5th Place Despair Number 2, July 1, 2009 by Traveller by Canon DSLR Challenge

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Despair Number 2, July 1, 2009
by Traveller


01-JUL-2009	Traveller

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elips		07-Jul-2009 03:29
I am impressed, Traveller. This is excellent; well thought out and dramatic. Good work! ~Sharon

alexeig		03-Jul-2009 23:02
Great dramatic image

Canon DSLR Challenge		03-Jul-2009 10:16
Dear Jim and Lyida To approach strangers you need to be a bit thick skinned. Unfortunately, I am not thick skinned...it is easy to hurt my feelings. I am still more than a little put out that my plumber, (I mean my Plumber!) called a mutual friend to ask if it was Okay to let me take his picture...it seemed pretty weird to him, and he didn't want to say this to me and hurt my feelings. Ahem. Well.... Life happens. I think people like to have their pictures taken....they are flattered if you ask right and gently, (say they are for interest and background for the shot)....where things go South is when you let it be known that the images will be post on the internet...that's when my plumber and the people at the coffee house went bat poo-poo insane and ran for the door like their hair was on fire. For myself, certainly with a set up shot....I feel it necessary, ( though other people need not follow my lead), to let people know exactly how the image will be used. And that's when things get bad. But hey...that's life. (oh, in the war, the one long ago, I was a photo-journalist....(after I was shot, black water fever, malaria etc. etc, everyone else was dead, blah, blah, blah {insert here old man stories})....so I got into a habit then to ask permission of even soldiers to take their pictures. State side I of course even had to get a release. Good manners and politeness never go out of style. Traveller

Canon DSLR Challenge		03-Jul-2009 03:17
That's a compliment, you know, Trav... The rest of the story was quite interesting. Thanks! But, by 'more' I was asking to hear how you go about shooting 'strangers' in public places... especially when they know it beforehand. I suppose, in a sense, you already answered this.. .You have 'that kind of personality/face'. But, can you help me learn to do this? I'm not open to plastic surgery. ;) ~Lydia

Canon DSLR Challenge		03-Jul-2009 02:50
Nice work. theFly

Canon DSLR Challenge		03-Jul-2009 00:00
Well, not completely a stranger....he is an artist, a Serbian (Refugee{?}), and he is quite pleased with this image. Enough so that he insisted that I DL it on his key chain drive. The strangers all stepped back...there are other images from this set with additional people in them, but this is what I want to go with. There is always more to tell and the story here is quite fascinating, but, in that people tend, just willy-nilly, to tell me their life story out of the blue....I feel some constraint to telling this man's history...even if it is quite interesting. People talk to me...especially strangers....probably because I talk to them. Truth is I have to keep moving around this huge city so I go places people don't know me...because, random bus boys, waitresses and just wanderer's on the street will stop by to say hello and tarry a spell, so, I move on from this area to to another just so I can have a quiet moment. But then I'll start talking to strangers again....both my blessing and my curse. Best Wishes, Traveller

Canon DSLR Challenge		02-Jul-2009 19:42
Tell more, Trav. I'd never have the guts to approach strangers... Well, my family's kinda strange... but they know me. :) ~Lydia

Canon DSLR Challenge		02-Jul-2009 03:12
Actually, it's not a bar....but close enough....the white cup is really a bowl of soup, all he can afford as an unemployed person...I had to take some time, with strangers yet, to set this up....I am pleased with it. The implicit question is, if this is Despair No 1 on July 1, which has just begun, what was despair 1?!? Initially, this was going to be kind of a Night Hawks sort of shot...but people scatter when I bring out the EX580 on an off the camera cord....lol But I tell them what I am doing...the gentleman in the image is, in fact, in a bit of despair. But I like this image. Traveller

Canon DSLR Challenge		02-Jul-2009 01:15
Ouch, Trav... Don't you have a photo of the bartender unloading the tip jar into his pockets or something?? Something cheerful? :) ~Lydia