>>>> Street Photography eXchange #9 <<<<

[in the full file you can see she's wearing turquoise contact lenses which match the shapes in the central tower.]

thank you for the comments.

frank, i think it's great if the photos look like seattle to you. i think so to--there's even a view of the space needle in for an added bonus. and this year is shaping up to be more seattle than usual, so far.

ihtisham, the first shot is my favorite of these as well (it's got three stars in my library, where the others just have two), though i actually do like the others almost as much. i really like how his umbrella looks broken just to fit the skyline.

xtoph said:

[in the full file you can see she's wearing turquoise contact lenses which match the shapes in the central tower.]

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Girl, bike, sculpture are an excellent catch.

Woman on the right could provide balance, and the color of her jeans and her coat can fit the schema. But she is too dark and that repels the eye, which is drawn to the masonry floor and wall on the left.

The brightness of the background on the left gives that area a sense of depth that seems artificial next to the extreme darkness on the right.

A catch this good justifies a lot of work. I would consider greatly reducing the masonry on left and bottom and very carefully lightening the right to create balance and let the eye rest comfortably on the two central figures, the bike and sculpture. The dramatic dark and light schema, without interesting detail, fights against the fascinating and evocative capture.
--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

ihtisham said:

Frank, I find it incredibly difficult to shoot candids of several people together where each one's face is showing prominently. It is just had to time it so that they all have meaningful (or, more importantly, aligned to the goal of your photo) expressions.

A lot going on. The vendor's expression is great. The older child and the second woman's expressions are reasonable. But I am looking at the child for some sparkle. Or a surprise, or something of interest. Perhaps because she is the odd one out, perhaps because she is a child, or I want to see how she likes the mango. Her face is turned away.

My approach in this kind of situation is not to try for all 3 or 4 faces to show expressions, but perhaps turn one or two of those people into props. Eg, I would go towards the right, bend and frame the child through the legs of the other two. But I understand there are limitations of doing SP in NY streets that might preclude you.

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I thought of you, Ihtisham, in reviewing this photo. I even googled some info on how wonderful and varied the mangoes in Bangladesh are.

From your comment, and a recent one from Zubu, it seems I have moved in the direction of favoring composition over facial expression. When I took the shot, I was mostly interested in the composition of the yellows. It is such a crowded corner, even by NYC standards, that I had to wait and shoot in a fraction of a second before being blocked again.

So maybe I've gone too far away from apparent empathy, or at least attention to facial expression. Hmm.

The shot I would have liked to get was a minute before when the black guard at the bank she's in front of sheepishly chided her for debris landing in front of the bank. It was a tender moment --at another time and place it would be authority bullying a little person trying to get by, but here they were both so sweet and embarrassed, and the spirit of equality made it all so intimate. The crowds passing by like a rushing river made that photo impossible.

ihtisham said:

Again, there is a lot going on in this photo. Mango is foreign to NY. Here are two groups of migrants, Latino looking vendor and Asian looking customers - says a lot about melting pot etc.

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Mango may once have been foreign, but today they may as well have come from Brooklyn. My kids Jamaican baby sitter prepared them constantly. It's a popular flavor for ice cream, used in salads, incorporated into sauces, eaten as a fruit, etc., etc.

They are sold in every supermarket and have been thoroughly domesticated. But looking at the photo, those look particularly delicious. I may buy a bag sometime, if I can figure out how to carry them and still shoot. What is the best season for mangoes?

Stop me before I go on and on about the food scene here. A fine Japanese bakery with an ancient Greek name (based on a process the owner created) closed and was replaced by a Parisian quality French bakery. For Easter they offer numbered limited edition nesting eggs of three kinds of chocolate modeled upon Chinese puzzles made of ivory.

However, the description of the different varieties in Bangladesh (why is it Bang instead of Beng?) sounds so tempting. I'm sure connoisseurship must be on a whole different level.

ihtisham said:

Ihtisham

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--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

My wife reports that Mangoes were eaten on the street in Florida 50 years ago.
They've been grown in Florida for over 100 years.

I've eaten mango chutney in "Indian" restaurants for at least as long.

South Pacific had these lyrics in the 1940's from a song that was ubiquitous:

We've got sunlight on the sand
We've got moonlight on the sea
We've got mangoes and bananas you can pick right off the tree
We've got volleyball and ping pong and a lot of dandy games
What don't we got? We don't got dames

The only reason mangoes were not as ubiquitous in the home as bananas, coconuts and pineapple was the difficulty of removing the hairy pit.

I can now report that America has solved this problem as well:

http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Mango-Splitter/dp/B000AREB5S/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1319654812&sr=1-

(I just bought it from Amazon.)

Our online grocer sells 40 products with mango in the title:
http://www.freshdirect.com/search.jsp?searchParams=mango&x=20&y=6

We import them from many countries, so they are available to us all year long.

I hope you find this interesting.

Every major culture has one or more things that have been completely internationalized, like pizza or the bagel. The mango seems to be one of those things.

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

Very interesting, Frank. I have always loved mangoes and when I was in the Bay Area, prowled the Mexican/Latino markets for good mangoes.

Btw, this reminds me of a story. "Danish" is a local food brand. They sell everything from milk to cookies to - you guessed it - mango juice.

Well, some years ago, we had two Danish software engineers visiting our company in Dhaka, and from the car they saw this billboard for:

"Danish Mango Juice"

They freaked out.

Ihtisham

Zubu Barunda said:

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I'd crop to the left of the backpack, even if it means losing most of the GB umbrella, which is not essential. This keeps the eye on the main subjects.

Then there is a coherent moment, and the Brit version of the Monopoly man.
--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

ihtisham said:

Very interesting, Frank. I have always loved mangoes and when I was in the Bay Area, prowled the Mexican/Latino markets for good mangoes.

Btw, this reminds me of a story. "Danish" is a local food brand. They sell everything from milk to cookies to - you guessed it - mango juice.

Well, some years ago, we had two Danish software engineers visiting our company in Dhaka, and from the car they saw this billboard for:

"Danish Mango Juice"

They freaked out.

Click to expand...

I can imagine.

Just a footnote: Went foraging for lunch today. There was a very ripe Mexican mango in the Italian designer fruit bowl. I always leave these for my wife to cut, but my research yesterday taught me how to do it. A very tasty treat.

My wife then told me that she's been drinking mango juice lately. So in the fridge I find a container of mango juice prepared by a company based in Alaska, named after a Roman goddess, that specializes in local grown fruit (and selected exotic ones.)

How much more globalized can mangoes become?

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

I took Chris' advice about rotating and Ihtisham about making the faces more of a focal point.

fad said:

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

Click to expand...

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

the pterodactyl umbrella perfectly works with a line of roofs

xtoph said:

on brollies (or i suppose, under brollies)

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--
al

Zubu Barunda said:

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The fine character, expression, body language,
a hand with fruit tells much about him
--
al

The new frame works better to me

fad said:

I took Chris' advice about rotating and Ihtisham about making the faces more of a focal point.

Click to expand...

fad said:

fad said:

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

Click to expand...

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

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--
al

28mm (eq.)
--
al

This gentleman's face holds an impish kind of dignity. He looks like a movie character. The dignity is not at all perturbed by his holding the fruits in an awkward manner. Good catch, Zubu.

Ihtisham

Life imitates art in an unexpected and unplanned way. Nice capture, Alexander. Where is this?

Ihtisham

A fine photo in a great tradtion:

Elliott Erwitt - Met Museum 1988:

albobkin said:

28mm (eq.)
--
al

Click to expand...

--
Frank

All photos shot in downtown Manhattan unless otherwise noted.
Thanks in advance for the kindness of your comments or critiques.

well done, al. so well seen and composed on the fly. impressive.