Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 9/6/00 8:15 pm, Bernard at 4829.g23@g23.relcom.ru wrote: > Johnny Deadpan wrote: > >> http://www.pinkheadedbug.com/humantraffic/portfolio_15 >> Thanks for the detailed comments, B. I wondered if we were still friends. It was interesting going through these. Your perspective is always consistent (and ruthless). I go to your comments first. > 1 I would really like it if the top and the bottom were chopped off. I > know, I know... you won't do it, you like it the way it is. I know. But for > me, the info is in the middle, and the heads of the real guys would flow > nicely into the poster-head. The rest of the pic contributes nothing except > space. And I find that that space doesn't contribute anything. So it's a > keeper, but only if I could have my way with it. Yeah well.... <smiley> > I think I agree, except that the grain is so loose the pic falls apart if you do that. And anyway I should have got closer and shot it horizontal. Mea culpa. I was seduced by that head at the top of the frame. > 2 We all have many more of such pix, than we would like to have. (Except > for the majority of the people on this list, so they will love it to bits) > Yeah, yeah, but I like this one because you can't see their faces. I have way too many kissy kissy pictures, but we're all searching for the best one ever, aren't we? The un-set-up Doisneau... that's what we want. > 3 Yeah... nice. 4 Well.... let's try be honest, ey Johnny... If one > stands on the sidewalk and you press the stutter release when some motorgang > drives by... then this is what you get. We've all seen this sort of thing more > gripping, no? > Yeah, true, but how many times a year does a black motorcycle gang ride up Oxford Street on Harleys? It's the tourist shops behing them that make me laugh. They're being, like, superfly, and behind them they're selling teatowels with Union Jacks on. I think in the series it's okay. Also, in real life the tones on the chrome and the skin are stunning, which really lifts it. 5 No yes 6 Very nice, except for the reflection in the window. Oh, man, that's what makes it. It's a nothing picture without that. Here's fatso on holiday with Mrs Fatso and they're eating in this shithole of a restaurant and they're just completely fed up of each other, and she's saying "for god's sake, frederick...", but his attention is distracted by a woman passing by on the sidewalk, and he's thinking .... if only I wasn't in here eating this dinner with this woman. Well, something like that. > 7 Yes, I like it 8 Hmm.... I'd cut the left off. Such that you chop off > a little part of the kid in the white shirt. But you won't; don't tell me: I > know. > No, I won't, but it's not a strong enough picture. Not on my final edit list. > 9 Mumble-mumble... not my thing, okay. Too multi-directional, without those > directions adding up into something pleasing. I've just been shooting dancers. > Modern dance. Wow, now those folks do nice multi-directional compositions! You > pic is what I call messy. But I know you love it. > Yeah, I like this one. 10 Oh... quite good, really. You couldn't find them any uglier, I trust. Nice pic. It's funny isn't it? It kind of makes most of my other 'messy' pix redundant. Like God said, okay Johnny, since you've been trying, I'm gonna give you that picture you were searching for. Here it is. Enjoy it. There's a wonderful Bill Gedney street pic from when he was a young man that I kept looking at and thinking, my God, that's beautiful... I'll never take a picture as good as that. Then I scanned this in and sat back and laughed, because it's FUCKING BETTER. > 11 My oh... aren't they sweet and pretty. Lovely. But I hate that face on > the left. Yes, you want it there, I know. > Yes, you're right. I do. Without that it's just a couple kissing. Well, we've been there already today. > 12 No > Hmmm. I wondered about this. I guess I like it because it's like an homage to that Robert Frank pic of Canal St in New Orleans with the crowd steaming past, only as if shot on Winogrand on one of his less well tempered days. I like the baby's face. I categorise pix as 'definite', 'probable' or 'possible' includes for the final edit. This is a 'possible'. > 13 Dunno. Clean pic, but doesn't do a lot for me. I trust Steve Hooray will > supply you with the deeper meaning of this pic. 14 Not bad. However, since > I'm going to pursue "disgruntled, angsty teenagers" as a theme someday... this > would be the sort of pic I'd discard. There's not enough of my theme it it, to > make it work. I know... it works for you. > Ha. Pursuing disgruntled angry teenagers... that's kind of like 'pursuing' fish in a barrel, isn't it? How about pursuing happy, contented teenagers. THAT'd get my attention. > 15 Yikes, but.... yeah... good. It really tells the sad story. One can see > the stages of the event. > Funny, isn't it. In one sense it's a nothing picture... but I keep going back to it. Partly it's the narrative element, but there's also something about that bicycle leaning smugly against the lamppost going 'I told you so'. > 16 Yeah well... you know what I think about this, right. 17 No added > value over everyday life. I know... I know... don't tell me. > No, you're right. > 18 Yeah well..... no. 19 Too many players. But you like it that way. The > guy with the cart and just one more person, would have been good enough for > me. > Well, dang me... i should have gone over and got the others to move, right? > 20 Myeah... you know..... this is pretty easy to do, so.... (again, the > non-shooters on this list will rave about it for days) > Well, not so easy in England, where people don't do this stuff in the streets. What bothers me is the woman on the right. She doesn't add anything. I should have been fifteen degrees anticlockwise from where I was and framed further left so it was just the weeping woman and the mannequin. But I wasn't... and the tough thing about this kind of stuff is that not only was the picture not there a third of a second later, it wasn't there a third of a second earlier. So not only do you not have time to think, you don't even have time to move. Just hit the moment and let the pieces fall where they may. It's not pretty but I (kind of) like it. You're a very hard taskmaster, B, but the interesting thing is how often you put your finger on things that I am uneasy about in the pictures. I think you focus more on the graphic element than I do (I know, it's a graphic art etc). Incidentally, I know your reservations about pix on the web but I am increasingly consumed by the desire to see your schtick (and not just to pick holes in it in a smart-ass fashion, either, though you gotta cut me some slack on that, right?). You know about this streetphoto.org thing, well how about ten or twenty moscow streetpix for the grand unveiling? Come on, man, you gotta break cover soon. - -- Johnny Deadman photos: http://www.pinkheadedbug.com music: http://www.jukebox.demon.co.uk