Photobombing kid??? For laugh and fun...

[IzzieK]

Saturday morning we went to Bellefontaine Cemetery. They have an event called Decoration Day. This is one of the ladies dressed in period era dress. She said her name is Mary Hempstead. Her story is here. This woman in my shot is an actual decendant of Mary Hempstead.

The cheeky little boy behind her was the most fascinating little fella I have ever encountered. I uploaded this sequence first to gain attention to the boy because I saw him sneaking a peek when he saw I was about to take a shot of the lady who talking to my husband at the time.

1 Mary Hempstead 1 by Izzie, on Flickr

2 Mary Hempstead 2 by Izzie, on Flickr

[chauncey]

He looks kinda young to have a set that big.

[Shadowman]

That's funny, nice shots.

[Sergio M.]

That's great, Izzie, I love it. Awesome instincts to have noticed the little guy doing his thing.

Sergio

[Stagecoach]

Magic captures Izzie, especially the size difference between the two

Over here a lot of our TV news item interviews are pretty amateurish and there's so often kids in the background playing to the camera, often far more interesting to watch than the intended content

[IzzieK]

He looks kinda young to have a set that big.

Some people, even kids, can be so lucky...this one seems to have graduated in the naughty school earlier in life, don't you think? And I tell you what -- he has a lot of questions too and can easily be entertained.

Thanks William for passing by and commenting...'appreciate it...

[IzzieK]

That's funny, nice shots.

Thank you for commenting, John...appreciate it.

[IzzieK]

That's great, Izzie, I love it. Awesome instincts to have noticed the little guy doing his thing.

Sergio

He is very obvious...but I did not point my camera at him. During the time we were all there, I saw him occasionally and he was more serious and trying to learn. He will be a good historian at his age. I suppose being the youngest of three he will be the wisest, the craziest and the most intelligent than his siblings.

'Appreciate your passing by and commenting, Sergio. I should think of you and your work to make me better at this kind of thing...

[IzzieK]

Magic captures Izzie, especially the size difference between the two

Over here a lot of our TV news item interviews are pretty amateurish and there's so often kids in the background playing to the camera, often far more interesting to watch than the intended content

Yes, Grahame...with the ladies in period dresses with petticoats underneath them to help balloon their skirt, he looks like a tiny mite there.

Just for fun, maybe you can have one of those tv interview shots with the kids playing to the camera thing. It will be a hoot!! I can just imagine...

Thanks for passing by and commenting..appreciate it. .I will upload some more from that weekend trip...in the meantime, back to bed for another hour or three..

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Izzie,

At the risk of appearing overly negative, these are not really working for me due mostly to the difficult shooting circumstances; harsh sunlight and shade, fairly busy background, but also, because he's there, you've cropped to make him part of the composition, which I feel works against the 'photobomb' concept.

If it were mine, I would crop some off the left hand side so that Mary is the obvious main subject (more correctly positioned in the two overall frames) and the little fella is just in the corners. Talking of corners; the vignette is overpowering for me, so I'd make that far less dark and perhaps soften the fade too.

I might also warm up her skin tones a bit, she's not looking to well herself, although I suspect you have had to 'recover' her face from a darker exposure and that won't have helped.

I might also enhance him a bit too, having relegated him to the corner.

Hope my musings are useful, Dave

PS
Fascinating story of the Hempstead's in your link

[RandyRFJP]

Great photo Izzie. It almost instantly brought a smile to my face.

[IzzieK]

Dave,
#1 I had fun with this kid…when I was doing the editing, I used the rule of thirds. I can't help the weather because Bill and I were scheduled at 9:30am and we arrived while the gates were still locked. It is almost summer here so the shooting conditions cannot be helped here. It was a sweltering 91°F already outside as we waited for the gates to open. Bill and I were in the first on schedule. The place has a controlled tourists numbers so the grounds cannot be stomped on wantonly. There are people manning the gates at all times. A gatekeeper has the lock and has to be called. With the many happenings being brought on to veterans' graves around here, we like this place preserved because it is a historical place where many famous men and women and their families are buried. Also many veterans and their families.

This is a planned excursion. My first intention was to photograph the ladies and gentlemen in their period dresses, then go on a self-tour of the cemetery using the guide brochure given to us at the entrance. Participants and visitors were starting to arrive then going to their assigned tents/areas. This lady was first because we were walking towards her tent. Then I saw the little boy. I do not know how to react to his antics but I decided to pretend not to notice him but took my shot as he went through his acts. These sort of antics will never happen again with this kid. I cannot depict the lady's story apart from her telling us what she is on about, but with this boy, it was a different experience for me.

As for the vignette blur, the scene is very badly and harshly lighted so I decided to concentrate on my two actors here. I did my best to show them and the photobombing story instead. I prefer the one with the vignette because of the harsh conditions. I did not have to 'recover' her from her dark condition. I took my Nikon focusing workshop with Mike Hagen (Nikonians/Creative Live) two days before we went for this event. I thought I was well prepared. As for her skin tone, she is really lilly-white, no pinks at all apart from her dress. I prefer to leave her skin that way.

Thank you for commenting and the critique. My next shot sharings will also have the same heavy vignette and some special effects to boot. Sorry.

Hi Izzie,

At the risk of appearing overly negative, these are not really working for me due mostly to the difficult shooting circumstances; harsh sunlight and shade, fairly busy background, but also, because he's there, you've cropped to make him part of the composition, which I feel works against the 'photobomb' concept.

If it were mine, I would crop some off the left hand side so that Mary is the obvious main subject (more correctly positioned in the two overall frames) and the little fella is just in the corners. Talking of corners; the vignette is overpowering for me, so I'd make that far less dark and perhaps soften the fade too.

I might also warm up her skin tones a bit, she's not looking to well herself, although I suspect you have had to 'recover' her face from a darker exposure and that won't have helped.

I might also enhance him a bit too, having relegated him to the corner.

Hope my musings are useful, Dave

PS
Fascinating story of the Hempstead's in your link

[IzzieK]

Great photo Izzie. It almost instantly brought a smile to my face.

Great! Thank you Randy...I appreciate you passing by to comment to my shot. I truly enjoyed photographing different things and going to different places. This year, we have intended to go to many places here in the US and our surrounds here in Missouri to indulge in my passion. I have met many people here whose work I admired and hopefully with constant practice, I can get to where they are. Thanks again.

[chauncey]

Are we to the point that photography for fun is suddenly verboten. I am sure that Izzie is quite capable of
discerning the minutia of errors resulting from taking a picture for fun. Cut her some slack.

[Dave Humphries]

Are we to the point that photography for fun is suddenly verboten. I am sure that Izzie is quite capable of discerning the minutia of errors resulting from taking a picture for fun. Cut her some slack.

William,

Not at all, however, in this case I was asked by Izzie herself if I had seen this post, and that usually means she'd like some critique, otherwise I probably wasn't going to say anything in this thread because of the context and conditions.

However, if I'm going to give critique it has to be my honestly felt critique and that's what I gave, as helpfully as I could express it. Maybe I should have said less, but all I did was say what I might do or try (and why), not what I thought Izzie should do - I wouldn't presume to do that. I also acknowledged the difficulties of the shot that were beyond control.

Izzie and I often don't agree on everything and this is one example where we happen to differ widely and that's ok - I believe we're both fine about that.

However, I'm disappointed you felt I was being so unfair.

Dave

[IzzieK]

Thank you for coming to my aid, William. I appreciate it very much. However...critiquing my shot is always a-OK...I learned so much from it. In this case I was backed in a corner of the photography light. Wrong timing, wrong day or something, whatever else, I am OK with that. You should see most of my shots during my husband's fly-in events -- all done in bright daylight most of the time -- and yet a few of them get published each year.

Dave, thank you for indulging me and my passion. Let us start over again, OK? And be happy. I promise I will try to get out of trouble when I do my jury duty from this coming Monday...no camera allowed I think...'have to read my instructions.

'Appreciate all the further comments. Thank you.