[Leica] Gilbert's PAW Week 6 Feedback (longish)

[Gilbert Plantinga <gilplant@earthlink.net>]

Steve LeHuray <icommag@toad.net> wrote:

> I like the Alternate photo best, very expressive and tells a story.

and,

Conrad A. Weiser <radimus@paonline.com> wrote:

> I have to agree with the others regarding the alternate image.  I like it
> better than the first.  Some guy sitting backwards on his crotch-rocket just
> doesn't do anything for me.  Maybe he's selling drugs, spottin' for his
> posse, or just waiting for his buddy to finish the procurment of fresh
> Twinkes from the quikkie-mart.  Whichever the possibility it is it doesn't
> move me as much as the street singer who seems to dig his gig so much that
> he does it in costume.  Or maybe I just have a soft spot for street
> performers.

Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net> wrote:

> I like both the Week 6 shots, but I have to admit I prefer the
> Alternate this week. It has more interactions in it, there are more
> juxtapositions of lines and dynamics. Both have strong dynamics,
> however. :-)

So it is agreed, the second is a better shot. I suppose that the reason I
put the crotch-rocket-guy up first is that it was. for me, the more
difficult shot, the one that exemplified what I'm trying to learn. Street
performers (and I used to be one, playing jazz guitar on the same streets
I'm now shooting) usually don't mind being photographed if it means you'll
through them a buck. But the shots are not really candid at all, the
performer knows damn well he's being photographed, and he plays accordingly.
But getting up close to a guy like the one on the bike is not at all easy
for me. It worked out this time -- he never even saw me -- wut working so
quickly, I will have to admit that I 'missed.' See the next comment:

Tim Spragens <info@borderless-photos.com> wrote:

> I wonder, seeing your first post, what the framing would have been
> if moved up and to the left - not crowding the fellow on the phone so
> much and losing more of the van.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Tim continued:
 
> Are you using a Mac? in both of these, the dark areas are blocking
> up on my screen. On the Alt particularly, where I'd like to see more
> details in the singer's face. <snip>

I am on a mac, actually two of them. The scanning/Photoshop machine is set
up for Piezography, and I've been trying to create a custom dot gain curve
for my grayscale profile. I was disappointed when I viewed the shots on my
PowerBook after posting them. So I've obviously got something very wrong.
Things worked ok when I had Photoshop set up to use gray gamma 1.8, and I
probably should have left it alone :(

Anyone want to step in and help out?



Mark Cohen <markc@binaryfaith.com> wrote:

> Nice shot. I like the composition of the woman on the phone laughing at
> the straight faced-cellphone carrying-motorcycle dude.

That was the point, but the framing could have been better (see above).


And finally:

Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch> wrote:

> The pictures convey the variety of life on Times Sq (even after the
> Disneyfication of it), but they look a tad unsharp on my monitor. <snip>

Sloppy photoshop workflow noted ;)


Sawako Taniyama <shishin@pp.iij4u.or.jp> wrote:

> A good slow burn shot.  I mean you have to look at it a while to really
> get into the swing of it.  Would be better blown up.  Also it could be
> one in a series.  (I am always thinking of series.)  I think the
> composition is very good.  I like the contrast of the guy on the phone,
> the poster.  Where are your characters taking you though?
> 
> I tend to think of s.p. as drama.  I imagine a play being enacted in
> each frame.  I think Winograd had this sense--Cartier-Bresson
> absolutely.  So this is why I asked my question.
> 
> Something funny (humorous) is taking place.  What is it?  Okay.  From
> memory:  The action:  man on phone.  Wiz bam poster.  Guy resting on
> motorcycle.  Irony.  Motorcycle is supposed to be wiz bam but is now a
> couch.  
> 
> Keep shooting.  Return to the scene.  This is a lucky street.

I also did some shooting in Bryant Park on the same day last week where I
noticed that there was the "Fashion Week" expo going on. That reminded me
that it was exactly one year ago that I first started wandering the streets
of NYC with my camera, because I have shots from the same event on that
first roll. I had never heard of Winogrand or Friedlander or Atget &c., and
I knew nothing of the aesthetic of street photography. It looked easy. It
isn't. Even in New York. It is like jazz, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.
Thanks for all your encouragement, constructive criticism, and advice. Keep
pressing that shutter...

Gilbert