Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Re: Walking and shooting in Brooklyn - OT equipment

Subject: [OM] Re: Walking and shooting in Brooklyn - OT equipment
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:56:06 -0800
Thanks so much, Marc, both for your positive response to the project 
overall and for your generosity in making so many specific comments.

As expected, I am surprised, pleased, amused, sometimes puzzled by which 
images and which aspects of them engage others. An important learning 
process for me.

Marc Lawrence wrote:
> Moose wrote:
>  > ...
>   
>> This was quite an ambitious project for me, and I would appreciate any 
>> feedback on content and/or organization/presentation, positive or not. 
>> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/index.html>
>>     
>
> This is a beautiful, strong profile:
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/slides/_MG_3380cr.html>
>
> It reminds me of that Annie Leibovitz profile shot of Willie Nelson.
>   
Whoa, don't start inflating my head.  :-)   I do like it too.
> There's some magnificent selective-focus here, that I find very 
> appealing (in both its focus and out-of-focus bits):
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3306cr.html>
>   
Sheer, bloody chance. We were moving fairly fast at the time, I forget 
why, the neon God is Great sign down a side street caught my eye (you 
might say God led me to this image), so I stopped for a moment and shot, 
then ran to catch up. In post, I saw how much I liked the effect of long 
lens compression on relative sizes of image elements. I didn't know at 
first what to do with the brightly lit, OOF people in the front. I 
cropped a bit on the left to get rid of one that just didn't work for 
me. I loved the rich colors of the others, especially with their 
simplified/abstract forms and found that lowering their brightness 
enriched the tones and made them fit into the composition nicely. It's 
really busy, but somehow works for me.
>
> This is wonderful, reminding me of the apparent peace at the very start 
> of 'A Streetcar Named Desire':
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3309.html>
> I know, wrong city, but there's that feel of "evening" and "doorstep 
> conversation"/Elysian Fields Avenue about it that triggers that memory 
> for me. That's meant as a good thing. :)
>   
Funny! I see what you mean, now that I read it. The old, rough, time 
blackened, graffitied buildings evoke something a bit gritty. In fact, 
that's an upscale coffeehouse full of yuppies and across the street is a 
rather nice bar/restaurant/nightclub (in front of which the folks in 
3312 are sitting), where we had calamari and beer for a break from 
walking, and a very expensive chocolate shop that had a line out the door.

Nobody from 'Desire' could afford to live in Dumbo, which I find out 
comes from 'Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass'.
> An eye for a humourous contrast is always welcome here:
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3315cr.html>
>   
I have no idea whether it's his birthday that has him so happy. As pure 
image, I'd like it better without the background couple,b ut getting the 
shot at all was not easy. as story, I like the juxtaposition.
> This is looking like one of my favourites, even though I'm seeing it in 
> black and white:
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3320cr2sii.html>
>   
There's an alternate crop of this in People>Alternates. The wider shot 
shows him ignoring the attractive young women dashing by and toward him, 
telling a different story than the close crop. I went with the wider 
view partially because it doesn't reveal the lack of sharpness so much. 
1/25 sec. @ 130 mm is bad enough, but he raised his head just as I took 
the shot.
> Very...interesting, the following, particularly in its quality of having 
> two clear "flavours" of light:
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3350rotcr.html>
>   
All artificial light, it was dark out on the street by then.
> It also calls curiosity - just what was being said sung or said or staged. 
> Like I say, interesting. It's already chasing my last "favourite".
>   
Not a clue. There must have been audio, but I was so transfixed by this 
apparition, and just dog tired, that all I thought about was getting the 
shot and not losing contact with the people who knew how to find the 
subway and get home. It was some kind of theater being presented in 
highly makeshift quarters, a shop under construction and open to the 
street. Man we walked a lot that day!
>
> Finally, part of me - the part of my brain that controls my stomach - 
> loves this one most of all:
>
> <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Brooklyn/People/All%20People/slides/_MG_3258.html>
> My only criticism is that that hand is not my hand, dammit. ;-)
>   
That was really excellent soft serve. And I'd never had it with confetti 
sprinkles before - you are right to be jealous. A shot wak ahead is the 
Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which hangs over the BQE to give wonderful 
views of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. A lovely place to enjoy ice 
cream, then take some photos in the things section.
>
> I think the presentation is good. I like the previews of the previous 
> and next images available as small thumbnails either side of the current 
> image. I also like the presentation of photos against simple black, and 
> it's what I am aiming for (I'm currently trying to rework my gallery 
> from scratch using the 'Gallery' software).
>   
This is all relatively automated, using free JAlbum, which makes changes 
to the album(s) and updating the web copy relatively painless. Figuring 
out how to store all the images in one place, allowing multiple displays 
of them in different sub-galleries, was slightly tricky, but simple to 
implement once I figured it out. There are several skins available, and 
one may create one's own, although I haven't looked into how easy or 
hard that may be.
> Thanks, Moose. They're an enjoyable set. My apologies for brevity in my 
> comments - 
Heaven's no, thank you for taking the time to look and comment.
> there are a lot of photos, and I sitting in a warm, ethanol haze on a Sunday 
> evening, so my own focus is rather unreliable at the moment. 
Sounds good.
> I will say that New York is, and always has been, a place I wish to 
> eventually spend some time - just visiting, but hopefully not a "flying 
> visit" - so I always enjoy such photos, even more so when they're from 
> another visitor.
>   
NY is a really, really big and varied place. When most people say NY, 
they mean the lower part of Manhattan Island. The closest I got to there 
this trip was looking at it across the East River. Brooklyn alone has 
about 2.5 million people, and would be the fifth largest US city on its 
own. What I show in this gallery is only a small part of it.

Thanks,
   Moose

==============================================
List usage info:     http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies:        olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz