Girl on Harry Potter night

E

eric.schmiedl

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I can't decide whether I like this photo or not. What do you guys think?

Caption: "A Harry Potter fan shouts an angry retort to the heckling of a jaded passerby during the Harvard Square book release celebrations on Friday night."

girl.jpg
 
Eric - she looks like she is casting a spell at said heckler. We had them in St Albans too - shouting stupid and obvious things.

The picture is great - very lively, and you can clearly see the Hogwarts badge on her gown so it gives it context.
 
Excellent photo. lushd described it very well.

Why were the passers by jaded? They didn't have to wait, did they?

colin
 
Hi Eric,
I will not comment on your pic, but about your initiative. At the time we were talking about Harry Potter, you was photographing Harry Potter. I feel like an idiot.

You have it.
Cheers,
Ruben


PS,
As for MIT, you are my only available link. Could you check if that underground dealing with Casinos and so, is still working ? Perhaps I may sell some stuff and invest. The only hint I can give you is chronological, we should be speaking now about professors, not any more students.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ruben said:
Hi Eric,
I will not comment on your pic, but about your initiative. At the time we were talking about Harry Potter, you was photographing Harry Potter. I feel like an idiot.

You have it.
Cheers,
Ruben

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Click to expand...

Thanks!

For what it's worth, here's the rest of the evening's selects:
http://www.ericschmiedl.com/upload/hp7release/
(Shot with R-D1+28/1.9, D200 + 17-35/2.8 and 105/2.5 manual focus)
 
The caption adds interesting context, but I always say that if a picture needs a caption to be meaningful, the photographer hasn't done a complete job.

I don't think that's the case here. The picture stands on its own because of its timing, and because of the way the blurred limb and surroundings graphically reinforce the emotional tone of her expression. Even if you didn't know the rest, you'd know that this was a strong-minded young woman ticking off someone who had riled her.

If you had been able to catch the heckler in the frame, so the viewer could see the whole "transaction" at a glance, then you'd have a once-in-a-lifetime keeper -- something along the lines of Weegee's "The Critic" or Ruth Bernhard's shot of her friend Jinx Allen being leered at by Italian street toughs. But even without the heckler, it's still a well-caught moment. And (I can't help thinking like this because I used to be a layout editor) as a leadoff picture for a text-and-picture feature about "Harry Potter mania," it would be perfect -- I'd run it across the gutter and strip the headline into the dark area on the left side!
 
Thanks. I agree that it would be awesome to get the whole "transaction," but the timing would have made it impossible. (Don't forget that Weegee's "Critic" was posed.) The heckler wasn't standing still, but had turned back into the crowd before she made her response... and anyways, it was his loud comment that got my attention so that my camera was ready to get this shot!

I like your layout idea. Do you mind if I steal it? (I'm a photo editor at the MIT newspaper, http://tech.mit.edu)
 
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