bfur396

What some folks have as ambience for dining... Grand Central Market, Los Angeles

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Voss

Nice shot. Doesn't look too comfortable out there.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Nice shot. Not sure I like the cropping and certainly do not like the converging parallel lines.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Which lines are those?

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

The verticals across the street, especially at Subway. Just a pet peeve of mine when having straight things like buildings in the picture.

bfur396

Actually the pic I posted was the original without post processing in which I did take care of the vertical lines and did some cropping. Would like to see how others might work the pic -- I can always learn more from all of you out there...

bfur396

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Will do tonight if not gets to it first.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

None of them appear to be "converging lines". Maybe if they were extended 10 times the height of the image, but they aren't.

Tilting verticals, the result of perspective, is a common problem and rarely looks good. I'll agree on that one! In this case it just isn't enough to make much difference though...

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I was a bit intrigued by your title. I personally would not crop much (maybe to a 5:4 aspect ratio though), and absolutely would not straighten the tilting verticals.

That last, about the verticals, may be surprising; but they add something useful to the composition. This image is a strange slice of life, not just an average slice, and most of all it is not a "formal" slice. It appears the two people are totally unassociated, other than having gotten something to eat from the Subway located behind them. It's the chance encounter of those two disparate humans in that particular environment that is the subject of the image. The nature of that encounter is what compositional attributes need to enhance.

The nature of the entire scene is just "a snapshot from Granny's scrapbook" in nature; with all that strange detail there to make it interesting enough to take out a magnifying glass and look at every square inch of it! The tilted verticals enhance that "atmosphere", to keep it from looking like a formal image "staged" in the photographer's mind.

The lady on the right is the typical "bag lady" with a shopping cart. Except her cart is not a shopping cart. It's a little more creative, or at least an adaption of the resources she has available. She has on at least 4 layers of clothing, and that might be another layer spread out on the cart. In that way she seems very typical of a "bag lady". (Such people can be extremely interesting, with a great deal more depth than it might appear. 30 years ago I lived near Fairbanks Alaska and there was an old gal who hung around a shopping center near where I worked. Over the years the local paper had more than one feature article in the Sunday section about her. When she passed away there was a huge article.)

The guy is perhaps more odd than the gal! He doesn't have as many layers of clothes, but is dressed with at least 2 or 3 layers although he isn't packing an entire life support system around. He has a single crutch. Not two, just one. He doesn't appear to be eating a full meal, but perhaps just a couple scoops of ice cream. It looks like he might be out for a mid-day stroll to exercise an healing leg? He also appears to be older, perhaps at least in his late 70's.

Two very different, yet in some ways similar, people crossing paths on a section of street where business is the norm. Snapped and stuffed into Granny's scrapbook of life, they don't appear to have any interest in each other, or disinterest. More like they are each there alone, totally.

Street Photography in its essence!

bfur396

Thanks for the great insight into the pic. I saw it as a couple of lonely? people (dissociated) just living their moment in the sun. I know that the unknown "story telling" is an important part of these kinds of photos. We can only imagine what the back story is for these two! BTW, the food is from the Grand Central Market which is behind me.

AZNikon Loc: Mesa, AZ

My caption: After the divorce things just got worse...

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

There's quite a contrast here; the man appears well-dressed and having his afternoon dessert while the lady is apparently homeless, evidenced by her old clothes and her cart of possessions. The only thing they seem to have in common is a seat at the bench. To me this is a photo of two very different worlds coming together by pure accident. I believe that after eating is over each will go a separate way, completely undisturbed by the other's presence. The only thing these two have in common is sharing opposite ends of a bench. Note that the middle is empty, each having created separation from the other.