Challenge #59:"Brotherhood /Sisterhood"- Evaluated & Winner Announced
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 1:20 pm
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Hi and welcome to the evaluation thread of Challenge #59: "Brother / Sisterhood".
For this challenge there were 3 entries from Sury, Jeff / the_hefay, and Bakubo/Henry Richardson.
The three entries have some common features: there are two subjects interacting in each photo and each photo displays one of the characters as more responsive and active than the other.
When I announced this particular challenge with this topic, I must have had some other notion and approach to the topic because I was expecting some other type of photos depicting brotherhood or sisterhood among human beings. The photos you submitted literally depicted moments between real brothers and siblings. : ) So, I bent my own expectations to match what I was seeing in the shots.
Let's have a look at what I thought when I saw your subjects. Thank you all three for your entries and contributions.
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1/.. Our winner for this challenge is Jeff / the_hefay with his entry titled "Holiday at the Plaza".
Congratulations Jeff and thank you for your entry.
Composition: Good; a square frame that keeps everything tidy and neat in a proportional containment.
Coherent and meaningful background subjects, although some smooth bokeh / depth of field would have helped in the isolation of the two men to bring more focus to them. But I still like seeing the rest of the plaza-goers and especially the rather over-weight boy who feeds the pigeons and the girl talking to her friends she's hanging out with.
Colours and processing: A very colourful environment pertaining to the cultural life of South America. The shot is almost self-saturated due to the abundant sunlight and the colours of the nation.
Why I chose this photo as the winning photo ?
The story:
Two men, a youngster and a considerably older. They a share a photo moment to perpetuate this sunny day in the plaza into the future. We clearly see both of the faces that display completely different emotions and responses to the particular moment, when a photographer that's not visible in the frame presses the shutter button as they look into the lens.
Older man, probably a lover of wildlife and travelling, has a t-shirt on that reads "CALI-FOR-NIA, AMERICAN CULTURE", with two greezly brown bears trotting the wilderness printed on the letters. Has North America's culture at heart as well as South America's apparently. He has a backpack which may be one of the signs that shows that he keeps to the wild tracks and trails but he's in the heart of the city now...who knows where he's heading to next...
He's slightly leaning on the younger man and loosely embracing him with his left arm while he rests his right hand on this belt. He's not smiling. He knows life too well to smile right out into a lens for the sake of a one-time-plaza-shot. But he owns up to the moment and is focused enough to let us know that this 'shared' moment with the younger is important enough for him.
He has authentic dark skin and chisseled facial features that closely resemble his ancestors, the Astecs or the Mayans: high cheek bones, deeply inset dark eyes shaded. His facial expression says that 'he's in no hurry and will take this moment in'....
Younger man has years before him to mature and his shy smile and body posture tell us that he knows it. He is probably a teenager and wants to appear self-confident, good-natured and less childish standing next to the older man. He's aware that he lacks the life experience that will make him look more relaxed for this particular shot next to the older one but also doesn't want to look over-eager by over-compensating. But, in fact, he's eager. He does want to look as though he is up to the challenge. Look how he wants to look taller by standing upright as though he's also rising a little on his toes: and look how he's loosely hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans to look 'cool', as though he is 'a worldly young man' in his own right alongside the relaxed older man.
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Conclusion:
I preferred this photo for all the reasons above and for the 'subtle', quiet expressionism of how we change our attitute and postures when we are among people that we look up to and want to impress, to match in looks to their skill or life experience, so we don't feel an outsider or outside their circle. For me, this characteristic of human nature for trying to live or match up to the standards of an other/older is depicted in this frame, through two different generations of men, standing side by side.
I hope I made my thoughts come across into your visionary conceptions for this particular shot.
Jeff's "Holiday at the Plaza"-The winning photo
.
Hi and welcome to the evaluation thread of Challenge #59: "Brother / Sisterhood".
For this challenge there were 3 entries from Sury, Jeff / the_hefay, and Bakubo/Henry Richardson.
The three entries have some common features: there are two subjects interacting in each photo and each photo displays one of the characters as more responsive and active than the other.
When I announced this particular challenge with this topic, I must have had some other notion and approach to the topic because I was expecting some other type of photos depicting brotherhood or sisterhood among human beings. The photos you submitted literally depicted moments between real brothers and siblings. : ) So, I bent my own expectations to match what I was seeing in the shots.
Let's have a look at what I thought when I saw your subjects. Thank you all three for your entries and contributions.
---------------------------------------
1/.. Our winner for this challenge is Jeff / the_hefay with his entry titled "Holiday at the Plaza".
Congratulations Jeff and thank you for your entry.
Composition: Good; a square frame that keeps everything tidy and neat in a proportional containment.
Coherent and meaningful background subjects, although some smooth bokeh / depth of field would have helped in the isolation of the two men to bring more focus to them. But I still like seeing the rest of the plaza-goers and especially the rather over-weight boy who feeds the pigeons and the girl talking to her friends she's hanging out with.
Colours and processing: A very colourful environment pertaining to the cultural life of South America. The shot is almost self-saturated due to the abundant sunlight and the colours of the nation.
Why I chose this photo as the winning photo ?
The story:
Two men, a youngster and a considerably older. They a share a photo moment to perpetuate this sunny day in the plaza into the future. We clearly see both of the faces that display completely different emotions and responses to the particular moment, when a photographer that's not visible in the frame presses the shutter button as they look into the lens.
Older man, probably a lover of wildlife and travelling, has a t-shirt on that reads "CALI-FOR-NIA, AMERICAN CULTURE", with two greezly brown bears trotting the wilderness printed on the letters. Has North America's culture at heart as well as South America's apparently. He has a backpack which may be one of the signs that shows that he keeps to the wild tracks and trails but he's in the heart of the city now...who knows where he's heading to next...
He's slightly leaning on the younger man and loosely embracing him with his left arm while he rests his right hand on this belt. He's not smiling. He knows life too well to smile right out into a lens for the sake of a one-time-plaza-shot. But he owns up to the moment and is focused enough to let us know that this 'shared' moment with the younger is important enough for him.
He has authentic dark skin and chisseled facial features that closely resemble his ancestors, the Astecs or the Mayans: high cheek bones, deeply inset dark eyes shaded. His facial expression says that 'he's in no hurry and will take this moment in'....
Younger man has years before him to mature and his shy smile and body posture tell us that he knows it. He is probably a teenager and wants to appear self-confident, good-natured and less childish standing next to the older man. He's aware that he lacks the life experience that will make him look more relaxed for this particular shot next to the older one but also doesn't want to look over-eager by over-compensating. But, in fact, he's eager. He does want to look as though he is up to the challenge. Look how he wants to look taller by standing upright as though he's also rising a little on his toes: and look how he's loosely hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans to look 'cool', as though he is 'a worldly young man' in his own right alongside the relaxed older man.
--------------------------------
Conclusion:
I preferred this photo for all the reasons above and for the 'subtle', quiet expressionism of how we change our attitute and postures when we are among people that we look up to and want to impress, to match in looks to their skill or life experience, so we don't feel an outsider or outside their circle. For me, this characteristic of human nature for trying to live or match up to the standards of an other/older is depicted in this frame, through two different generations of men, standing side by side.
I hope I made my thoughts come across into your visionary conceptions for this particular shot.
Jeff's "Holiday at the Plaza"-The winning photo
.