[Leica] A NEW BEGINNING! :-)

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Richard S. Taylor volunteered; ;-) " <r.s.taylor@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Leica] NC State Fair AND A NEW BEGINNING!


> OK Ted, ol' grouch, I'm taking you up on this. ;-)
> > I posted these last week.  You've commented before on the last one.
> The rest are new.   They were taken at the Cloisters in Manhattan.
> > http://gallery.leica-users.org/NYC
> > Fire away. Shields up!  :-)<<<

Hi Richard,
No need for shields at any time as they're not required when one is trying 
to help others to possibly improve or praise their picture taking.

I expect not everyone will agree with me, hey that goes with the territory 
after critiquing and judging photography of many hundreds of shooters in the 
past 50 years from camera club folks, photography school students and the 
best in commercial and media wire service professionals.

Not to forget 13 years as the "instructor-teacher" at the Leica Seminar 
where we had an international collection of attendees, pros and excellent 
amateurs. Yep and some neophytes.

It's best for all to understand not one comment is made as a "personal 
affront" to ones ability, if anyone get's pissed off and rags on me because 
they feel it's personal? First off that's their inadequacy of handling a 
critique or a learning opportunity. Rebuttals are fine then we all learn 
because my comments are right off the screen and not standing where the 
shooter was at the time of the exposure.

It's merely an opinion about what is on the screen, period!

OK Dick mon ami, ready? ;-)
Some times there isn't much to say when a photograph works, but I'll 
endeavour to say why I feel it works simply because some folks then learn 
what works and why.

I believe just saying nice picture is OK.... sometimes, because that's just 
how it is. But in most cases other's don't learn anything by such a simple 
comment. One should at least say why they like a picture if that's how they 
feel.

1: It's the stance of the viewer, the expression & eye direction. You can 
tell his mind is in action because of his eyes! For those who don't think 
that doesn't matter, what would the shot have looked like taken from the 
back and not seeing his eyes and face? Crap!

Keep these three little things always in mind... LIGHT-EYES-ACTION or a 
combination of them and your picture taking will always be better... OK 
99.9999999999% of the time. :-)

Here it's the light well used, good exposure, his eyes are "seeing and 
revealing he's thinking" and his stance implies the action. It's the leaning 
back! Well done.

2: I tried cropping some off the right side almost half way through the arch 
making it a vertical and it seemed to strengthen the feel and look, rather 
than a near square composition. And it eliminated the far right arch support 
hanging too close to the edge.

It isn't as good as N0.1 because in that case there's direct eye contact to 
the statue and not just a person standing on a light "X" marks the spot of 
light at her feet gazing into a void. Now that's not saying she isn't 
looking at something... it's just how it looks, certainly when you ompare it 
to No.1 that's right on the mark.

3: Nice light but it looks like you said.... "go stand over there"  click! 
Absolutely static. Like she might as well have been a statue. What about a 
moment when she at least took a drink of her MacDonald's coffee mug? Or her 
head uplifted to catch a few rays on the face? A nice kind of sunlit 
profile. OK so maybe she's a complete stranger, as I suppose she was..... 
but it's called ___ see the possibility and wait!___

You already saw the potential, that's an obvious bonus,  it was merely 
waiting to see what happened. Of course this means maybe nothing and the 
photograph shown was all you got. Then in that case I'd make sure it was 
offered as a "portrait."

Sure it's an interesting photo due to the light, but sometimes we all get 
sucked into "nice light!" click!! But that doesn't make it an interesting 
photograph. Actually it reminds me of one of those old "Popular Photo" 
magazine pictures shot by some "well known shooter of the late 1930's! But 
they didn't shoot many "life feeling moment pictures either." ;-)

I suppose one could say... "nice portrait!" Different, but that would be my 
take on this one and make it a viable well executed photograph after all.

4: Nit picking comment first.... "you didn't hold the camera straight!" This 
kind of point as nit picking as it is, actually does make one a better 
photographer in handling their equipment. Why? Because it means in the 
future when shooting we do observe how we hold the camera and make 
corrections before we press the shutter release. True!

You have no idea how many times I had Sandy Carter on my case when editing 
our assignments "you didn't hold the camera straight wake-up and get with 
programme!" I'd wince and cringe, however trust me get it pointed out a few 
times and you will get it right! :-)

Now the photograph! First class moment captured. Action all over the place 
and everyone doing basically the same thing in all eyes upward!

It wouldn't have worked if anyone of them was looking out of the frame and 
not upward as they are. Not only that, they're all listening, looking and or 
doing something almost identical. Well done.

5: I think the above (4) comments also work with this shot even though she's 
looking at him, her action expression is implying some kind of thought 
re-action to the audio phones they're listening to.

6: Excellent bit of seeing and looking like you did nothing more than... 
"Jeeeeeeeeeesh look at the light!" Camera up, "CLICK!"  This is the kind of 
unobtrusive moment you shoot quickly because you want both these humans 
sitting just as they are lost in their thoughts. It has a nice feeling and 
it works very well simply because the light is superb and you made it work.

You'll notice I didn't go through any techie routine about "light zones" 
figuring out which one to use between sunny side and shadow side! ;-) Heck 
this is one that you " SEE & SHOOT!" Screw the niceities of any zone or 
other techie stuff, just make sure you get the damn picture! Quickly! :-)

7:  At first look I thought, "What the hell did he take that for?" Then 
BINGO!" Look at the arm and hand making it obvious there's someone having a 
look around. A very nice bit of using your eyes for what they're meant... 
"to see photographic moments and capture them quickly!"  Particularly in 
this case!

8:  And you did it again!  You didn't hold the camera straight! look at the 
stone work and the far side and you didn't line up the vertical lines when 
composing . Which you obviously did here using the wall as a lead into the 
people.

Damn I'm going to nit pick you guys to death about holding your camera's 
straight, as it's a no brainer once you start thinking about it and 
re-acting to vertical and horizontal lines as you compose. Or at least using 
PS to try straightening them. However, PS a cop out as you should hold the 
camera correctly first, simply because sometime if you can't straighten it 
you'll screw-up  an excellent shot that can't be fixed! Then you'll really 
be sorry.. Trust me I speak from experience. :-(

If I have a bit of a question it's the people feel a little tight to the 
right hand border line. Not only that I felt it "might have been better if 
you'd changed the angle slightly so they were more to the left side and your 
camera showed more of what's missing to the right?

Now remember I wasn't there, so this is merely a thought. I imagine if it 
had of made a solid photograph you'd have shot it in both fashions. Right? 
;-)

9: A good one again because of the action! As simple as the action maybe it 
makes or breaks any picture. These 3 people facing somewhat in camera 
direction are actively looking at something giving it balance!

10: One need not say too much as this is such an obvious success due to the 
composition and your capture of the scene. Everything is in the right 
position! If the kid had the camera down, even chimping, the photo impact 
would've been lost! This is the best of the bunch!

Good on you all round actually as they illustrate positive images 
throughout. Oh yeah and don't forget about holding the camera straight! ;-).

I trust this has been helpful and if people feel it is I'll endeavour to do 
some again along similar lines. On the other hand if it was a pointless 
exercise on my part so be it, as I can easily hang-up the key board without 
any bad feelings. Besides I'm a pic & pic two finger typer.

ted