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Watching the White Swan

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Faddoush 2 years ago

I love your work, it is like poetry, I wish I could meet you in person sometime...sigh.

Mojib 2 years ago

what a moment!
great man!

King Douglas Thanks very much, Mojib.

Charlie Mac Bell 2 years ago

This is really a wonderful photograph. They are so alike and yet so different, facing though the same reality seems to inspire so many different emotions and thoughts. It's the magic of dance (I read your comment) and human imagination at work here and it's truly wondeful! :)

King Douglas Wow...how did I let these nice compliments go so long without responding? Thanks very much, Charlie.

Charlie Mac Bell I thought you were taking your time to make it perfect! :D No, I'm joking... I never actually expect an answer but I love to receive an unexpected one... ;D

Pierre Pageau 2 years ago

félicitations .

King Douglas Wow...how did I let these nice compliments go so long without responding? Thanks very much, Pierre.

Codrin Lupei 3 years ago

When I saw this is screening it remainded me yours 'Every Day, Long Ago, Far Away' just that this captured moment is much more pleasant for them, not practising but admiring! Great work, King, I'm happy to see more from your images published here! Love this!
all the best
Codrin

King Douglas Wow...how did I let these nice compliments go so long without responding? Thanks very much, Codrin. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get back to your images...the critique you requested, this weekend.

Fulvio Pellegrini 3 years ago

beautiful capture ...in this case the absence of the "eye contact" makes the shot showing the emotive "position" of the photographer. I'm learning, my King
F.

King Douglas Wow...how did I let these nice compliments go so long without responding? Thanks very much, Fulvio.

KPK 3 years ago

Wonderful !!!

King Douglas Wow...how did I let these nice compliments go so long without responding? Thanks very much, Peter.

Alberto Peroni 3 years ago

The beauty and perfection of your work makes me feel so inadequate! I have a lot to learn from your art! Thank you King!

King Douglas That feeling comes upon me almost every time I browse the latest published photos on the 1X home page. As you know, I admire your work very much, Alberto.
Thanks very much for the kind words.

Juha Saransalmi 3 years ago

Very good capture, King! I like sepia in this picture.

King Douglas Thank you Juha...good to find someone who likes the sepia.

Thaib Chaidar 3 years ago

Beautiful tones, My King..:~)

King Douglas Thank you so much, Thaib.

RamonaG 3 years ago

.nice scene

King Douglas Thanks, RamonaG.

joan kocak 3 years ago

each face a little story....

King Douglas ...that's the way I see it. Thanks very much, joan.

Jacek Stefan 3 years ago

Great capture! /J.

King Douglas Thank you very much, Jacek.

Jure Kravanja 3 years ago

superb

King Douglas Thanks very much, Jure.

A. Zahron 3 years ago

excelent! i like this momment!
very - very good shot :)

King Douglas Thanks very much, A.

Willy Marthinussen 3 years ago

i like this one king..a very good shot. Im curious of why you have choosen the sepia in this one, i think this one could be better with B/w tones only. :)
all the best --willy--

King Douglas Thanks, Willy, for your comment.

The simple answer is that I *like* sepia (of course, one has no control of the color as it appears on the viewer's monitor).
Other reasons involved in my choice to "tone" this image:
--It lends a sense of "old" to this photo shot in 1980;
--Sepia lends some sense of natural skin tones, therefore may be more lifelike;
--In the traditional darkroom sepia toning is one way to archivally treat prints (hence, I reminisce);
--Not sure if this works on monitors, but a sepia-toned print has a longer tonal scale, especially more shadow detail, than the same print does if not toned (it's easy to see when comparing two prints side by side).

Willy Marthinussen Thanks for the reply and i appreciate your answer. Of course i agree with you on old sense and i know for my own experience with sepiatoned prints that it tends to give more feel and emotion. I think on my screen here your choise made me loose some tonal variation that i would love to see in this one :)
--willy--

Koen Pieters made the same remark in screening. also wondering how it would look with the far window cropped out. seems to be better composition-wise, but the downsize is of course that you lose a bit of that line up effect. Anyway... just thinking out loud. But the publish vote was never really in danger, as that moment captured really breathes some kind of innocent magic... the beauty of youth, with those angelic faces. Remarkable how they all look just right. If I try to capture two persons like this, I end up with having 3 poking their nose :-(

King Douglas Koen,
Thanks for your comment and the compliment.

I tried a number of alternative crops (including cropping out the far window) and decided that, all in all, this worked best.

It has been my experience that it is unusual to capture more than one face without someone's blinking or distorting their expression in an unflattering way.

WK Chew 3 years ago

My favorite in screening. I like it a lot

King Douglas Thanks, WK.

milan malovrh 3 years ago

Excellente!!

King Douglas Thank you, milan.

Lucian Olteanu 3 years ago

This is a fav...I like it a lot,my friend!!!

King Douglas ..and I thank you very much, my friend!

Jennifer S. 3 years ago

I am glad that you are back for a bit. I have missed seeing your fantastic and terrific images. Hope you are around for awhile.

King Douglas Thanks very much, Jennifer. I haven't really been gone, just unsuccessful at getting published, pouting a bit, and busying myself with endeavors that are less critically evaluated.

Richard Ford 3 years ago

I love thie style of shot with many different expressions on it. I have one of a bunch of blokes watching the rugby world cup in 2007.... much less elegant looking though, ;-)

King Douglas Thanks very much, Richard.

Richard Ford May I ask what focal length you shot this at? How close to them were you?

King Douglas Richard,
This reproduction is just about full-width of a Hasselblad negative. I only had three lenses (50, 80, 150) and this seems to have been taken with the 50, which is approximately equivalent to shooting the same thing with a 35mm lens on a full-frame DSLR. I was probably around 8-10 feet from the girl on the far right.

Richard Ford So about 2 meters or so.. that is where I shoot my 35mm on 135 too most often. What then strikes me as so amazing is how intent their focus is on the display in front of them that you could pull this off.

Did you have time to frame and wait for a particular moment and line up - or did they stir as soon as you started firing?

King Douglas They were aware of my presence, but they were focused and concentrating on a solo performance by a visiting dancer from the Boston Ballet (this was shot in Guangzho). I'm thinking about submitting a photo of the dancer whom they were watching, but I don't have much hope of it's getting published.

Thanks for writing, Richard.

Marco Bianchetti 3 years ago

Nine perfect portraits suggesting the hidden one. A beautiful timeless picture.

King Douglas You know, I didn't even count how many faces one could see. I tried different crops before deciding to submit this wide version, cropped tightly on the vertical axis.
Thanks very much for you comment.

ESPhotography 3 years ago

One of those shots you keep hoping to see rise from the screening ether, and finally here it is and you're even happier to see it than you were the first time. Really great capture.

King Douglas Thanks, ESPhotography, for the high praise.