photojournalism attempt cc please

[eddiebrown]

i am not sure how big of a story this was outside of canada but some of you might have heard about robert dziekanski , the polish immigrant who died after being tasered by the rcmp at vancouver airport . there was a rally held for him in downtown vancouver so i went to try and get some shots . it was a very strange atmosphere as it seemed to be a cross between a memorial and an anti police brutality protest .


any and all comments always welcome and apreciated . thanks for looking .



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[chauncey]

I'm not sure why your posting shots of a political rally on this section.

[bikers1]

I'm not sure why your posting shots of a political rally on this section.

I 'think' the request was for c&c from a pj perspective, what does it matter it's a political rally, it's a story,

capturing a shot which has reference to demonstrate the message of the story with emotional expression caught is what I look for, I often revert to a blast of overhead shots and find a crop that catptures these, if your lucky :)

e.g. angry/sad/crying person holding banner with key message.. the image is most often accompanied by copy which will give the rest of the context to the image

I like 4 & 6 , 4 especially with the hand made signs, 6 has a relevant message,

The difficulty for c&c is that measurbators may not find the satisfaction in finding a slightly blown part of the image, or worrying about not having a tack sharp copy of a lens :lol:

pj photography is a world apart from studio work... just as tough but in completely different ways ...

but then that's just my opinion :)

[Flo]

Sad event...you captured the sentiments so many were and are feeling.

Did it feel awkward for you to be taking photographs? Just curious as to how folks reacted when they saw you pointing the camera their way..

[eddiebrown]

bikers1 , thats the kind of input i was looking for , thanks for your helpful comments . i tried getting an overhead shot but it proved very difficult to find that vantage point while facing the crowd .


flo , i was somewhat concerned about that when i arrived but it didnt feel awkward at all actually . as it seemed the vast majority of the people there , were very willing to be photographed . they were there to be heard and send a message for the most part . thanks for the comments .

[Peter Pawinski]

Get tighter, get closer, clean up your compositions, give my eye something to hook onto. The scene setters (#1 and #2) are okay, and you need a shot to convey a sense of space, but my eye is not compositionally drawn to anything in particular. One way to deal with that is to get close and shoot wide. Find an interesting protestor, some action, clapping, shouting, that sort of thing or an interesting sign, or an interesting background, something to anchor the composition.

For number 3, either get in much tighter and more head-on or, if you don't want to isolate the subject from the background, whirl around to a better angle for the girl and her father, and with some more interesting background. The right part of the image doesn't really add anything for me. I'd probably shoot this very tight myself, perhaps angling to use the Polish flag as a compositional element (background), but not at that angle.

Number 4 is the best of the lot, in my opinion. Shot with a longer lens and a shallower depth of field would add impact and help lift the subject from the busy and distracting background.


Number 6 is a great idea. I would have stuck with it and looked for a better framing. As it is, that white sign really cuts the picture in two, and it feels unbalanced.

[emomophantom]

Number 3 is my favorite, because it both tells the story and includes the human element. 1 and 2 tell the story, but in 3 you are getting real people involved in the scene. I disagree with Peter Pawinski about the right-hand side of that picture. To me it is essential to the story. Without the protest sign in the background (I wish it was slightly sharper), the picture could be any parent and child anywhere at any time. The sign on the side puts them in context and contrasts the child's expression with the background elements.

[Peter Pawinski]

I disagree with Peter Pawinski about the right-hand side of that picture. To me it is essential to the story.

On further review, I somewhat agree with you, but I'm still not thrilled about the composition. I think there's a better way of combining those two/three elements. I was looking at the photo as a supporting picture/detail to go along with the rest of the crowd shots as part of a bigger picture story. But if you want a single news-telling image, yes, leave the sign in, but find a better way to frame the picture.

When I think of a good straightforward news protest picture, I think of shots like this (http://www.witiger.com/internationalbusiness/scan~WTO~protest2003.jpg) or or this (http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/exhibits/redstick/protest.jpg), where there's both a clear human element and a clear message with a relatively clean composition. The reason I'm not sold on number 3 is because my eye doesn't know where to go. It's jumping to the foreground, background, with neither part being strong enough to sustain my interest.

[emomophantom]

The reason I'm not sold on number 3 is because my eye doesn't know where to go. It's jumping to the foreground, background, with neither part being strong enough to sustain my interest.

I'd agree with that. The flag splits the image in half, and the composition struggles aesthetically in that regard. The examples linked were really good.

[eddiebrown]

thanks for the excellant input guys !


#3 and #6 i tried to get the signs in the shot to give it some context , but i agree i did cut the frame in half with the flag in one and the sign in the other . not sure how i could have gotten a different angle on number 3 , but i easily could have done better with number 6 when i look at it now . i am really new to this kind of photography but i find it really interesting and much harder to shoot than it looks . hopefully i can use your suggestions to improve , thanks again .