Response to Self Portrait (Response #56)

Uploaded 918 Days Ago by your_waitress - 11 comments

Photo © your_waitress (valerie j. cochran) - yourwaitress.com
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User Comments

sannah said 918 days ago:

i like it! too bad the sharpness is on your hand and not your eyes though :(

luminouslens said 918 days ago:

I think this is very nice. Although you are not fully in the frame, there is enough of your face for it not to look like you were going for the artsy-photographer-hardly-in-her-own-self-portrait shot. :)

My two complaints about this photo is that I think it could use a touch more contrast. There is a lot of grey, and I feel like it would have more impact if it had more punch. I also wish that your face was in focus and not your fingers. Maybe you are trying to say something by focus on your hands, but I am not sure what it would be. If there were more of your hands in the photo or if their texture was more obvious or something, then I might think that you were highlighting your hands. But the way it is now, it kind of looks like you missed the appropriate focus.

However, I stopped to comment on this photo because overall I think it's really nice. I do love the way you have framed this, and I like that you put it in black and white.

I am also curious to know what color that hat is. I'll bet it's very cute!

Flatline said 918 days ago:

I like this a lot, not sure why. At first glance, there are some issues that may or may not be on purpose. For instance, your fingers and the wool cap are in focus, but your eyes aren't. It actually works as a creative choice. The composition is perfect, as is the lighting. The neutral background is key, by the way. Any distraction back there would have pulled attention away. At the risk of getting clobbered later - I can't figure out if you're a man or a woman. The available information allows me to conclude neither.

ArneG said 918 days ago:

Very reflective and nice cropping - not sure if that was with an autofocus camera or not - but I'd like it more if your eyes were in better focus than your toque.

cferroni said 918 days ago:

I might be biased on this one but I really like it! The composition really works and the gaze is piercing. Well done you!

zorilla said 916 days ago:

Nice tea cosy

emmat said 915 days ago:

i love the composition and b&w however i would have liked to see the eyes in focus.

jmeagher said 914 days ago:

I would have preferred a softer focus throughout the image, rather than the fingers sharp and the rest soft. But that's my personal hangup. I like the image overall, it brings me in.

cdcootie said 914 days ago:

My third return and I like this better every time.

phototext said 914 days ago:

Nicely balanced composition with the face and space and good tones, only thing for me, is I would like to have seen less of the fingers cut off.

your_waitress said 913 days ago:

thank you for your thoughts everyone.

my goal for this was to hide in plain sight, so yes the selective focus and similar tones were indeed intentional. the focus on the hat and hands also gives it texture that would have been lost if it was all in blur. having the hands and greyscale are also very me, as those who visit my work know. even if you don't, hopefully you get that i'm not one for revealing everything! ;-)

btw--the hat, (no it is not tea cozy darn it!) is straw color. i wear it all the time, especially when i am out on the street shooting.

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