>Bob Talbot - Paper <This is Funny Snaps Week, it seems. Only, this is far more than a snap: look at all the diagonals, even the drooping corner of that paper! > Per Thanks for the suggestion to look at Sieglitz's Steerage. http://www.rps.org/book/stieglitz.html Taken in 1907 with a plate camera it's clearly not a snapshot - did the technology allow snapshots then? I'd love to know how conspicuous the photographer was then. Could he set up his tripod and bury his head under the cloth without people responding to him? Were all those on the upper deck congregating because news had spread a photographer was about to take a picture? What would HE have looked like from where they were standing? I get the impression a lot of people are looking at the camera. Looking at the image I can see it's a classic. So much going on "a busy image" in the words of a camera-club-judge. What of verticals and who cares?. It didn't look slanted when I first looked - at least not to my first impression - but the mast is probably upright wrt the deck of the ship. Or maybe the whole boat is listing? Clearly it didn't bother Sieglitz ... or maybe he only had one lens and this was the only way to inclde both decks? Technically, the quality is poor. If only he'd owned a DLSR. But then again, the image degredation of the years has not prevented us viewing the scene - the "underlying picture" if you like - of what life was like on the ship that day. Silver prints really really do have proven archival character! Thank for the review of my image BTW: It wasn't a "random snap" by any means. (Neither was it staged). But there was obviously something in the scene at the time that made me 1) take off the lens cap 2) lift the camera 3) press the shutter ... and much later (it was taken 5th July 2004) ... 4) scan the slide to send to PF :o) That said, I can agree it does have the look of just a random shutter-press though, as David Small said "Fun shot but get in closer." maybe I'm too far away? Mmm ... that old streetphoto ethic ... <And the image is cropped *exactly* where it should be. This one even gets me to think of Sieglitz´ Steerage: only looks casual until you start to see the structure.> Well, having looked up "Steerage" I'm not sure I can see that much connection. One is a classic, the other just a moment. Sure, it's cropped, but that's possibly where the similarity ends ... Bob
