By Suggestion Of Jon Mikal

elsaspet · Jun 12, 2005

I was talking to JK about Critique and he suggested I find what I believed to be my strongest image of the KKK protest and post it as a stand alone, to see if it indeed told the story on it's own merit. I thought that it was a brilliant idea. I asked which to post, but decided that I thought this one was the one to go with. I was there and felt the emotion, so it's hard for me to be objective..........

tr0gd0o0r · Jun 13, 2005

I think this photo does a pretty good job of telling the story, but there is a lot distracting me in the photography. First of all, I wonder about the focus of the image. Did you inted to focus on the white guy, my visual focus goes to the black guy being held back. On one hand I can see how this could be intentional and meaningful, but the meaning goes over my head if so. Secondly, I think the sign is an integral part of the story of this photograph and it is slightly over exposed and could easily be missed.

There is a lot of stuff that distracts me in this photo. For exmplae, the white guy and the guy with the camera slung over his shoulder. I think a tighter crop is a strong image (crop tight on the two black men and keep the sign in the photo. On the other hand there are several things that could be lost by that. I''m gonna have to jump onto hertz recent bandwagon and say, deciding exactly what you want the imge to say is what will determine the crop issue.

mpdc · Jun 13, 2005

I think you picked the correct photo.
Nice sjhot.

I noticed in your other photos you had cops on the line, what do you think they were thingking?
Mind you, an officer must protect all, no matter what they think...

ShutteredEye · Jun 13, 2005

I like that the KKK dude has red on=inflammatory.

I agree with the others, the camera men are a tad distracting, and creative crop might go a long way here.

THere is definitly some great powerful material here.

terri · Jun 13, 2005

Hi Elsapet! I'm struggling just a tad with this one.....for me a classic photojournalistic image is one that hits you with great force and tells a complete story in a flash.

This one almost does that for me, but not quite. Having the sign in the back helps, but I'd agree that the focus on the red shirt guy is pulling my eye from the rest.

And I'm unsure as to the meaning behind the 2 guys who are grappling....or are they? :scratch: Since they both have sunglasses on the eyes are hidden - and up close like this, that's a huge loss in emotion for me. You were there - you have the advantage because you also heard them, but I don't have that prior knowledge and the photo can't tell me for certain. Are they proud to be there, feeling united, or are they just angry? And the white guys seems too....passive, I think, to actually add much to the scene, if that makes sense.

You alluded to there being a series from this event? I'd like to see more, definitely. :thumbup: Kudos for being there; I'm sure it was an emotional day. :salute:

My two cents.

elsaspet · Jun 13, 2005

Hi and thank you for the suggestions. I'm gonna try a crop for sure. I'll post the cropped image in just a bit.
Terri, the rest of the images are in the Photo Section under, "My first Press Assignment-KKK"

elsaspet · Jun 13, 2005

Ok, here is the image cropped. Personally, I like it a LOT better this way. Thank you all for the suggestion.

Karalee · Jun 13, 2005

Love the crop, it really unbusies the picture (is unbusies a word :?: ) and the KKK sign in the background reinforces the image imo.

JonMikal · Jun 13, 2005

Karalee said:
it really unbusies the picture (is unbusies a word :?: )

it is now!

i agree that the crop pulls the focus to what's important here. my guess is this guy is pissed and wants a piece of somebody and his friend is holding him back?....very touchy subject.

either way, IMO, this image conveys a message of built up frustration and anger that carries back to the 50's...very strong! nice work elsapet.

MDowdey · Jun 13, 2005

great shots!!! but i also think the cropped version could use a little sharpening...but thats just me, i like some sharp shots!

great work for a tough assignment by the way!

md

Nikon Fan · Jun 13, 2005

I agree with Matt, a tad bit of sharpening is in order

But the crop does wonders for this shot!!! One other thing I would suggest is to try and clone out what is left of the white guys nose and red beard on the left side

Didn't notice it at first, but now it's driving me nuts :lol:

Great series that you came up with though!!!

elsaspet · Jun 13, 2005

Thanks Amanda. Yeah, I saw the beard and nose too, and it's making me crazy as well. I don't have CS here, so I have to wait until I get home, but I can't wait to do the sharpening and the clone. I think it will look great. I repost after I do those two things.

THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

Scott WRG Editor · Jun 13, 2005

I agree, the cropped version is the way to go, very powerful image. Good job!

tr0gd0o0r · Jun 13, 2005

for the beard and nose, try cropping it just a little bit tighter. I'd also suggest cropping the other sdie a little bit tighter, I played w/ the photo a little bit when trying to get advice, and liked it a lot like that, might be something to look at. You lose a little bit of each person, but i liked that part

FuddyDuddy · Jun 13, 2005

Hello,

Sorry, but I don't think there anything particularly remarkable about any of these pictures. Some one e-mailed me a link to this: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=12514&cat=500&page=1 earlier today. Again sorry, but I think it beats the pants off of yours.

Regards

F. Duddy