This photograph, which I have titled the “Pigeon Queen” is one of all time favourites of mine. The older woman surrounded by the pigeons. They were crowding around her, sitting on her hands and coming close to her head as if in an attempt of a thank you kiss. I am sure these sky rats were fed very well by the lady and all that affection had a very down to earth reasons in shape of bread crumbs. There are a lot of dynamic elements here created by the pigeons, with the main focus in shape of the bird with folded forward wings just about to land in front of the woman’s face. And then, there is her look. No, she is not looking at me. She has her gaze firmly set on the bird sitting on her arm. Quite a special scene – fairytale like.
Archive for March 7th, 2009
Look the other way
by Ted Szukalski |This is a peculiar photograph for me as it lacks a definite focus on one person, which I typically do. Here there are multiple interactions. There seem to be a serious conversation between he man with his back to the viewer and the woman on the right. The woman on the left seems to be a bit impatient and she looks away from the other two as if to say it is time to go. And then there is unassociated man in the background walking away from the scene. All of this set at the end of business day wrapped in the strong evening light and thus long shadows all around.
Drummer and cyclist
by Ted Szukalski |This photograph of a Japanese drummer and a cyclist is all about perspective. Since this photograph contains very few elements there is no point of reference for scale. The flat wall and a bit of pedestrian walkway create only a “view box”. Now, I had a wide angle lens on the camera which tends to exaggerate the proportions. The difference in distance between the drummer and the cyclist is only about 2 meters but because of the low viewpoint the cyclist looks disproportionally tall. This technique is frequently used for landscape photography to emphasise clouds and thus create an impression of expanded space.
No gain without pain
by Ted Szukalski |And here is the example of a right place for the exercise. The girls are doing stretching on a bench in Hyde Park. It is green, clean and I am sure it offers better air then running amongst the cars in the streets. Plus the benches serve as an exercise apparatus.
Girl running into traffic
by Ted Szukalski |As I mentioned often before many people in Sydney utilise the lunch break to maintain their fitness level. Some go to health clubs and some simply go for a run. There are many places where the runners have plenty of space for their exercise. Hyde Park and the Domain are perfect examples as they offer wide paths away from automotive traffic and they are quite big. However, some runners simply run on the pedestrian lines in city streets and thus have to cross the road very frequently. It is unnecessary risk, especially if they do it on red lights as the girl running into the traffic on the photograph demonstrates.
