Surfing Culture: Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists...

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists enjoying a local surf comp. Any thoughts?

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Dave Chinn

ozdude wrote:

Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists enjoying a local surf comp. Any thoughts?

Cool !!! Love the tone, depth of field and the composition. Nice work, glad you came back to it and posted.
Dave

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

Dave Chinn wrote:

Cool !!! Love the tone, depth of field and the composition. Nice work, glad you came back to it and posted.
Dave

Thanks Dave glad you approve. Still not sure if the tone is right. The slight sepia look felt right at first but I dunno.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

For me there is no way to tell who is Australian and who is tourist - as all are wearing similar clothing (and there's no camera or cell phone snapping). Also no way to know they are watching a surfing competition.

However, I do like their poses and the view and so the image works for me as one where I'd insert my own story

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Same problem as Linda. The couple on the left convey a feeling of togetherness, though....

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

ozdude wrote:

Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists enjoying a local surf comp. Any thoughts?

I like the clouds and the sepia treatment. I think it works very well for this photo. I would not have come up with the multicultural interest in a single event theme; but that, I think is besides the point. I like the perspective of this photo also. A bonus is the seagull who is zooming in for a better look. Nice photo.
Erich

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Sometimes we too deep my friend and waylaid by thinking a fota must tell a story, show different cultures, create moods and other such poo. What you have is a great picture so just leave the audience to make of it what they wish. It's just four people hanging around near a beach and what they are doing is anybody's guess. Watching a couple get frisky at the waters edge sounds fun to me. I could think of more things they could be doing all possibly wrong and possibly not welcomed on a very straight website but that's the interesting thing about this shot. Verbal captions comic book style coming from their mouths with totally irreverent and politically incorrect comments would make a nice addition for a different version.
The sepia is OK but the vignette at the sides does not help this fine piece of work. Enjoyable post young Mark.

infocus Loc: Australia

ozdude wrote:

Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists enjoying a local surf comp. Any thoughts?

I love the image in every way. Tonality, the fact that it's B&W, DoF, etc., etc, My only "beef" is I don't see in it what you describe but that's because you were there and you KNOW what it was. What I see is 4 people (origin unknown) pondering the waves and their strength and beauty. It's a beautiful image.

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

Linda From Maine wrote:

For me there is no way to tell who is Australian and who is tourist - as all are wearing similar clothing (and there's no camera or cell phone snapping). Also no way to know they are watching a surfing competition.

However, I do like their poses and the view and so the image works for me as one where I'd insert my own story

Thanks Linda. You are of course correct in what you see in the image and I jumped the gun by thinking others would see what I know. I tend to get excited at these events and talk a lot to the other spectators so that is how I knew these guys were visitors from Sendai in Japan. It never occurred to me that it is of course impossible to know that just by sight.
The carnival setting of the event is hidden by the aspect of the shot but I hoped the wave sets and the surfers would be enough to convey competition.
Thanks for having a look and getting me back on track.

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

R.G. wrote:

Same problem as Linda. The couple on the left convey a feeling of togetherness, though....

Thanks R.G you are correct. Please see my explanation in Linda's reply.
Thanks again for your comments.
Mark

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

ebrunner wrote:

I like the clouds and the sepia treatment. I think it works very well for this photo. I would not have come up with the multicultural interest in a single event theme; but that, I think is besides the point. I like the perspective of this photo also. A bonus is the seagull who is zooming in for a better look. Nice photo.
Erich

Thank you Erich for your thoughts. What drew me to the scene was having two pair of people separated by space with the point of interest exposed in the middle.
I'm glad you like the sepia look. I have decided that it does suit the shot.
Mark

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

Billyspad wrote:

Sometimes we too deep my friend and waylaid by thi... (show quote)

Billy you are truly a Zen master of photography!
We all take ourselves way too seriously and should keep perspective in the simplicity of our visions. Who knows what these souls were thinking but maybe Sony will bring out a camera that will read minds and create captions to add interest. LOL
Thx again mate.
Mark

ozdude Loc: Brisbane Australia

infocus wrote:

I love the image in every way. Tonality, the fact that it's B&W, DoF, etc., etc, My only "beef" is I don't see in it what you describe but that's because you were there and you KNOW what it was. What I see is 4 people (origin unknown) pondering the waves and their strength and beauty. It's a beautiful image.

Thanks Infocus I'm glad you like. Don't worry about my insightful BS rants. Just me getting ahead of myself.
Mark

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

ozdude wrote:

Took this one a while ago and came back to it. Trying to portray two cultures appreciating one interest. A young Australian couple and a couple of Japanese tourists enjoying a local surf comp. Any thoughts?

My feeling is that it would be a stronger image if you had left the pair on the right out altogether, there is no connection between the two pairs. The left hand pair are connected, both physically and, perhaps, emotionally, of course you would need more space to the left. The surfers are too small to have anything but minimal effect on th picture, i think it would help somewhat to clone out through post in front of the surfers. Also, to my mind, the vignette is too strong... perhaps it's not needed at all?

Graham.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

The picture within the picture.....

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