I have a small series of 77 photos (well, maybe not small :)) taken in the Central Market from Chisinau, Moldova. It's a kind of street photography. all the images taken from the hip. I like them a lot and wonder which of them would be accepted on 1X.

Please, have a look if you have time and write the name of the image you think would manage here on 1x in this thread. I would be very thankful. I got only 1 slot per week and don't wanna screw it again.. :)

Thanks!

gallery:

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/johnroshka/album/131618?from=5110230&at=1244842663

You have 2 slots if you are active. :-)
They are all ok in my opinion, yet none of them have a story I think. I don't like hipshots and I find that if you show people the lens you will end up with better photos. If you hide it makes you look suspicious, so try again, go back and look for contrasts, juxtapositions, colours, situations, faces, because all you have here are snapshots, sorry if I sound a bit harsh.

Agree w/ Alex, sorry.

Cumulatively they are great. The problem is that as they were conceived as a series, to show what it is like being at that market etc, they have not needed to stand on their own. They work as a series. No image is perhaps strong enough on it's own. Maybe if you were trying to take one picture that sums up the place for you, the pictures you would then take would then carry more weight. Because more was asked of them. Does that make sense?
I like the sense of the place that these pictures give, but I agree with Alex, you need to find some 'stories' for 1X.
good luck.
Jon

think there is a lot to be said for the series John. Don't believe many of them are very 1X-ionable though, if any. Your series evokes a certain mood. the 'randomness' of the shots, the angles, the abundance of conflicting colors, the 'cut off' people walking in and out of the picture, sometimes blocking the view. I suppose for many people on 1X all this is just too random, too real. Many tend to prefer isolation, results build up from a more organized set of rules. A photo of mine (not my best one, but hey ho) comes to mind : Five Minute Break. it is a good example of that isolation, and it being a result of a certain organized set of rules. The subject is alone, which makes for a certain and different mood. Colors are gone... nothing conflicting here. No interferences, it's all very clean. and completely unrealistic. That man was actually sitting in a narrow street that was really bustling with people, probably more than in the photos you display. I just waited for that split second that there wasn't a passer-by in between the subject and the lens. My photo is a rather unrealistic, romantic and sentimental evocation/interpretation of a scene of times bygone. Something many people prefer to see or remember, rather than the reality. Alex 'snapshots' remark is interesting, as it ultimately leads to the question 'what is photography'. I do know that your photos (even when viewed individually) gives a much better impression of the market activity than my 'Five Minute Break' gives an impression of the soi life in Bangkok. And that 'randomness', those angles and those colors only help in giving that impression.
Still, most won't stand a chance in screening. I didn't see all of them. Some might get good reactions from those who tend to like these kind of street shots. There's one with a guy pushing a cart; then the one with the priest and the girl with the low cut jeans (because a bit more of a juxtaposition there), one showing a middle aged (?) woman in a for Western norms terribly outdated dress, but carrying an ironical 'lifestyle' plastic bag. Small details that caught my attention and put a smile on my face. But probably not enough in 1X land, where everything is very 'stand alone shot'-oriented and the 'message' or mood needs to be rather in your face than downplayed. And in that particular context they are probably doomed to fail. Yours are just a different kind of animal John.
Do you enjoy shooting from the hip btw ? I suppose you shoot blind ? Personally I always prefered to use a swivelscreen. it allowed me the same randomness (well, not quite, as I suppose it doesn't get more random than when you shoot blind), it allowed me to remain undetected, but I still had great control over what I did.
Regards

Cool series but not right for OE. Post them somewhere where you can put up the whole thing. Series should never be taken out of context. I love hip shooting. I think the series is excellent.

Great comments from KoPi above. Excellent stuff...

I totally agree with Dave and KoPi. Your pictures are good but not right for 1x.

/Semir

Thanks, Alex
I gave a second of thought and what I should've done is to chose 5 or 6 best photos from the series and present them alone, because seeing it as a series makes one look at them as a series, all together, if presented alone, with no interaction and without the thought that there might be other photos from the same place is more logical for 1X. So, it's my mistake. Story?...what is story, interaction between components of the photo, I don't look for stories, I look for emotions that represent stories. All the series is a story, and some of them taken apart represent stories as well. Every person in the photos have his own stories. Shooting from the hip makes me get that unusual and not plastic mood, the reality. It is not holding your camera near the hip and shooting. It's a lot to be done, including choosing the moment. Another thing is that they don't quite let people photograph there and people don't like it as well. Just wanted to represent real moments and I think I did it, though not suitable for 1X. Just some thoughts. I know here are a lot of photography gurus, but this is what I think.

Thanks a lot KoPi,
that smile you made was my goal, to get emotion from people looking at them and the photos you mentioned are the ones I was going to present as alone to 1X. I agree with you, but I also think that our predisposition to something also has an effect. You all were planning to look at a series and thought about a lot of photos with the same subject or story. This thought made photos not really interesting, only the best ones you mentioned caught attention and these are my favourite as well...

Thanks...

Thank Dave
Really appreciate your comment.

You did represent real moments, and maybe the word snapshot was a bad one to use, sorry. As for shooting from the hip, I do not think I will ever do it again, both due to moral reasons and that I would probably end up just holding continuous shutter and wouldn't be using my eyes, yet you do, and when I re-look at the timing and the situations you did see, I do see an element of reality, so I suppose you definately achieved your goal, and that I admire.
I actually tried hipshooting a few months ago, and took some wonderful photos of people's noses and the sky. ;)

Sorry John,but it is not here material for 1x!For this kind of shots I'd try with a fisheye from close distance!

Dear John, this is not the way the site works. First of all, nobody can predict if a photo will pass screening or not, because that would be the opinion of 1-2 people but screening is swarm thinking. Second, there is a rule of anonimity during screening and if you advertise your images before submitting them like this, it clearly goes against that rule.

As to the photos... frankly, I think it's not even a series, it's a set of photos with the same motif. You could chose 3 or 5 for a series, and they could say more than all 77. But please don't wait for others doing your job. You were there, you had a concept, you have to do this. Unfortunately, OE makes publication of series extremely difficult but if you find 3 winners, the minimum number for a series, you can try to paste them into one single landscape frame and give it a try. But don't expect others to do the hard part.

I agree with all the above John.

One possible answer is to get bronze premium membership and upload them to your own
1x homepage and 'announce' them that way. Individually they don't really hit the spot for me.

I would also seriously edit out at least half of the images. There are too many to hold the viewer's attention.

I think the series is 'documentary' in that it shows reality as it happens. The photos look random and some of them would be great accompaniment to a journalistic piece, but it all ends there. In my opinion they lack research and impact. As such.... I'm afraid no good stuff for OE :-)))