Capture a Stranger

[Ballen Photo]

'The Sheep Farmers'.

Hi Warren, This one caught my eye as a really nice portrait, and the B&W treatment just plain old works for this shot.
I've been noticing that your work is really starting to set standards lately.
The one little nit I have about this image is the triangle of sky in the upper right is somewhat distracting. Have you considered possibly cropping from the top down to just about where the roof line meets the corner?
-Bruce

[Wild Wassa]

Bruce, thankyou for your support and kind words, they are very rewarding.

Well Sir, when I was a student of photography and we had to produce portraits for assignments and class prac and exams, it was Arnold Newman's influence that helped me endure 4 years of portrait torment. Can you see Arnold Newman's influence in the original image?

The black border in the original image was made to stop the sky from looking like a RotaTrim accident or the farm rats had been hungry.

I've reprinted the shot, for a comparison, ... but cropping (or burning in that portion) takes away the harsh featureless sky which is an essential element found in all works of the 'Sunshine School'. A major Australian Art Movement. This image is dedicated to the Sunshine School because it has that pioneer look of a Tom Roberts, a Charles Condor and an Arthur Streeton.





The original image now being well cropped and manicured, changes the ambience. The graziers now look like confident gentlemen farmers, not the stoic battlers who are fighting off the worst drought in our Nation's history and only just surviving on now what has become marginal grazing lands. There is a reason for the things I attempt to portray in my photography. Writing what the image is about hopefully fills the gaps.

That little white tear drop that I've left at the top of the image, and not spotted out and which will have puzzled someone ... is a most distracting spot and a very bad influence from the Bauhaus school of photographic composition ... I blame Harald Mante the author of 'The Photographer's Eye' for that little irritation.

When I took the shot these three blokes were strangers.

Warren.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

They don't get much stranger than me....

[susaan]

LOL ,Tyson !

A stranger captured on the road,today-she is returning with an empty vegetable cart,after selling all her wares-many people work like this,in my home city of Jakarta,and if you happen to sit with them,while they take a break,the striking thing about them,is they do not complain.

[Wild Wassa]

'Happy to be Loving You Kangaroo'.





My favourite spontaneous group portrait.

When I told these baseball fans that I was from Oz, one of them said to me, "Happy to be loving you Kangaroo."

I don't think any baseball fan anywhere, has said anything near as nice as that to me since.

Warren.

[susaan]

Absolutely priceless,Warren !

My stranger for today,stopped me,requesting I take her picture,
- was focusing on a local waterfall,turned out,she was the better shot !

[Wild Wassa]

Want to hear a joke?

A Giant Swede walks into a small country pub and then jumps onto a table and says, "I'm a giant Swede stranger, do you get many Swedes passing this way?" The stranger then says, "Yes, but mostly female backpackers."

'Giant Swede Befriends a Stranger'.





Warren.

PS, I made the montage this morning ... it isn't as old as it looks. Grunge textures are cool. One of the problems with photographing complete strangers is, strangers don't get to see their portraits displayed as fine works of art. This might be the punch line to the joke.

[gotrocks]

We made it to Ireland. Here's a couple of strangers.



Our guide told us brunettes are called Black Irish.

[xwingkiller]

thanks to http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01/ for the great flash accessory. my buddy and i each made one, cost about $3 a piece. i got this shot with the flash on the camera.

[OldClicker]

This gentleman didn't particularly like the idea... - TF

[historybuff]

I'm new here myself, but I'll try to contribute something as best I can. The face of the subject has to be cropped out unfortunately, for legal, safety, and government reasons, but the picture has a very "from another world and time" tone to it. The pic isn't exactly the sharpest or the most well defined - the heat and conditions were god awful in getting this, and I was more getting a referance shot than trying to take a truly "quality" picture, but in many ways I think this sort of adds ot the atmosphere. I hope to start taking truly Quality picture now that I've srt of taken this up as a hobby as well. Anyways, enough of my jabbering, here's the pic;

[OBie]

I took a long while catching up on this thread today.

This little girl is on our summer swim team, but I don't know who she is. I am completely shy about taking pictures of strangers, but I found that the swim team kids LOVED having their picture taken. So most of my candids were of the littler ones.

For some reason (her eyes?) I find myself drawn to this picture over and over. I hope it didn't lose too much when I crushed it for the web.

Oops - not there. Try again...

[susaan]

Thanks,xwingkiller-cool shot and good tip,just discovered the empty film container cover for on camera flashes-low tech is my home !

OBie,that is a gorgeous shot,love it !

My stranger for today found staring into our cab-thank goodness our driver had cleaned his window-

[OBie]

susaan, I can't believe that was taken through a window - a cab window no less! Great shot!

[xwingkiller]

the scene in the faceshield is really interesting. great.

[xwingkiller]

here's another from the other day. no flash this time...made possible by the sigma 30mm f/1.4.

[xwingkiller]

a couple more. =)

[Axle]

From a Tuesday night trip into Toronto.









Shot using a Nikon D300 with a Nikkor AI-S 105mm 1:2.5 lens.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

[Old Timer]

Just lurking at an art gallery showing last night. I took the newest family member along (Nikon D700 with the 24-120 VR attached). These were all at ISO 1600 at low shutter speeds under tungsten light.

[poodlenuts]

I'm not good at editing lots to lean still, I use an online program

[Greg McCary]

[Axle]

Nikon F3, Nikkor AI-S 105mm 1:2.5, Kodak Tmax 400

[susaan]

Strange enough ?

[xwingkiller]

this guy sounds the bell in the dining car in the old sacramento train museum.