A local personality

[TonyW]

This picture was taken as a candid photo without any setting up but the different elements seem to come together. He is an anthropologist and artist among other things. There is a significant story in every wrinkle. I tried converting the image to black and white but preferred the coloured version. The blue background seems to give it an almost monochromatic look which I liked. I also thought of cropping much closer but the context is too important.

Are there any other changes that I should make?

056A2037ed by tonyw36, on Flickr

[AB26]

Hi Tony,

Technically, I would say a good shot. Depicting him as an anthropologist or artist, no.

If you were going to show him, to your viewer, as an anthropologist, the shot should have showed him in his working environment with him not centered in the image and the environment he is working in not blurred out.
Taking a portrait shot of an elderly gentlemen, the composition should be tighter with the background blurred out.

What I can read in the image is an elderly gentleman, hard of hearing, leaving a shed of some kind with a box and a camping pot in his hands, busy taking off a glove. He might be a prospector, a farmer, a contractor living on site, or what else. The camping pot in his hand tells me he is probably staying on site, doing some work outside in the sun, his hat tells me that.
What is inside the box? Nothing tells me he is an anthropologist.

If you can, it would be worth the effort to capture an image of him at work.

A good shot, but not what it can be.

[Daisy Mae]

Hi Tony, It's not a portrait shot and from reading your post it was never meant to be, it's a candid and so I like the fact that you give him context and I think the background adds interest. It doesn't bother me in the least that we don't know what's in the box , I like that about it.

You have captured him in a way that makes the viewer ask such questions, why the gloves?, what's in the box?, where did he just come from and what was he doing?

He is obviously a man with character and I'd love a look in that shed.

[nimitzbenedicto]

Great shot!

I like the exposure balance : sunlit side - shaded side.

[Shadowman]

He is obviously a man with character and I'd love a look in that shed.

Said the damsel before she screamed in terror.

[Shadowman]

Tony,

Nice shot.

[Daisy Mae]

Said the damsel before she screamed in terror.

'Fava beans and a nice Chianti?'

[Colin Southern]

'Fava beans and a nice Chianti?'

That "brain" scene with Ray Liotta in "Hanibal" was one of the few things on TV that this tough-guy struggled to watch! Great movie though!