This couple showed up in a bar I happened to be visiting. Not that I ever spend any time in bars...

Anyway, this shot was murder. It was incredibly dark, and the light was typical bar lighting. I used the counter to keep my arms steady (they let me shoot from behind the bar, not that I ever spend any time in bars...) and I was happy to have one where at least one of them was not moving.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), April 22, 2000

Answers

Wow, great photo Jeff! In this one I don't mind the moving of the man's head, it just adds to the feeling of this picture. They are a great couple, must be having the time of their life! Maybe we should spend some time in bars then :o)

-- Rolf Rosing (rcrosing@dds.nl), April 23, 2000.

yeah, good work. bar shots say volumnes about them and us. and the way we will be.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), April 23, 2000.

The expressions are priceless. The motion bur adds life. The apparent age of the woman sets the photograph apart because I seldom associate the older generations with the bar scene (not that *I* hang out much at bars, either!). The wall behind reveals adequate brick detail to describe place. The bold blackness behind the gentleman draws my attention to him and his smile. Probably she had just struck an ironic realization which led both to a grin. The message is, anyone can have fun, not just young people. Touching photograph.

This one will be more difficult than most to print (for framing) as some local burning and dodging will be necessary to reveal details in the highlights and to preserve details in the shadows. I'd be curious to know how you proceed with this task. Would love to see this (and a lot of others I see on the web) in real life. This "pixel" business just can't show it all.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), April 24, 2000.

Right now it's just a neg scan. I've finally got this negative scanning thing down, although I still have a lot to learn in Photoshop. I'd agree that this may not be as printable as some, and for now, I'm doing a lot of scanning of things I took and never printed.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), April 24, 2000.

And...one more bar shot, just for fun.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), April 27, 2000.