[Leica] Which one you prefer?

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Luis Ripoll showed:
>>> I've posted 2 pictures, and I'm not really decided which one I prefer. 
>>> I'll
> appreciate your comments, thanks for looking!
>> http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4176099
>>http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4176094

Luis,
My very first re-action to both?  "they are too posed" almost like you 
said... "OK kiss her."  and he tried.  "Click!" The second is the same, but 
it might as well be two mannequins.

Now to make a hard nose choice, number 1 is the better of two because it has 
good composition, unfortunately no feel to it and that's what a kiss is 
supposed to illustrate, warmth and affection! This guy looks like he's 
kissing a wet mackerel! ;-) She looks like she's kissing a block of ice.

#2 just doesn't work period and best left on the editing floor.

Look at their bodies in both, they are standing cold and un-affectionate 
despite he's giving her a kiss. I mean she doesn't even have an arm around 
his neck or shoulders. There isn't any "warmth feel to it."  The vertical 
line of the bike and the girl's legs are cut in stone.It's simple things 
like this that make a major difference in a warm or cold photograph 
depicting an "affectionate moment?"

If we use the famous "Paris street kiss" as an example of how it might look 
with warmth, both of these would certainly look like the guy was a 
mannequin.
Neither of these do anything but stand there, but #1 with fine composition.

Sorry I'm so blunt, but sometimes that's how a fellow photographer learns.
ted