pen pals Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

I met these two ladies while on a visit to the Saturday market held at the Penrith cattle mart.There are outdoor stalls and indoor there are carboot style sales. The indoor part is sited where during the weekday the cattle would be penned.These ladies were enjoying a cup of tea bought in a cafe sited in a pen. There were also fast food stalls too. What I found bizarre was that these food outlets and the consumption of food was in pens used for cattle. Personally I would feel squeamish about eating or drinking there. I took this shot and then sat down to chat. They were very nice and friendly and allowed me to take a couple more pictures.I explained about my digital camera and being able to view the pictures that I take on a computer. They were going to get some computer training the following on a course laid on by a day centre. The lady in the foreground told me she will be 91 in the New Year.

fanni, AROBN54, graffer, zeynepe, evanrizo, noborders, Charo, Cretense has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

fanni (8733) 2008-12-11 12:11

Hello Bev,
good photo :) I like it! I like the spontaniety expressed in the photo. (if I may say so - excuse my English!)
How different are these two characters!
greetings from Moscow,
Elena
PS. 91!! I wonder.... I wonder if I will ever be able to live as long as THAT!

AROBN54 (10721) 2008-12-11 13:34

Hi, Bev,
I love these kind of shots. It looks great in B&W and the composition is excellent. Really good contrast, too, for you can plainly see the white cups on the white table. I have to agree with you on having food stalls in animal pens. That would kind of throw me off, I think. This is a really neat picture, though. 91 years old?? Lord, I feel that now...LOL Many thanks and hope you are well... Take care,
Shelly

graffer (1764) 2008-12-12 4:01

Hello Bev,

The fact that both ladies are engaging with you, and looking at the camera, makes this a dynamic composition. There is a strong diagonal from top left to bottom right.

There is a good contrast in their faces - the one at the far side is chubby cheeked with her furry hat and glasses, and the other - the 91 year old - has a stronger and slightly sterner expression.

You did well to hand-hold this shot at 1/8 sec. there is no sign of motion blur, but I think a bit of sharpening would help.

Regards,

Peter.

dougie (2920) 2008-12-13 2:56

Hi Bev,
An interesting couple of pals, with such contrasting expressions, allowing you to 'intrude' on their buffet. I messed about with a w/s, hope you don't mind.. Thanks,
Dougie.

[workshop] [compare] +

Royaldevon (5890) 2008-12-16 0:54

Hello Bev,

You are perfectly positioned to capture these two delightful ladies on a good diagonal.
Their expressions are engaging, with just a hint of humour! I can almost feel their conversation in suspended animation! They are enjoying the interuption but will not be deflected from it.
Thank you for the in-depth notes. This is almost journalistic.

Have a good Christmas,
Bev :-)

zeynepe (9342) 2008-12-20 10:57

Hi Bev,
Good timing, a nice double portrait.
Congrats and have a nice weekend,
Zeynep

evanrizo (456) 2008-12-26 9:13

Hi Bev, they look very happy to be captured from you.-:)
They are good framed here.
Best wishes.
Vangelis

noborders (14199) 2009-01-01 8:33

Your story is lovely and it's great that you could have a chat with them, I wonder if during that chat you could not have expressive and maybe more revealing faces while they were explaining you things !

Anyway, fantastic to have here a woman of that age... I wish her a good health and the same to you who has not reached that age - yet, dear Bev !
WS is well done...

Best wishes for 2009,
Cath.

Charo (31665) 2009-01-08 16:05

Hello Bev,
Interesting capture these elderly resting in the sun and taking a coffee. I like the different expressions of the ladies, and another one seems surprised complacent. Good job.
Best regards,
Charo

Cretense (55690) 2009-01-18 8:45

Hi Bev!

Long time, no see! You are back with a beautiful double portrait, great "interaction" with your "models", beautiful, natural and relaxed scene! Great framing and composition, excellent choice of b&w! Congratulations!

Hercules

tomescuc (2837) 2009-01-31 22:34