On 1/21/06, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Frank ... > > I like this shot because it's very real - a nice snap of a street scene > with everyone going about their business. It's not a great photo in the > sense of being well structured or composed, or one that carries great depth > or meaning, but it captures a bit of everyday reality. It's balanced - > cropping it (especially like Igor's crops) totally destroys the photo and > creates something other. Cropping should, IMO, enhance a photo, make it > stronger, not butcher it and change it completely. The perspective and the > depth work well to provide the viewer with a sense of being there, being a > part of the scene.
Thanks, Shel - I appreciate your thoughts. I think I'm of the same mind WRT cropping this one. In fact, it's already been cropped a fair bit (I may post the full frame version later tonight when I get home, just so you all can see what I did with it, and in case anyone has any other cropping suggestions. However, all the elements that are in the photo now are there for a reason - either for content or for "balance" (if you know what I mean). > > This would be great as a part of a series - a group of street scenes taken > on the same street at different times, say within the span of a few blocks > or so (or something similar). As I write this I'm reminded of Auggie > Wren's photos, taken of the same Brooklyn street corner at the same time > every morning. It took the viewer some time to get it. I thought of Auggie when I looked at the print! <g> That part of town (Queen Street West) is one of my favourites for "street photography", but I don't live near there, so taking a daily (or even weekly) shot from that vantage-point wouldn't be feasible. Interesting idea, though... > > Pics like this actually have the effect of slowing us down, as if we, the > viewers, were walking along that street, on our busy way to or from > somewhere important. How often have we walked down a street and not really > seen the scene and the life around us? Pics like these stop time for a > moment, and let us see our neighbors and the neighborhood a little better. Thanks for your thoughts, Shel. I think you hit the nail on the head earlier on, when you said this just captures a bit of everyday reality - that's all it was intended to do, and perhaps I've succeeded in doing that. > > Frank, please use a hyphen instead of a colon, or no punctuation at all, in > the subject line. Colons are treated by some mail readers in such a way > that the PAW or PESO part is stripped away, and destroys the ability of > mail filters to work properly. Thanks for the reminder, Shel. You'll notice that for my PESO from yesterday I did just that. <g> cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
