THE IMAGE: This is one of our great BIG ISSUE guys in Swanston Street in the City of Melbourne. He is wheel chair bound, has speech challenges and his hands are withered. I got the courage to ask if I could take his picture for a few bucks and he kindly obliged while chugging on his cigarette. He couldn't speak, but he gave me about 10 great shots and thanked me by waving his curled up hand.
I wanted to do a proper portrait of a BIG ISSUE person for this challenge, so I am happy with this shot.
I used a 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens which is great for detail, but I was shooting into the light.
THE EDIT: USM, Levels, desat, contrast, curves, resize, smart sharpen...nothing much else. I have a black and white version, so I am still making up my mind...
THE PREDICTION: Some won't like the title, other will love the smoke - if they can tell what it is. Still others will think it doesn't depict poverty...not sure: 6.2126?
Statistics
Place: 12 out of 98 Avg (all users): 6.1942 Avg (commenters): 7.4545 Avg (participants): 5.9688 Avg (non-participants): 6.2356 Views since voting: 1582 Views during voting: 384 Votes: 206 Comments: 16 Favorites: 2 (view)
Just to add, I want a 50mm 1.8 lens so bad, or 'portrait' lense for that matter... shots like this inspire me to shoot humans (w/ a camera, of course :P)
The light, the composition, the smoke... all brilliant in my opinion. This shot is painfully underrated, but I suspect it is due to the actual image's somewhat tenuous link to the concept of poverty (he doesn't look poor off the bat). I'm sure if this was zoomed out people would see it more clearly, but the photo as it stands is a fave.
This picture is a great close up portrait for his face. In your description you mention he is Wheelchair bound. I would have liked to see the wheelchair and a longer picture and some type of backround. Something to show his disabliity. I like the lighting and compostition of his face. You can see some glimps into his characture.
I just have a feeling that this one is Millsa's, so I won't vote, but I really like this. Pity that the non-Aussies won't understand what The Big Issue is, and what it means to this guy.
Great shot. Eyes draw me in, looks like a real person and not staged. Mood and lighting accentuate the subject. And the smile adds a poignancy to the composition.
He looks like many college professors I knew. The breath/cigarette smoke and nice glasses don't convey poor either. Perhaps including more of his situation would help.
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