[Leica] Slobodon's StreetKid Critique

["Scott Squire" <scott_squire@hotmail.com>]

Slobodon,

It's good to know somebody on the LUG saw the posting. Perhaps the rest were 
too kind to post their responses? I'm glad you wrote, and thank you for your 
critique.

I could've lived without learning my photos actually made you cringe. But 
more importantly, you offer several useful things for me to think about. 
It's been a real frustration to me, this business that you mention about 
having photos showing missed visual opportunities. I'm struggling with how 
to make pictures that tell stories in this group, in this subject matter. 
How to get in there without also interfering, making myself too conspicuous?

I'm not shy about getting close, generally, but my biggest challenge here is 
becoming the center of attention too much. I would love it if you (and 
anyone else who's tried to make photographic sense of a context like I'm 
working in) could offer some practical advice on how to overcome these 
obstacles. That's exactly why I am here--here in Romania, and here, posting 
this to the LUG--I need to learn this stuff.

So, can I talk you into walking me through a point-by-point (here on the LUG 
or offlist is fine) on a few of the most cringesome images? Help me see: 
Wasted strokes, erring composition, missed opportunities, and unreadable 
lighting--and why these things are, and help me see how I might have gotten 
the right images from the respective scenes before me?

Understand that I readily accept that these criticisms are someway 
valid--that the request is not a challenge to point out all the bad bits 
(fun though that may all be), but rather a call for help in scavenging some 
learning from failed attempts.

yeah?

Eagerly,
Scott Squire



Slobodon Wrote:
>
>Scott;
>I meandered over your images. Frankly, I could only cringe the more I
>looked at them. You have got to work on your_composition_. You got the
>access, use it. You're doing a dis-service to the photographed by
>allowing them to interfere with your work. Sit down, and rethink your
>basic approach. Work on_your_visual syntax. If you don't, the essay
>won't hold up. Therefore, start at the most basic level, your_composition.
>Lastly, do something about your lighting. It just doesn't_read_what you
>want it to say. Look at it this way, in Chinese writing there are three
>styles, two need concern us here. The regular style, which is
>traditional and formal, and the "running style" which is looser and the
>lines appear free flowing. Both require an adherence to a syntax that
>the reader can easily grasp, hence getting to the message effortlessly
>and intuitively. In other words, regardless of presentation, they have
>an immediate clarity.
>You need to unburden the viewer with the wasted stroke that clouds your
>presentation. Virtually each image tells me of a missed visual
>opportunity. I shouldn't have to see that, as it bogs me down while
>viewing the moment's near misses.
>There are no short cuts to getting where you think you want to be. Bend,
>crawl, stoop, but do anything that it takes. As they say in Hollywood,
>"I'm right behind you."
>Slobodan Dimitrov
>
>
>Scott Squire wrote:
> >
> > Esteemed LUG,
> >
> > I wanted to let all of you know that the website is up for the Romanian
> > StreetKid Project. Click on over to
> >
> > http://www.scottsquire.net/index.html
>
> > Best
> > Scott Squire
> >
> >

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