, and the look they impart to many photos is unrealistic and, at least for me, unpleasant. Somewhere between what you've got and colors that POP! is a good middle ground for this one, although I like the colors and the saturation of the sign just fine the way it is. It looks realistic and like it's been exposed to the weather a bit. Here's a thought: Station yourself in a place where you can get a good shot of the sign and just wait. See what happens with people walking by, or stopping by the sign, perhaps to light a cigarette or talk, or look in a particular direction ... those stockings and the style of the lettering remind me of the 1940's or early 1950's. What can you do with that? Maybe nothing, but maybe Humphry Bogart will come along and light a smoke, and make an interesting juxtaposition ;-)) Shel > [Original Message] > From: Boris Liberman > http://www.photoforum.ru/rate/photo.php?photo_id=186120 > > Having very interesting and important to me discussion with Shel > off-list I decided to start a very first tiny itsy bitsy project. I am > simply taking my camera to my work. And when we go to lunch I take it > with me. Since we almost always go the same route it is kind of > interesting to observe this place in time and space. > > This would be the first shot I thought I might show to the public :). > > Please be brutal, but honest. > > Thanks. > > Boris
