I enclose a link Thoughts to some of my more recent photos, I would love some of your comments, really as a way to improve. I have chosen these for the simple reason that they all make pause and think when I look at them, and not necessarily in a way that is literally linked ot the image. I would love your thoughts......

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 09, 2001

Answers

I like them all. If I had any comments to make at all, it would be that sometimes I want you to stand a tiny bit closer, and sometimes I want the background to be considered a little more (placement, not content). Overall they're better than the usual run of what people put up. The one of the guy getting his arm swabbed is my favorite. The woman in the tunnel would have been close, if her face had been better separated from the glow--so that's printing, not picture.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), September 09, 2001.

Hi, Richard:

It is nice from you to post images for us to see. Thanks.

My favourite is the one of the girl in black throwing a kiss to the camera (photographer ?)

I agree they are better than our average level here (I'm not talking of Lutz's and other professionals who are way ahead of course).

Great lens the Heliar !

The little girl reading over the statue's book was posed, wasn't her? It is a lovely image too but then I agree that a closer look could have been more atractive.

Good exposure / printing. Some technical detail would have been interesting too. We can always learn . . .

Thanks again and have fun !

Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), September 09, 2001.

I'm finishing my second apple martini, so please take my inputs with a grain of salt... Little girl at statue and nude whipping sheets on bed are definite winners. Big time. Drunk with coffee and tattoo recipient need a little more exposure, but otherwise look like great images - can you pump them up? Confetti at wedding -- best of its kind I've seen. Heliar shot with pretty girl posing as guy left bar was pretty neat too. The others didn't really grab me -- not bad, but didn't grab me.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), September 09, 2001.

Different strokes for different folks: I liked the little girl the least because it was the most trite. Just right for Grandma.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), September 09, 2001.

Richard

I like the one of the woman in bed (I think thats what it is). It artistic without being revealing. I wish I could see things the way a lot of you do - I turn out to be a rather mechanical photog.

-- mark (mramra@qwest.net), September 09, 2001.

Richard

I think you have a very nice set of images. Even though I usually prefer color, some of these images seem well suited to B & W. For a non-professional, they are quite good, especially the guy getting his arm swabbed in a dark environment. Looks like some kind of drug thing.

A few constructive comments: I don't like the 15mm for portraits, it really stretches or distorts faces and other objects in the foreground. In the photo of the girl and the statue, the man in the right foreground is distracting. Finally, in the photo with the man and the candelabra on the table, the lights look too flared and the candelabra could be in better focus. I don't think the OOF effect contributes to this image.

Best wishes

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), September 10, 2001.

Great images Richard.

I like the way you shoot. Looks like instantaneous shooting of a photographer with a very good "eye".

Did you wait for someone to pass by in front of the girl and statue? If yes, well done, I would never think about it! If not, you are lucky too. It makes the image natural and guides the eye to the girl.

And the man's portrait is so good! Very expressive eyes.

I really like the angle of the Heliar. Low priced too for a lens this wide.

Thanks for sharing your photos,

Jordan.

-- Jordan Koussis (jordan@koussis.com), September 10, 2001.

Just to let you know, all the images are sort of grabbed, there is absolutely nothing posed, all are full frame. My techniques is to prefocus and pre expose and then shoot, usually refocusing. Or if it is people that I know then I just keep taking my camera to my eye and 'pestering' whilst still talking to them and after a while they just forget the camera is there. The wedding shot was achieved with careful use of the elbows.... This was part of a 3 shot where the first image has no confetti with the man to the right of me holding his hand out the base of the frame, this kiss shot second and a final after kiss laughing shot. I would have put them all in but for me they are a bit cliche. My favourite I think is the smoking man and 2 girls, this was my very first attempt at shooting from the hip, I walked up to these people and made like I wanted to speak to them, clicked the photo smiled and walked past...oohh what a buzz. Thanks for all the comments.

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 10, 2001.

Oh the girl and statue is a shot that I saw as walking past, this was very lucky really cos I had not got the camera prepared. I went back and timed my walked in the opposite direction to the man and grabbed it on my second pass. I was in Germany at the time and did not know how they would take it if I made the camera obvious. The first shot would have been better as she was actually talking to the statue!

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 10, 2001.

I also like that picture of the little girl and statue, it was also my first impresion of your work, and also is a picture you can read at diferent levels or relationshis in the frame, the two men´s backs, the way this girl faces the statue, I´m not sure my grand mother would get it.

I see a lot of you Richard, those speak me of yourself, I haven´t seen pictures speak so laud of their author here.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), September 10, 2001.

Thanx for sharing, Richard!

I agree with Jack and Mark as far as my favourites are concerned. I can sense your sensitivity in both shots, for situation and for taste. Please tell us more about the bed sheet shot, was it planned, arranged? It looks so spontaneous, playful and sensual, reminds me of a HCB shot but has a lot of more youth and freshness. The wedding shot is remarkable, yes, well composed and made just in the decisive moment, but (as most of the other shots) its appeal is a little in between documentary and staged. Sometimes I would prefer, as others have already said, that your attitude were a little more pronounced: that either you stepped in, lenswise, phisically and emotionally so your subjects are well aware of your presence, have agreed with the situation and reveal an inner truth about themselves (which in turn reminds me of early Talbot portraits, when exposures of several seconds - minutes even - demanded from the portrayed persons to really be within themselves, be at ease and relaxed) - or you stepped out just a bit, to provide a setting, a social (and one fine day ideally even a historical) context to the situation. That is almost perfect in the girl picture, as the circumstances (pedestrian zone, committed girl vs. passers-by) are tangible. While in the wedding picture as well as in some of the others the subjects are neatly isolated from any of the above yet not revealing a personality of their own. That's what stops these shots from reaching me thoroughly. They're rather illustrative than revealing and remind me of advertisement or of very personal album snapshots, where the private notions of the photographer make them "complete" - for him/her but not for third party viewers.

I love your obvious lust to compose and explore. And, again, the bed sheet shot is absolutely to be envied (no hidden allusions intended...;o) Cheers.

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), September 10, 2001.

Thanks for the responses, and Lutz thanks in particular, your advice is meaningful. I have a problem with photography, in that I really only see the composition in the viewfinder, but feel sometimes a little intrusive or self conscious in situations where I see a situation/environment/interaction that I am inspired by. The recent interst in shooting form the hip is a trial, but really I currently only see in the finder. The bed shot was taken with a very slow film and so lasted about 1/2 a second, I knew it would not be sharp and was waiting for some movement from my girlfriend. I loved the image and composition: the relationship she had to the sheets, the sense of morning and whiteness. she saw me 'eyeing' her panicked, and moved the sheets over her immediateley. I just pulled the trigger.......nothing was planned.

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 10, 2001.

I was impressed with the 15mm Heliar shots, I never really thought it would suite street portraits like it does. I must get myself one of those lenses.

-- James Cooke (james.c@mis.net.au), September 10, 2001.

These pix need Tabasco sauce.

There has to be more intensity, more edge, for this type of photography to work. Junkies? I need to see needle in the arm. Girl blowing a kiss? A nasty tongue at the camera would be better. As for the portraits, there's not enough happening internally. Everything is just too casual, too uninvolved. Also, I don't particularly like the 'prints'--they're a bit bland (like the photos)...and some subtle toning wouldn't hurt. My advice is to find a subject about which you feel passionately--then attack it from the inside out.

http://www.ravenvision.com/peterhughes.htm

-- Peter Hughes (ravenart@pacbell.net), September 10, 2001.

I'd agree with Peter that there is an edge that is missing from these. In some of them, it could be helped with more effective lighting. For example, the blond woman in France with the man behind her is a great shot, and might be fixed with some careful work on her face, but as it is, the light defeats it.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), September 10, 2001.

Thanks Peter and Jeff, for your honest thoughts, I do love a debate. I agree with your comments in some respects and I too think I need to find some way to engage with the subjects more in the way others have noted, thanks for the reinforcement. The thing I really love about photography is the subjectivity....I just had a look at your web site Peter, and I'll be honest it is not for me; no subtlety, and all a bit contrived in my subjective opinion. So I'll take your advice but not try to corrupt it by my indivdual opinion of your work, thanks again.

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 11, 2001.

Peter,

Just found your semiotics section. This is fantastice I love it, The relationship of space and colour here is fantastic: so how come I don't like your portraits?

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 11, 2001.