The Hitchhiker Photo

Photographer’s Note

The life of a hitch-hiker is a lonely one...

Although hitch-hiking was very common in North America in the 1970's, it was made illegal (at least in Canada.. i'm not sure about the US) after various questionable events occurred. Stuff like this spawned all the scores of cheesy horror flicks about hitch hikers who turn out to be serial killers etc.

...not sure if i'm really happy with this technical aspects of this pic, but i kinda liked the dark mood in it :) the only lighting available was from the orange streetlamps and it was pretty foggy too...

Hanso2 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

vapours (7913) 2005-01-05 17:03

Very moody image, I like it a lot. Creates a sense of mystery and you can almost create a story out of it, whether he is going to be picked or not, or whether he may be a serial killer..

markoci (3917) 2005-01-05 19:14

i love it! an excellent choice of b&w, the silhouette is perfect! great lights of the oncoming car and i like the snow patches on the ground. not a typical mississauga photo i guess :-) (lived by square one for some years)

Hauke (2) 2005-01-07 13:06

... dark mood.... pros and cons of hitchhiking... Stunning shot, Tina. Great way telling some stories....

philip_coggan (11) 2005-01-08 20:29

You should be extremely happy with the etchnical aspects of this photo - it's excellent. If you cuold wriet a story to go with it (about hitch-hikking and the things yuo mention in your note), you should have no trouble selling photo and story as a package to the weekend magazine section of your local city paper (it's actually not hard to do this - editors aer always on the lookout for good picture/story packages with a local angle - write about 1000 words, then ring them and ask if they're interested).

laurenz (249) 2005-01-22 2:08

very nice - a picture that doesn't really tell a story but leaves you desperate to hear it!
It's clear, for an instant, there's a connection between the driver of the car and the hitch-hiker, - but will the car stop or just pass, quickly forgetting the other person.
Small decisions like that can change our lives...
Lots of human drama and we can't even see a single face.

Playing with your favourite image processing software, you may be able to make the human figure stand out a little more, but other than that it's perfect: the diagonal beams of light touch the person in such a way that they create a geometric connection and the a little bit of detail in the backgroundbehind the car makes the picture much more mysterious, providing a sense of depth. Is that snow on the ground? Must be pretty uncomfortable to hitch a ride in this weather!

anil-ahuja (327) 2005-01-22 5:18

I am only intrigued that one would be out on the street shooting pictures in this kinda weather!. What if this hitch hiker is really a serial killer?

I think that both from practical aspects of shooting such a photo as well as the technical aspects fo recording a nice composition in such extreme light conditions I think its a bold attempt and is well worth a praise. Good work and thank you for sharing it. cheers...

jpdeloof (2546) 2005-01-28 4:38

Bonjour tina
très belle composition, la photo est simple mais complète, je l'aime bien.
Peyt-être légèrement bouchée sur le dessus mais pas grave, cela ne nuit pas trop à la photo
jp
****
Hello tina
very beautiful composition, the photograph is simple but whole, I like it.
Perhaps slightly stopped on the top but not engraves, that does not harm the photograph too much.
jp

Steft (5962) 2005-01-28 6:38

Is this a scene of a movie?

I like the picture very much because of its dark and spooky atmosphere. It's hard to see that man on the right, but his silhouette looks kind of scary in the lightbeams of the car.

When I look to this picture, all kinds of question are coming in my head: who is this guy? Is it a bad guy or a good guy? What is he doing there?

I haven't seen many picture like this on TE, so I think it's very original!

Good picture with intresting atmosphere!

Hanso2 (629) 2005-02-15 16:22