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Jennifer Zhou | all galleries >> Galleries >> China on the Move > Practice Makes Perfect, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 2004
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24-DEC-2004

Practice Makes Perfect, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 2004

Soldiers consider it an honor to raise the national flag every morning in Tiananmen Square. Pride, respect, and repeated practice show in this shot of a soldier who has literally wrapped himself in the national flag as he works for perfection.


I wanna send this picture as a New Year gift to my friend Charlie, I wish him a joyful 2005! :)

Canon EOS 10D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM
1/320s f/6.3 at 84.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time24-Dec-2004 10:06:39
MakeCanon
ModelEOS 10D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length84 mm
Exposure Time1/320 sec
Aperturef/6.3
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias-1 1/3
White Balance (-1)
Metering Mode
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Yiannis Pavlis28-Aug-2006 03:48
really great shot.
Guest 14-Jan-2005 06:04
Thanks Jenn! Wish you have a fantastic Spring Festival!!
Guest 30-Dec-2004 13:13
Flag, always an abstract concept in it's self, a piece of cloth as I say that represents a piece of ground were people live in all with fronteres, political and economic interests, etc. all that is what a flag symbolizes to me. The picture also has the incongruence that you don't know if he is rising it or lowering it, if the caption wold not have specificated it I wold have though he was lowering it. You know how I feel about all these things. Though I like the irony of the soldier wraped up in the flag as the flag embraicing him as his protector or the soldier embracing it as if it whas his love that is little by little going away. This picture also has a nice strong geometrical elements contrasted with the not as geometric branches of the tries that give a bit les rigidness to the photo. I also like the red in the buildings and the flag contrasted with the green of the soldiers and then the lighter colours of the upper part of the photo giving it a bit of breathing space. I was thinking about how wold it have been a bit more cropped but no, I prefere nature to be present and covering the human made buildings and ideologies, or watching on them.
Phil Douglis30-Dec-2004 03:28
****This is another image that tells a story, primarily because of its rich color contrast and scale incongruity. It speaks of human values, too -- the soldiers handle the flag with great respect. On of them has even draped his body within the flag, making it a part of him. So it is more than just a description of military practice. It speaks of how these soldiers feel about their duty to their country. It is deceptively well organized. You take the right distance to create the scale incongruity, comparing the large flag to the smaller soldiers. You frame the flag diagonally within the rhythmic lines of the roof that extend from it. You shoot the flag as a triangular shape, and then echo that shape with the triangular tree above it. Another triangle is formed by the green bars that come in from the right hand edge of the picture, as well as by the post, roof, and top edge of the flag. You may not have been fully aware of working with repeating geometric shapes here, Jen, but your instincts for organization worked for you here. As your eye matures, you will not only capture moments such as this with your shutter, but you will also gradually become much more conscious of how your context is structurally organized. All in all, another remarkably effective story telling image from a master story teller.
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