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CHRIS PORSZ – STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

WHEN  TO PRESS THAT DELETE BUTTON!

5/28/2013

8 Comments

 
Picture
Check Point Charlie, Berlin May 2013.
Picture


My home town Peterborough is great for street photography but felt I needed  more variety and an international flavour to my website so I have recently sought and found inspiration in  Berlin and Amsterdam.  I took two and half thousand images  in the former and thought I did well  to whittle it down to 160 for my website.It concerned me that by  taking so many, which I would never have done with film, makes me a poorer photographer but I feel use the technology,whatever works and the proof is always in the pudding! Most I deleted for technical reasons due to  wrong exposure, out of focus or blurred and aesthetic reasons such as just boring or spoilt by poor composition. In my defence the very challenging nature of street photography makes this inevitable some of the time and better to seize the moment and capture an image than to  miss it. 

Award winning photographer, photo editor, journalist and film maker Martyn Moore created a beautiful website for me and it drives me to walk for miles and has transformed my photography. I try to do it justice by posting the best but find after all the effort, time and expense very  reluctant to press delete but  I have been  fortunate to have Martyn as a good friend and mentor to help me through this process. As he points out photographers often make poor editors of their work as they are too close and  like me do not want to let go of hard won images.  I welcome this positive critiquing  and I am  trying to adopt his  'less is more' and that if you post too many it dilutes and devalues the strong images and viewers soon get bored.

There is no substitute for getting it right first time  in the viewfinder and I  always have in the back of my mind when I am  taking photographs  that the  image needs to be technically correct, with good composition, unfussy back grounds and something unusual with wow factor. So I set my stage and wait or roam with  camera primed  on fast drive and  perhaps take ten shots to increase my chances of capturing  that unique gesture or expression. I cannot do Photo shop so keep it simple with a little editing and it is great to have  this second chance where cropping can make all the difference.  The next stage is to  pick out the best image which is usually obvious and the other thing Martyn has taught me is not to post similar images and rightly  points out ( see above) it is he who mainly makes films and my role is to tell a story in one image.

To help me improve my postings and to a start an editing debate  Martyn has added  his  'Berlin - editors choice' http://www.chrisporsz.com/berlin---editors-choice.html  and  selected his 51 favourites taken from  my adjacent 160 Berlin images. Let us know what you think of the selections  and Martyn and I will reply. 

As an added incentive a FREE copy of my popular book New England goes to the person who gets the 'Editors Berlin Choice' down to 50 by telling us which one  image should go and why. Secondly select one  image from my Berlin 160  that you feel should have made the editors choice and why.  Reply by clicking the contact box and closing date is June 5th. Watch this space as a second free book will be offered shortly on the theme of mono or colour.  

8 Comments
Riccardo
5/28/2013 04:02:06 pm

The one which should go is the bottom one for two main reasons.
The first reason is that the girl in the center looks at the camera and that is distracting.
The second reason is that in the bottom photo that same girl covers the militar, hiding in fact the stick which is jungling from the his belt.
A picture a should have made the editor choice is the one of the smiling girl pictured on the side of a bus, with a blond lady looking through the window. It really gives me the sense of contrast between the smiling young girl and the serious old lady.
A true street photo.
Cheers
Riccardo

Reply
Chris Porsz
5/29/2013 02:54:40 am

Thank you Riccardo for taking the time to look and comment. I usually like eye contact but agree this is a distraction, unnecessay and dilutes the strenth of the first image. This is exactly the point that photo editor Martyn is constantly trying to impress on me and he is right.Good point about the belt too.

I too like the bus image with the contrast between street dreams and reality. Thanks Chris.

Reply
Martyn link
5/29/2013 04:30:26 am

Interesting Riccardo. I don't mind the eye contact and I prefer the girl on the left to be looking at her camera. I agree about the baton on the belt but I also like the balance of the composition and the soldier's hand on his comrade's backside. Great conversation. Thank you.

Reply
Chris Porsz link
5/30/2013 04:36:15 am

As I often do I set my stage and waited over half an hour for the right characters to walk on. I held up my camera and hoped for that apologetic duck of not wanting to get in the way of some mad photographer. They look as if they are caught up in cold war history and are trying to escape but the splash of colour reminds us they are decades apart and her bemused smile reassures us they have reached safety.
I agree with Martyn it would be better if the other girl was looking at her camera and I too like the odd looking gentle hand on the backside! An ideal picture would include all of this but such is the spontaneous nature of street photography.
It is probably why I posted two similar images but I agree the trick is trying to tell a story in one picture and not diluting the stronger one by posting two.

Reply
Steven link
9/6/2013 05:00:46 pm

I take it we are commenting on the 51 Editor choice? Believe it or not, I would omit the last one, http://www.chrisporsz.com/uploads/7/0/3/3/7033374/_7249027.jpg as i found the image confusing. I don't find enough seperation between the person, the bag, and the rock in the background.

I too like the 'bus' image, but I would include this one http://www.chrisporsz.com/uploads/7/0/3/3/7033374/4848094_orig.jpg if I was to chose. I can NEVER seem to get a dog or a child look at my camera, let alone both in the same frame!...

Reply
Chris Porsz link
9/7/2013 02:08:35 pm

Hi Steven

Thank you for taking the time to look and contribute to my blog. Such constructive critique is appreciated and very helpful. I agree about the lady on the stone as it is poor composition and yes I like the juxtaposition of adverts and people such as the bus one. The dog and child image was a lucky grab shot but I do like canine pictures as the dogs usually do make eye contact. Can you please describe the image you would include. Thanks Chris.

Reply
Steven link
9/7/2013 02:39:48 pm

Sorry, didn't make it clear above, but I would include this image ..

http://www.chrisporsz.com/uploads/7/0/3/3/7033374/4848094_orig.jpg

which is of a dog, but also a child in a pram as well. Both of them are looking at the camera. I like the fact that you have managed to capture them both looking at the camera ...

Steven link
9/7/2013 02:40:44 pm

Sorry, didn't make it clear above, but I would include this image ..

http://www.chrisporsz.com/uploads/7/0/3/3/7033374/4848094_orig.jpg

which is of a dog, but also a child in a pram as well. Both of them are looking at the camera. I like the fact that you have managed to capture them both looking at the camera

Reply



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