Taken at the Toronto Christmas Parade. I tried to emphasize the leading line created by the blue balloons. Comments, constructive critique?

Thanks for your input.

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), November 24, 2001

Answers

John:

IMO only... I think you succeeded in trying to emphasize the blue balloons. However, I think it might have been a bit more impressive if you had kneeled down to about eye level with all the kids in the front, and positioned yourself *slightly* more to the left. I think this would have emphasized the line of children and the best face I see; that of the little girl(?) in the very lower-left corner. The balloons would have then made a great secondary subject. As it is now, the line of ballons leads your eye out of the image on the right side before you see all of the people...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), November 24, 2001.

John:

Good shot, and I agree with Jack: eye level for kids 95% of the time.. Seeing teh picture I get homesick: taken at the corner of Richmond & Yonge St facing North, looking towards the old Simpsons building & Tower Records store.

Ah, the power of imagery: I grew up on Dupont St right on the route of the Santa Claus parade and saw it every year from the age of 2, played bass drum in a band and marched in it several years until--. Now when I'm home I take my grandchildren to see it.

Thanks & Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 24, 2001.

Cool line of ballons! The only point of interest for me though is the reindeer kid on the lower left and the 1 ballon over the kids head. That is a cool and unusual place to put the most animated section...did you do that on purpose? On the other hand the pic is busy with a lot of small pieces and no big parts to support the small ones...no main point of interest for me.I was thinking maybe if you moved in closer with a wide angle....hmmmm

-- Emile de Leon (knightpeople@msn.com), November 25, 2001.

John; interesting to know your intention on this picture, taking the ballons as a leading line is for certain a good way to solve the picture, there are other two strong view atraction areas that don´t add anything to the image, the bottom right floor area and the sky ligth in the up rigth corner, I belive there two compete very much with the ballons, and there is no closer ballons to confirm a sence of repetition that could also help; may be a higher poin of view will allow you to see more ballons to the far distance and avoid sky ligth, at the same time use floor area as a design line too, well always afer words there are lots of ideas of how it could be, hope my words help. Keep up with the good work.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.

JOhn:

How does this look for a crop? I will try for the first time to send an image along wth a reply. Sorry if it does not get thru:I will try again.

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/image-displaycropped.jpg

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.

OOOPS

Obviously didn't work.

Will try again later.

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.

Yeah, I know the empty foreground doesn't contribute to the impact of the picture but this was very much a "dynamic" picture because the crowd only stayed on the sidewalk with the balloons for several moments before the kids again occupied the streets. Very much a call on the maximum "balloon density" to strengthen the line and the angle of the line through the composition. Oh well, street photography is all about compromises or the "perfect picture". 1 in a 100 even for an experienced photographer. AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT SOOOO FUN!!!!

Thanks for the comments.

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), November 25, 2001.

Hi, John:

May I congratulate you for being brave enough to ask for comments. . . I'll try to keep mine on the positive side and try to remember an often cited saying: "After the war, any stupid is a general . . ."

In the first place: if your main goal was to emphasize the baloons line you got a reasonable succes. But I agree with previous advises on how to make it even more succesful concerning the baloons.

But I have been thinking about your picture since yesterday before venturing any comments and my final conclusion is that, in this case, the baloons line is not enough of a motive to make it a trully succesful image: too many competitor elements to distract your attention and the vage sensation that something more interesting than the baloons line is going on that the observer is not allowed to see.

I was trying the croping exercise myself but don't know how to make my ideas into a file, so here goes the idea: center on the dark skined guy holding the two kids in red jackets and the couple of baloons over them. He and the kid on the RHS are apparently looking at the camera directly and the three of them do constitute a good center of interest with a complete meaning.

But I have to insist: if your idea was the baloons line only, yours was a succesful image that could still be improved keeping in mind that "street photography is all about compromises on the "perfect picture"". I fully agree with that statement: I couldn't react fast enough to keep the cars out of the composition before the old gentleman was aware of the camera in this case. And I couldn't help the overcast day which made most tones look alike . . . May be it could still be improved in the dark room. I still have left to find out.

Best regards, John. Keep posting photos !

-Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), November 25, 2001.

oh, the sharpness, the delightful bokeh, the micro-contrast, the colour, the ... oh, you didn't use a Leica? never mind.

-- daniel taylor (lightsmythe@agalis.net), November 25, 2001.

You forgot the "Je ne sais quo". Condescention towards Leica users is only effective AFTER it has matured to a certain level of sophistication

;-)

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), November 25, 2001.

John,

I truncated my posting. I like your image very much and would have printed the balloons lighter against a darker crowd background to set them off. just joking about the Leica lust. if I wasn't 50-grand into Hasselblad I would own one (or two).

-- daniel taylor (lightsmythe@agalis.net), November 25, 2001.

John

It is a fine shot that complements your other one well. It is not a shot that speaks anything special to me (i.e. it would not be framed on my wall), but as a set with the others you took at this event, it works very nicely.

If you had been lower you would have got more kids, but you would have lost a nice line of balloons. I suppose perhaps you should have taken both shots and seen which you preferred in the end.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), November 26, 2001.