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Konica Minolta Users | all galleries >> KM Challenges Hall of Fame >> HOF C1 to C5 > 1st: Lonely Rickshaw Man - by Smatty
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26-NOV-2003 Smatty

1st: Lonely Rickshaw Man - by Smatty

Hongkong

I saw this old man sitting on his Rickshaw,waiting for a customer, close to the Hongkong Star Ferry Terminal. Many people passed by him, so in that sense he was not "alone". But none of the people walking by paid any attention to him. To me, this represents how lonely one can be even when surrounded by many people.

Minolta DiMAGE A1
1/100s f/3.5 at 50.5mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Luminus 11-Mar-2004 08:45
I completely dig this picture. In fact, originally I also wanted to do an "alone-in-the-crowd" shot as well..but after seeing this I figure I couldn't do any better so I gave up that idea. The underexposure of people walking past the old man makes any DOF blurring unnecessary, IMHO, and the bright background contrasts the darker forground...so I think this picture is just about perfect.
Guest 04-Mar-2004 13:16
Smatty,
I'm always against BW pictures. Do not ask me why. It isnt't clear even for me :-))
But I really do like your picture. It definitely tells a lot and your interpretation below adds even more. Look at his face... Would you mind to show/send me the color version, if any? (plamen_antonow@hotmail.com - up to 1MB attachments)
Looking at the picture I get the idea do mask the old man and the rickshaw and apply some motion effect in PS. It would be hard probably and I'm almost certain the result won't be better, but this is just an idea...
Have never been in SE Asia and hopefully I'll get there some day, so I have a lot to learn about that society, but looking at the old man I'm getting the feeling that I won't feel fery comfortably in that seat with him pulling all the load including me...
Regards
Smatty 03-Mar-2004 16:48
niamh,

yes, the guy has to pull the thing by himself. And there are up to 2 people in the rickshaw!!!

To tell you the truth, I was thinking of the DOF or blurred bywalkers, too. Just to focus more on the subject. I don't know if it would look better. I gave up on the post processing after seeing, how much details I would have to cancell out (just look the spokes of the wheels...). This is the only shot I got.
niamh 03-Mar-2004 14:03
Smatty, I really like this image - I think it works great in b&w and the rickshaw owner is really appealing. I'm not all that familiar with rickshaws, tell me, how does it work? A customer gets in and sits down... that old guy doesn't have to pull the thing along himself, does he?? No motor or horse or anything? Wow, talk about hard work. If I could make just one constructive criticism... I would like to see another shot for comparison of this scene with the rickshaw owner standing out from the background more - say something like a shallower DOF or longer shutter speed to blur the oblivious people around him, or perhaps different light. I'm not saying it would work better than this shot because I am honestly not sure. I mean, having the subject understated works well in this context as it looks natural and makes you think. But I would be interested to see a comparison. ;)
John down under 03-Mar-2004 13:09
Smatty,
Smart interpretation of the theme and a good pic. Well done. Cheers, John
Claudio Gatti02-Mar-2004 17:42
Hi Smatty,

no,no don't even think about taking it out! I like this image very much and I see your interpretation very clearly.

Claudio
Smatty 02-Mar-2004 09:42
Hi Claudio,

I know what you mean by the subject not beeing alone, as there are so many more people in the picture. I was thinking for some time if I should use this or not. So I went back to Feri's subject discription and found this:
"Try to illustrate the concept of someone/something being alone, or being single, or lonely, or happy being out there without anybody/anything comparable."
My interpretation was, and that's how I wrote it in the image description, that this person is alone and lonely. There is no one interacting or paying attention. I felt this way, when I was standing there in Hongkong. I felt sorry for the old man because he was well into retirement age and still had to work. He did it in a nice fashion in a traditional way. But the modern, high tech society left him unappreciated. I know this is a lot of interpretation into the image, and I feel very strong about it as this moment has really stuck to me. (actually it came first into my mind when I read Feris subject announcement)
If others think that this image does not go along with the subject criteria, I will take it of the gallery, no problem. After all, this is not only learning about photography, but also on interpretation of subjects. I felt there were some entries in the past, where I did not see the subject criteria beeing met, so we should really ask for an explanation to see what the photographer meant.
On a different note, I really appreciate the comments underneath the photo :-)
Claudio Gatti02-Mar-2004 05:14

Nice shot that works very well in BW. Lots of details to look at and it does give you the sense of waves of people moving through. I like the photo a lot, but I don't get a strong feeling of "alone"

Claudio