This image was taken at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) several weeks ago in the "Great Asian dinosaurs" exhibit. I spotted this girl standing under one of the floodlights on either side of a video display. She was totally transfixed in space, not watching the presentation, obviously with other things on her mind. I liked the texture of her hair and the strong shadows from the lights. I saw a slightly obese man conversing behind her and taking swigs out of his pop. I liked the theme. The camera came up to my eye and I composed the shot.

Exposure information:

Leica M6, 75 mm Summilux 1/60 f1.4 ambient lighting Delta 3200 rated at 3200

Thanks in advance for constructive comments,

John.

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 13, 2002

Answers

I love the drama, John!

Lighting was everything here, IMO. lovely. I like your juxtaposition of elements (girl + obese man)

only thing that i would like to see is a strip of shadow between his fat gut and the doorway(?)- nitpicking of course.

Thanks for contributing! This forum is about photography!

-- Mike DeVoue (karma77@att.net), February 13, 2002.

Hard to tell that the personage behind the young girl is an obese man but I like the elements of mystery and threatening danger which the girl is oblivious to.

This photo has a lot of harsh lighting on the girl's face but I suspect that it is from the scan itself? I believe that the original picture is much better than the jpg but the delineation of the girl's lineaments is washed out but it gives the picture a rather odd cast of mystery and unknown (or no fear of it).

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), February 13, 2002.

Hard to tell that the personage behind the young girl is an obese man but I like the elements of mystery and threatening danger which the girl is oblivious to.

Are obese folks considered dangerous and threatening now??? The shot has interesting light and the mood is nice, but you lost me on the "theme" part of it. What's the relation between the bored girl and the pop-drinking guy? Are they both bored? Did the guy steal the pop from the girl?

A nice shot overall, but an incomplete (to me) story behind it.

-- Jim Tardio (jimtardio@earthlink.net), February 14, 2002.

The shot is interesting graphically but to me it lacks the story behind it. It is also less then technically perfect, so to speak. Sorry...

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), February 14, 2002.

Although graphically interesting, I think the mood that you saw is lost in this shot due to the high contrast, and the lack of detail in her eyes, John. The facial shadows (to me) convey almost an angry expression, rather than one of being lost in reverie.

Perhaps if you had an assistant hold a reflector in front of her to bounce some light into her face . . . (lol)

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), February 14, 2002.

Obese? No, I don't think so. Chubby maybe, portly perhaps. I know you are looking for a critique of the photo, but I can't help myself.

-- jeff (debontekou@yahoo.com), February 14, 2002.

"Are obese folks considered dangerous and threatening now?"

Sure, if they trip and fall on you it _hurts_.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), February 14, 2002.

Oh no, fat jokes! That's a new one on this board.

At any rate, John, I'd be curious to see the original, uncropped image. Like your other shot with the kid and acquarium, I find the aspect ratio a bit off-putting.

-- Richard (rvle@yahoo.com), February 14, 2002.

Nice. I've had parents angry with me because I had taken (stolen) a pic of their children without permission.

-- Don M (maldos@home.com), February 14, 2002.

Don brings up an excellent point. I'd be very, very careful about photographing stranger's children.

-- Richard (rvle@yahoo.com), February 14, 2002.

Er John:

Why does it seems that the focus point is past the girl's face?

This is because there is not enough details in the shadow of her eyes and the lower part of her face. This was the most important item of the photo. But the Ilford could not cope with the variation of light, I know, been there, tried it.

We can barely see her hands, another important item.

Which brings another subject: how do you decode a photo? Take the advertisements for the St Valentin in the magazine as an example.

Best ones.

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), February 14, 2002.

Hi, John:

Good picture ! I like the "Hitchcock" look of it.

However, if you hadn't told the story behind it I hadn't been able to descipher it by myself. I assume that your photo is victim to the Lux: the extremely shallow DOF of your lens didn't allow as many elements as necessary to show up clearly enough as to tell the complete theme according to your text. Jokes aside, I would hardly been able to tell a fat guy in the shape behind the girl: she is so much clearly pictured that the eye would hardly make the effort to read the whole meaning of the shape in the background. At least not fast enough as to add to the impact of your image, I mean. On these grounds, I think that a better match between intended story and image could be rendered by a higher f stop, say 4 ( ? ) and pushing the film so as to be able to still keep the 1/60 speed at least.

IMHO: a good picture where the image of the girl on herself is worth the effort.

Thanks for sharing, John !

-Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), February 14, 2002.

John,

I like the combination of the girl and the shadowy figure behind the girl. It that a real person or a statue of some kind? Since you told the story behind the taking of the photo I must assume it is a real person.

I'm all for telling stories about the photos you took, by the way. I like books where the photographer or the people who are photograph verbalize something.

And I am glad to get the warning about photographing strangers' children. Yeah, will keep in mind

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4-u.or.jp), February 17, 2002.