estebanana -> RE: my photo of the week 70 - London, wife & dog (Sep. 19 2015 1:09:57)
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You read this photo very well, Stephen. Cropping into the dog's shadow to hide the Tube sign would ruin it. Good call on linking the poster with the sculpturing light. I tried to push the wife out of focus even more, but it is still one of the best urban portraits I have taken. Thanks for all your kind comments, they mean a lot. I'll be on a photo shoot at Lake Lugano next week for a magazine, so watch out for some landscapes. Here's another take on the same theme. Diagonals and the play of light, but with more predictable shadows in this one. Shame I couldn't get the whole dog shadow in this one, but I was walking behind to catch up at the same time. Simon, with your photos I don't ponder compositional possibilities, like what if he had done this or that in framing. Your instincts and sense for what it right as a composition are very strong to me. I honestly don't find myself second guessing that. The portrait is tricky subject, and sometimes the objects surrounding a person tell as much or more about them as the person themselves. And also the feeling the light gives shades how we see the person. The dog is key to how we ( I at least) feel about the woman. The dog tells all about her choices in life, her status, what she cares about, how she wants to be anonymous in public. Many other things. And the light on the dog is clear and sculptural, that also describes the woman's interior. The fragility and suppleness of the dogs legs tell me a lot about how delicate the woman's interior can be. The arch of the dogs neck, all this feeds back into how I see the person and the dog obviously. So if the composition were weak or I was mentally fussing with it, I would not go farther in and begin to make the extra associations between person/light/dog. Like I said, I don't feel the compulsion to mentally fuss with your compositions. So many objects I think on the outside in photos comment on the subjects ( persons) interior. In your photos like this you are making both conscious and unconscious choices that work. The only thing I would say is try to work with those choices of objects with person-subject-object in an instinctual way like you have been, but also without forcing or trying too hard also make conscious choices about what objects you include or leave out. What kinds of objects are you attracted to and how do they tell stories about your person subject? Sometimes you hit on these things by luck and unconscious looking, but it's good to notice this stuff a little bit and seek out more. But you have to stop that when it begins to feel like going to church, if you know what I mean. Some of the best photos I've seen of yours are these person with object formats, it's a 'thing' now. _______ On the second photo, sometimes a photo like that can be paired with another one from the same moment to make a diptych. The two photos can tell stories a few seconds apart and support each other to make a third reality. Like what happened twenty feet farther down the side walk compared to that photo. Or what about paring that photo with a close up of an object in the street. Two photos can be effective at showing the passing of time, how can time be used to tell a portrait story about the person? Getting arty...haha.
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