Lazin' on a Sunday Afternoon

[leek]

...

[darb]

looks like a hard life.

[leek]

The roaring silence has spoken, but could I pllllllleeeeeeeeeease get some feedback on this photo...

The scene of this old guy relaxing in the middle of Tumbalong Park while the whole world passed him by really grabbed me when I took the photo. It obviously hasn't grabbed anyone else in the same way...

I thought my PP wasn't too bad in this case, but maybe I'm wrong... I was going for a sort of Max Dupain documentary style photo... ( I know I'm a long way off, but that's what I was aiming for...)

Could some people tell me what they thought when they saw the photo...
Please click thru to the larger version as the thumbnail doesn't really bring out the detail...

If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative treatment of the photo, I'd love to see them... [/i]

[Killakoala]

I love the pic, it's candid and tells a story. The B&W adds to the image. I reckon a tighter crop and a bit more contrast and perhaps some grain added could spice it up even more.

Here's one i prepared eariler (With your non-pre-empted permission of course John)



I cropped it to get rid of the feet on the footpath and applied the 'Steve's composition rule of 5/8ths and a bit. Changed the contrast and added some noise to give it a more 'filmlike' feel.

Just goes to show that we all see things differently, and that's why i love art. We see so many different interpretations in the same things.

[Nikkofan]

Actually Leek, maybe we're both "wrong" in the artistic photo sense, but I really liked it! And one reason was because of the feet rushing all around him while he was off in his own world, like you said.

The only suggestion I would make is perhaps crop the photo to show less of the grass in the foreground, to accentuate a little more the feet at the top of the photo. I found him being in the dead centre with so much grass around him sort of took away from the subject of the busy world around him. Hope this is making sense! God knows, I'm no Photo critic, but that's my contribution.

And, again, I thought it was a great photo and, like Killakoala says, tells a story, which is the aim of a good photo, isn't it?

[sirhc55]

John - I like what Steve has done but I agree that the moving feet adds to the feel of a moving world around a recumbent, and obviously, happy person in his own world.

[idioms]

Definitely an interesting subject (that cap is great ) I think the crop is fine , I like the "rushing feet" like the poster above. In my opinion though for black and white this picture lacks contrast, there is just not enough variation to centre your focus on the man, and i find my attention shifting to the other peoples feet. Perhaps a centre spot filter and a smaller f-stop?

[leek]

Thanks guys... I thought my judgement was seriously off when I didn't get any feedback initially...

Killa, you probably won't believe this, but I started with almost exactly the same crop as you offered, but then thought I should go back to the RAW file and do the colour treatment first...
Once I'd converted it to B&W, the legs in the background weren't as distracting and I thought they added "the world passes by" element to the photo...

You were right with the blur/grain though... I was just happy that I had a sharp image while shooting thru a Coke bottle (cue Gary...)

Thanks to all that commented...