Watching how time passes Photo

Photographer’s Note

In La Habana Vieja...

...just watching how time passes, this old man is enjoying an Havana cigar.
I saw him in a street closed to the Cathedral square, one of the most beautiful places from The Old Havana quarter, always full of tourists going up and down, but just here was the contrast, He, alone, with only the company of his thoughts and his cigar.
I don’t smoke cigars nor cigarettes, but I really appreciate this moment, that almost never, I can get, to be watching how time passes, and… without asking him permission… I stole him his moment!, sorry for that, now I return it to him, sharing it with all you.
Enjoy your free time, as much as possible, time value is too much important.

KevRyan, MiguelP, coco, singuanti, ChristianS, tiobibi has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

KevRyan (22297) 2005-10-07 2:29

I like it - all the way down to the carefully placed stick on the ground - I just love this man's posture which says so much about him - a perfect title you gave this one!

A nice note too!

Raciti (619) 2005-10-07 2:52 [Comment]

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devimeuxbe (55655) 2005-10-07 3:24

Hi Jaume
great capture ! typical from Cuba
I really like this simple atmosphere
Well done
Bertrand

barrufeto_77 (25593) 2005-10-07 3:49

Hola Jaume.

La veritat és que la sensació de calma que ens dona aquest home està molt ben aconseguida. Molt maco aquest primer pla amb el desenfocament del darrera.

Salutacions

tinamunk3 (6382) 2005-10-07 5:56

Yeah, real Cubans smoke Cohiba, don't they :-)

Great shot!

:-) Tina

MiguelP (14290) 2005-10-07 16:03

Muy bonita, si señor. Sobre todo que controlas muy bien la luz aquí. Encuentras el punto intermedio entre el chorro de luz del fondo y la luminosidad en torno al fumador (aquí también está presente lo del tiempo que te comentaba en la foto de ayer). Creo que el blanco de las paredes te ayuda actuando de reflector y subiendo la luz general de la calle. Bueno, que esta noche es nochebuena y mañana es navidad, dale a la bota María que me voy a emborrachar.
PD: Jaume ¿Cómo se hace lo de poner cosas en negrita?

coco (27560) 2005-10-07 16:23

Pues sí, muy buen trabajo con la luz, Jaume. Y además, menudos colores.
Una de las cosas que me gustan de la foto es ese sentir que las cosas se paran: ese anciano con su habano en la mano y nada más.
Y nada más.

Muy bien visto. Un saludo y buen fin de semana.

singuanti (15240) 2005-10-07 17:16

Hi Jaume. Ahh what a life that must be. It's the simple things in life that are important as they say. This shot really captures all of that very well. Very nice one Jaume!

cgrindahl (6109) 2005-10-07 20:09

This is a wonderful capture Jaume. I love the composition, giving us enough of the street scene for us to appreciate this man's circumstances. I appreciate the worn surfaces of buildings and street, the cane lying beneath the man's legs. All very nice elements.

You face very challenging conditions here with the bright light in the distance so strongly contrasting with the dark skin of this man. It can be very challenging to capture facial features of people with dark complexions, especially when they were a hat, as in this case. I believe you could improve this image with judicious post processing that would bring out details in the man's face and his pants that are lost because of the strong contrast. I know this was shot with film and scanned. I have no idea what software you have available for doing processing of the digital image you've scanned. Unfortunately, I used up my workshops for today so I'm unable to share what I did with this image in Photoshop CS by using the Shadows and Highlights adjustment, a touch of Levels and a bit of Unsharpen Mask. Perhaps I'll post it tomorrow.

I do love this image Jaume. Thanks again for posting your photos from Cuba.

I added a workshop today to demonstrate my suggestions. See what you think.

[workshop] [compare] +

ChristianS (2997) 2005-10-08 12:02

Hi Jaume, nice capture showing this man sitting in shadow and enjoying his cigar. The scene and the posture of the man renders an air of relaxing atmosphere, of easy going life. The shallow dof is very nice putting focus of the old man. The colours are very nice and I like the contrast between the bright area in the background and the shadowy area. Well captured! Have a nice weekend.

Regards, Christian

toni_al (15430) 2005-10-08 17:57

Hola Jaume
Un purito Havano, menos mal que en este mundo aun hay gente que se tomo el tiempo con tiempo. muy buena imagen.
Saludos desde Lausanne
Toni

donluicu (23877) 2005-10-08 18:57

Hello Jaume
here is a very good picture, typîcal (i guess) of the daily life in Cuyba, with this old guy smoking a handmade cigar...
when will you buy a digital cam, i'm sure u spend hours to scan your films..lol

regards

loic

sergio1 (12150) 2005-10-09 17:10

Hola Jaume,
Vas a alucinar.... y te preguntaras, porque???? pues porque tengo al mismo hombre, con el mismo puro, con la misma ropa pero en otra postura. Yo me lo encontré en una callejuela cercade la catedral. Creo que puede que sea el mismo día.

Saludos

micasasucasa (89) 2006-03-12 11:35 [Comment]

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