Winter Festival

[GeneW]

Last Saturday there was a Winter Festival at City Hall in Toronto. The place was packed. I dropped by for a short while and took some rangefinder shots.

Mother & Daughter


Putting on Skates


Watching the Skaters


Tired Skater


Leica M2, M-Hexanon 50 and CV 90/3.5 lenses, Neopan 400

Gene

[Randy]

I really like the first one Gene. By the look in the daughter's eyes, she and her mom are close.

[GeneW]

Thanks Randy. That one is my fav -- the little girl had such a beautiful expression in her face.

Gene

[PeterW]

Hi Gene,

I like these, they're the sort of 'getting in with the action' type of shots that I love to take. I'm glad you didn't go above 90mm: you can become too detached with longer focal length lenses. Black and white makes them almost photojournalistic, and some of my photographer idols were photojournalists.

My favourite is the first one. The mother and daughter are nicely isolated from the crowd and you've caught such a wonderful expression on the little girl's face - talk about the decisive moment!

In the second one, Tying the Skates, the composition leads you right down to the subject, the boot laces, and the pairs of shoes and boots alongside reinforce what's happening.

I'm not sure about the third one, Watching the Skaters. Just using the feet is a different idea and I think I can see your thinking behind it. But I'm not sure if it quite comes off, even with a skater's boots on the ice in the picture. Good try, though. I'm all for trying something different.

The last one, Tired Skater tells its own story, but I think I would have cropped off the half-person on the right which I found a little distracting. It would also put the tired skater in a better position with the line of the bench leading down towards him.

I know from experience that taking pictures in crowded places like this is a lot more difficult than many people suppose. They think all you have to do is point and squirt off masses of film - until they try it . Well done!

Peter

[GeneW]

Thanks kindly for your feedback, Peter. I couldn't have gone beyond 90mm because it's the longest M lens I own Actually I didn't have it on for long -- I found even 90 too tight for most of the shooting.

It was an experience for me. I'm rarely in with a crowd like this and really didn't quite know how to go about shooting. I'm usually off on the nature paths by myself.

I had another take of the Tired Skater. Think this vertical view works better, or is it still too busy?



Gene

[John Parry]

Hi Gene,

1 & 5 for me. although I like No. 4 as well. 2 & 3 are beautiful shots, but personally I was left thinking - where's the rest? On 2, I thought maybe if you had zoomed in on the skate and the hands, but then the marvellous detail of the shoes and boots wasn't there.

Use more film!

Best Regards - John

[Rachel]

Gene,

What beautifully sharp and interesting pictures. I must try some B&W again.

[GeneW]

John, Rachel, thanks kindly. Although I like colour, I shoot more B&W, probably because I can process it myself.

Gene