Jagalchi Denizens

[Austin Greene]

Two more from my visit to Jagalchi Fish Market here in South Korea. A short description is included with each. I'll be returning to do a more close-up portrait series of all the elderly faces. There are some great stories hiding in those wrinkles.


As always, hope you like them!

1. Approaching this vendor I asked "photo?" pointing to my camera. She kindly nodded, and then proceeded to talk to a man who had approached her small table. As I raise the camera, taking a couple frames, they talk and joke that she should put up the stereotypical "peace" sign. She does as a joke, but only for a split second.

Fish for sale, smiles free. by TogaLive, on Flickr

2. A remarkably kind woman at Jagalchi fish market prepares fish for sale at her humble steet-side stand. She greeted every passer-by, including myself, with a giant smile as she scaled and gutted her fish.

Chopping Block by TogaLive, on Flickr

 

[Austin Greene]

A bump for the morning crowd. I'm still not getting the hang of this time zone thing, even after a month being over here...

 

[Braineack]

i dont like how you strip out your camera data... rawr.

 

[Austin Greene]

i dont like how you strip out your camera data... rawr.

What? I wasn't aware I was. It shows everything on Flickr when I look. Maybe a setting I have to change somewhere so other folks can see?

 

[tirediron]

Nice!

 

[Derrel]

I like the simple clean background and good use of shallow DOF on the peace sign vendor. He face is sharp, and we can see she is actually talking, but the hands are actually moving, just a tiny bit! NICE! That really gives a bit of a time feel or temporal sensation, of a fleeting moment. I'm not as keen on the "tiltiness" of the second shot, and its cluttered background...too much of a grab-shot, gotta snap a frame at the market feel to me, I guess. The first shot is entirely different from the second. The first one seems, well, more of a composition, whereas the second one feels very late-period Gary Winogrand, which is to say, just sort of shooting and hoping to get something out of the frames, later.

 

[Braineack]

i dont like how you strip out your camera data... rawr.

What? I wasn't aware I was. It shows everything on Flickr when I look. Maybe a setting I have to change somewhere so other folks can see?

dunno. I don't have an option to view yours. but i can see what groups/albums the photo is in

 

[Austin Greene]

i dont like how you strip out your camera data... rawr.

What? I wasn't aware I was. It shows everything on Flickr when I look. Maybe a setting I have to change somewhere so other folks can see?

dunno. I don't have an option to view yours. but i can see what groups/albums the photo is in

Should be fixed now! Some funky profile setting in Flickr. Man, I wish I had known about that so long ago. I always wondered why folks would ask when it's right there.

 

[Austin Greene]

I like the simple clean background and good use of shallow DOF on the peace sign vendor. He face is sharp, and we can see she is actually talking, but the hands are actually moving, just a tiny bit! NICE! That really gives a bit of a time feel or temporal sensation, of a fleeting moment. I'm not as keen on the "tiltiness" of the second shot, and its cluttered background...too much of a grab-shot, gotta snap a frame at the market feel to me, I guess. The first shot is entirely different from the second. The first one seems, well, more of a composition, whereas the second one feels very late-period Gary Winogrand, which is to say, just sort of shooting and hoping to get something out of the frames, later.

Fair enough! I really appreciate the thought and the awesome critique! It's true that the first was more of a selective shot, just a frame or two and that was it. The second was a bit more of a spray as I hoped for a decent, non-distracting arrangement of people to pass by.

Thanks again man

 

[Braineack]

Should be fixed now! Some funky profile setting in Flickr. Man, I wish I had known about that so long ago. I always wondered why folks would ask when it's right there.

confirmed, thanks!

 

[Derrel]

I like the simple clean background and good use of shallow DOF on the peace sign vendor. Her face is sharp, and we can see she is actually talking, but the hands are actually moving, just a tiny bit! NICE! That really gives a bit of a time feel or temporal sensation, of a fleeting moment. I'm not as keen on the "tiltiness" of the second shot, and its cluttered background...too much of a grab-shot, gotta snap a frame at the market feel to me, I guess. The first shot is entirely different from the second. The first one seems, well, more of a composition, whereas the second one feels very late-period Gary Winogrand, which is to say, just sort of shooting and hoping to get something out of the frames, later.

Fair enough! I really appreciate the thought and the awesome critique! It's true that the first was more of a selective shot, just a frame or two and that was it. The second was a bit more of a spray as I hoped for a decent, non-distracting arrangement of people to pass by.

Thanks again man

Yeah...the people in the background are not helping. The hands behind the back, walking away person; the gestalt of that is something like, "Nothing worth seeing, I shall continue on my way until I find something worth looking at." There are seven people I can easily see in the background, and the center of the frame has that doggone guy. If you want to analyze street scenes, the BIGGEST thing is light-against-dark. In the top shot, the peace sign lady, her dark hair is seen against a light colored wall section. The fish-cleaning lady's dark hair melds into darkness. The peace sign lady has the bright fish all arranged and pointing right at her. Her hands separate from the background: take a look at where HER LEFT hand falls in relation to the background objects!!!!!. She is surrounded by her buckets and bins, from edge-to-edge. But still, the key thing is the hair and the light/dark thing on both women. Look also at the green bin and ziplock bag, a light-against-dark situation that demarcates the border very very powerfully. When you look at HCB's street work, he played around with light against dark, and it's one of the CLASSIC tools to get a person to "pop" from the scene. The first woman has a strong light against dark in the background, and also the fish.

Try this. Walk down the lighted side of a street, the street where the sun is hitting, and on the other side, have that be the side of the street where the sun is casting a shadow. INSTANT improvement in everything you shoot, on your side of the street with a wide-angle.

Then, walk down the other, shady side of the street. On that side, you will be shooting contre jour, and will have the ability to silhouette people, or to blow out the background through overexposure.

On the lady cleaning fish...the passers-by are too much an element,but the shot lacks impact also because SHE IS NOT SEPARATED from the clutter. The light is not good there. Not for that kind of a shot.

 

[IzzieK]

Hey Austin...love the first one...I am glad she agreed to pose for you albeit briefly. I love wet markets. Being an Asian, I missed it so much. We don't have much of that around here unless we go to Chinatown which is a bit far from where we live.