I don’t have much luck with ‘people’ shots

[ravnostic]

Critique, please. I liked the subject; I don’t know if I caught the essence:

Or B/W:

Or sepia (and can anyone tell me the correct RGB formula for sepia?):

My take: Rules of 3rds applied across the horizonal axis. Golden ratio implied in placement. ‘Odd’ number of subjects. I like how (to me) it speaks of friendship and communion, but also of separateness. I like the implication of which girl uses the wheelchair (and, in fact, I do not know for sure which it is as I didn’t dawdle.) I like also that the implied girl is in the rays of the sun, while the other two are not. And that we don’t see what she’s building behind the wheelchair obstruction.

This was a picture I took even before I took my camera in hand, at the volleyball court in my apt. complex. I would think it’s obvious why I got the camera and went back to catch the shot. But that’s me. I’m interested in knowing if the image says anything to anyone else. And if not, why not. People are not my forte, but I’d like them to be.

[clouddancer]

The only people I’m good at are my kids, and even then I’m not fantastic. I’ve only had lots of practice with them. 🙂 Hubby doesn’t let me take many pictures of him, and the rest of my family I’m not around enough lately to get pictures.

I think the shot is fine. What I see: Three kids playing in the sand, two in swimsuits. Possibly building sand castles, but not at the beach so far as I can tell. Backsides are hard to judge sometimes. Looks like possible friendship, but where they don’t seem to be interacting, hard to tell; they could be familiar with each other or don’t mind the presence of others.

I think you did just fine, but I’m interested to see other input.

[Zero_Exponent]

[rant]Good thing you didn’t dawdle. You may have been approached by the perv police, as I was the other day. There was music blaring and some guy on a PA system, along with lots of cheering – emanating from a park near my house. Hopped on my bike with camera in hand, and dog along for the ride. This park has a school at one end, and there was some kind of team competition happening: sack races, frisbee relay, yadda yadda. I thought, “Cool, a chance to practice some sports photography.”
Before I even got one shot off, some scowling woman was in my face demanding to know WTF I was doing. “Uh, I heard the commotion, and came to see what was going on. Thought I might get some pictures of the kids having fun.” Nope. Not allowed, she said. I can’t help but wonder if she would have been so concerned, had I been a woman?
👿 Effing pedos. [/rant]

Anyway, I like the color version best. With the other two, it’s harder to tell that the girl on the right is in the sunbeam. The bands of light are a bit distracting in the non-color versions, the B+W version particularly. In the color shot, my eye is drawn to the girl and the chair.
I see what you’re saying RE the “together, but apart” element. It’s that kind of thought process that separates snapshots from photos, IMO.
Keep it up, but stay away from the kiddos unless you have permission.

[caradoc]

[rant]
Before I even got one shot off, some scowling woman was in my face demanding to know WTF I was doing. “Uh, I heard the commotion, and came to see what was going on. Thought I might get some pictures of the kids having fun.” Nope. Not allowed, she said.[/rant]

Get a print of this and keep it in your camera bag:

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

Also, get one of these and wear it:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/chazfoto/t-shirts/3849609-2-im-a-photographer-not-a-terrorist

[Zero_Exponent]

caradoc, thanks for the link. Even though I’m in Canada, I think most of that applies here too. The problem was, I wasn’t sure if I was on public or private property. One end of the park is definitely a public park, but there is no fence or other line separating it from the school grounds.
I also understand that there are sickos that kids need to be protected from, so I could see her point. It just sucks that because of them I get tarred with the same brush.

We don’t have a Gestap … I mean Dept. of Homeland Security like the USA yet, so no worries about taking pics of bridges and what not. However, if I could get a version of that shirt that swaps “child molester” with “terrrist”, it might help.

I think my best bet, if I want cute kid pics, is to either a) reproduce b) get permission beforehand or c) do it in a public place, preferably where there are others taking pics as well.

[caradoc]

I can’t believe that nobody’s translated that Photographer’s Rights page for Canada yet… This is the best I can find:

http://ambientlight.ca/laws.php

[Curious]

Zero that sucks. i might have been tempted to tell her to piss off but discretion was probably the best bet.

ravnostic i love b/w but it doesn’t work here. the light/dark banding becomes just distracting banding. and the grass/sand interface is lost.

given how the girls are sitting the assumption is the right hand girl and wheelchair go together. the “story” is open. the separation could be what mobility allows. or not. it could be motivational. ie even susy is able to play with her friends. the sunlight highlights that.

[zincprincess]

I like the color version best. As far as the composition, I like it although it would have been nice to capture it from the other side with the girls faces showing and the wheelchair in the background.

[ravnostic]

Thanks all, for the input.

I like the color version best. As far as the composition, I like it although it would have been nice to capture it from the other side with the girls faces showing and the wheelchair in the background.

I do, too. And I had some shots where one or more girl is looking back at me, which I thought was better, and where they’ve moved around a bit.

But they had some problems with their swimsuit tops–so I was pretty sure that’s considered child porn in this day and age, and despite my gay factoid, I didn’t feel much like risking jail and such over a better composed picture. So they got deleted. The last thing a gay man wants to go to jail over is picture of a 4 year old girl’s breast.

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