Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Perhaps I can try to address the following comments by various people, which I have found helpful: > A more interesting pic might have been one without the > motorcycle and have been the Budda with the man crouched behind it. > To me, the focal point and point of interest in this picture is the > Buddha (?) statue and the two people working on it/by it. I like the > humour of the juxtaposition, especially with one man half hiding (?) > behind it. It's slightly surreal. > > That said, the motorcyclist adds nothing. You would have needed to get > closer to the point of interest, leaving the street and the > motorcyclist out of it. Shooting it as a vertical would have allowed > you to get close, while still retain the full statue. > In this case, > you're using the 28 as though it were a 50, when the scene cries for > you > to stick this lens virtually into the cyclist's face (to fill a > significant portion of the frame) or to move to longer focal length, > if, > indeed, this is your subject. > This sure is not a cliche travel photo of Bangkok! > Perhaps you could say something about why this particular scene caught > your eye. I had just crossed the street perpendicular to the street of the picture and saw the Buddha on the right in the middle of all the vegetables when the biker pulled up and stopped for a few seconds waiting to make a left turn. It looked surreal. I raised the camera to my eye making sure the arch above the Buddha was within the frame. No time to change aperture or shutter speed. It felt like a "Zen and the Art of Archery" moment. What I saw in the scene was a metaphor for Thailand: impending modernity (the bike) hitting a traditional culture (the Buddha) in a chaotic situation (the vegetables); the gritty feeling of the street and the light -- harsh because it was already 11:00 a.m. -- accentuated the feeling of disorder. And against this the grace of the society reflected perhaps in the arch. The print is of course a lot better than jpeg, as the Buddha and the front of the bike have a glow that accentuates the meaning of the picture. But I don't know whether it's a Leica glow or Lagavulin glow. - --Mitch/Bangkok - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html