RE: [Leica] Three "real" B.D.s

["bdcolen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Thanks, Ted - God knows we can all use tweaking, slight or not.

1. I don't disagree with you in terms of losing the baby's eyes - It
would be a stronger image, but the way it's composed makes it far more
appealing to the Mom, who was the "client."

2. You, of course, caught something here I was struggling with, which
was to get the kid's attention...When I shot this one, I was making
animal noises and shaking the baby's cloth puppy on top of my head...the
difficulty was to keep the Mom from cracking up...

3. All day meeting of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Science
Writing - same seats all day; using M6 to entertain myself. In other
words, a grab shot...The funny thing is this subject has always hated
all photos taken of her - and she doesn't love this one, which is very
complimentary, but prefers a far more serious side few I shot - because
her hands are beneath her chin, making it look less - chin-like. Which
is a reminder once again that what the photographer, or other
photographers like for photographic reasons is often irrelevant when it
comes to the subject making pics. (Which is why I usually work by making
the picks for the client, rather than giving the client contacts. ;-)

The baby stuff comes from three rolls of 35 and one of 2.25 shot in
about 30 minutes in the NYC PR office...Mom is wife of one of the
partners, wanted pics of herself and kid for father's day gift for my
boss. In she came, I had to work with what I had to work with...

Anyway...thanks for the very constructive comments...

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Ted Grant
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 10:08 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Three "real" B.D.s


bdcolen showed:
Subject: [Leica] Three "real" B.D.s


> Black and white - Tri-X at 800 asa. One shot with the 35 Summilux 
> ASPH, one with the F100 and 60 2.8 macro AF-D, and one with a Rollei 
> GX TLR... But NO steenkin' color or digital!:-) 
> http://www.leica-gallery.net/bdcolen/folder-4857.html<<<

G'day B.D.,
Well done on all three illustrating once again B&W without pretty
colours distracting from the content.

My preference in order:
# 1: Hands.
Even though viewers have seen this type of picture before, yours has a
solid mother-child feel, rather than the usual male hand, brute strength
look with tiny baby hand.

Question?.....
did you try a crop just below the baby's lower eyelids leaving hands
only? I'm not totally convinced they should be, but it appears to
strengthen the hands more so. The eyes are so strong and slightly out of
focus that it sort of pulls the viewer there rather than solidly staying
on the hands. Have a look.

# 2:  mother & child.
Me and my always relating to the eyes of the subject, as in "LIGHT -
EYES - ACTION." What we have is a teeny negative here, again due to the
baby's eyes. No it's not a big deal item nor does it spoil the picture
because the child's eyeline is off camera and it "might have been"  read
again ...."might" .... be a better overall photograph if there were
someone, or yourself, doing something to catch the baby's eyes in the
same direction as the very attractive mother.

Again this is a minor point, but quite often it's a minor point that
sorts out the really great photographs from the "not bad" photographs.

#3: lady with calendar.
because it's #3 doesn't mean it's not as good a picture, the others feel
stronger due to the grab of the subject.

This photograph is a solid what I call "working type portrait" well
executed and shot from the "shooting from the shadow side" use of the
light.

My comments are minor, but by no means to pull the photographs down, as
they stand quite well as we see them. My thoughts are merely a kind of
tweaking slightly." ;-)

good on you B.D.
ted


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