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Play time!
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
These children were running around and shouting outside my apartment for hours, and I just happened to notice the interesting shadows and light in a glance and thought I would have a go at capturing it. They were playing a game of some description, and clearly the two in the foreground won!
It pleases me to see Chinese children play as it's something their lives don't allow them a great deal to do. The Chinese education system is interesting, and whilst it undoubtedly achieves great academic results, the general consensus among westerners living in China (and many Chinese people) is that it de voids the children of many other life skills due to the huge pressure to achieve and the number of hours involved.
Life for children in Baoji (and the rest of China I think) of school age means starting at 8am and not finishing until 6pm, after which they have on average between 3 and 5 hours of homework to complete per day. When I ask my students what times they wake up and go to bed, many of them wake at 6am, and don't go to bed until 1am because they have so much homework to do. They also frequently have examinations on weekends, and when there is a national holiday during the week (for example the recent May Day Holiday), it's not really a holiday at all as they have to make up any missed classes on the weekend and spend all of the holiday doing homework anyway! Talk about working hard!
No one can deny it produces great academic results though, and many of them are happy to do it as they know living in a country with so many people means you really have to stand out to get the good jobs. Before anyone complains about the content of this note (like some of my previous observations), these are the words of my children - like it or not
Let me know what you think! |
anvlaan, sinanevman, pelin has marked this note useful
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Hi Lee,
I think your note deserves perhaps even more attention than the photo itself, although the latter is very nice in my opinion. It may be a bit blurry for my taste, but the other hand the proposed color balance, ambient light and the dynamics are excellent. These kids still have a couple of years of free life when they can enjoy playing in the yard, because it's pretty hard to do so in future from 1 am to 6 am :)
Nicely done and very good, thoughtful note!
Anton
hi lee,
amazing shot very useful note.
thanks for sharing.
sinan
- pelin
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 154 W: 133 N: 357]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(1832) - [2008-05-14 8:26]
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Hello Lee! Thanks for suggestion to my sunset shot. :)
A nice perspective with those boys fooling around ;-)
I like their shadows.
Well choosen color balance, it is in sepia tones?
Thanks,
~pelin
Hey Lee,
I somehow agree with Anton about your notes getting more attention than the photo. What interests me is the note is speaking for the personal experience you have had with life of children in Baoji.
The image doesn't have that 'umph' as what most TE trekkers expect. What I can suggest here is when shooting at or below 1/60 somehow requires a tripod, at 70mm with subjects moving around you should at least use 1/200 or higher like 1/500 shutter speed. Pump up the ISO to 800 or more even 1600 (Dude your 40D is a very capable camera), then -1 exposure and use Mode 2 (for moving subjects like panning shots). Shooting mode should be Shutter Priority, the quality will definitely show a big difference. Composition is snapshot looking, you'll do better next time, sometimes desive moments does affect our shots. The intent is good, could have use a tighter frame with just the boys and shadows.
Interesting post with helpful notes you have shared here.
Best Regards ;)
Hello Lee,
I understand you enjoy the whole story behind each image. Very informative with you image here of the boys,
I enjoyed the compostion with the diagonal shadows matching does of the walkway or road way stones making a nice triangle with the truck and third child.
Interesting image.
Bill
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- joolsb
![Silver Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 37 W: 1 N: 48]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-s.gif)
(294) - [2008-07-01 6:12]
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A really excellent composuition with a good use of diagonals and interlocking right-angles. The way the angles echo and play off against one another is expertly handled. An excellent example of street-photography.
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![Silver Star Critiquer [C: 47 W: 0 N: 3]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-n.gif)
(64)![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 597 W: 39 N: 249]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
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