"the fair"

[emraphoto]

larry towell (magnum photographer) photographed the mennonites in the area extensively and greatly influenced the way i see with the rangefinder camera... the way i see images... the sense of style. these are a few of the very same folk at the local county fair.
i only hope i can capture the same dignity and deep sense of family these folks exude.
let me know what you think!
cheers
john

 

[emraphoto]

some more...

 

[emraphoto]

anyone?
hello...

 

[PlantedTao]

interesting series...has a nice nostalgic family feel, which is what (I think) your were going for. I especially like the boy swing'n the hammer, this photo has a nice tilt that adds a lot to the composition.
I think you did well documenting this...the images are good and well composed.
I do think you could work on the post process and try to get more detail out of the shadows...I like contrasty photos, but I think a lot of detail in faces and some areas has been lost...
could just be the monitor and size...

nice job.

Jason

 

[Avotius]

the third and fifth photos stick out at me as the better ones from the series. I am not familiar with the work of larry towell but in my personal opinion what these photos lack is a more intimate feel, thats just me though, I like that up close connected feeling and photos like number one and two kind of feel disconnected.

 

[summilux]

very nice photos.

 

[Xmas]

They seem to be nice neighbours, and I like the shots, I lose shadow detail but it is underexposure for me.

Noel

 

[merciful]

They're OK, but in order to make the viewer connect with the subject matter, you need to be more intimate and engaged with the subject. We need to feel that we're there, involved in the moment, not standing back from everything. They're also somewhat random: the moments aren't really moments that are going to stick with the viewer.

Technically, they seem in general underexposed, though that could be just post-processing.

 

[TJV]

As a series, these photographs mean nothing. I agree with the opinion that they are too dark etc and that you need to get closer. Also, I think it is evident here that the old saying that "children and the elderly are the easiest to photograph," holds true. Try getting invloved in the action and talking / interacting with people. Only when you're amongst it yourself will the viewer be engaged with what they are seeing. Larry Towell is an exceptional photographer but I think his style is now somewhat dated (for want of a better description.) Take a look at Luc Delahaye's stuff and Jonas Bendiksen of Magnum, especially his lates book. If black and white is more you then look at Antoine D'Agata's eary work from Mexico. Like the subject matter or not, the guy's involved and the energy and missery surrounding his life is evident in the pictures.

Tim

 

[emraphoto]

thanx for the comments folks. i'm afraid that i am absolutely pleased with the exposures... i am a big fan of absolute blacks in my work. shadow detail is a bit hard to judge as these were scanned at 600 dpi for the web. when scanned (and not compressed) at twice that you can really see a lot more info. i assure you the 35 asph cron really picks up a lot of info... as far as the distance between me and the subjects i totally agree with the comments. i bought a 50 and a 75 shortly after that... i understand a lot of shooters like the 35's and 28's for this kind of stuff but for me it's the 75 and 50 all the way!
thanx for taking the time to comment. i will definately look up the photographers mentioned BUT larry towell is certainly not dated in my books!
cheers
john

 

[merciful]

Glad to help. They do need to be at least a little bigger in order to make more informed judgements, certainly: they're pretty small even for the web. As for the exposures, only you can decide what you like, of course: but I'm a big fan of blacks (my work definitely shows that) but it's the greys that show undereposure: the skintones don't seem skintoned here.

 

[emraphoto]

yeah, good point... it was actually a real difficult day to be shooting (and terrible timing as well) as it was about 2-3pm and the sun was right on top of us. it hindsight i should have metered up with my sekonic (say my hand in the shadow) and went with those readings...
live and learn i suppose
john

 

[emraphoto]

nice work andrew...

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Nice. Buy get closer next time.

 

[merciful]

Thanks very much.

Ain't nothing to it but living and learning (and really careful metering on days like that.)

nice work andrew...