I've been trolling through some old negs and came across this picture. It was taken in the mid '80's I believe (I stupidly didn't record dates back then) and is croppe dfrom a wider view. I'll post that once you've had a look at how I chose to present it :)

Cheers!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), August 01, 2001

Answers

This reminds me so well of the photograph of the little boy in the art museum entitled "The Art Critic" (I think). I don't know the photographer's name, but I can look it up later. Priceless because of his adult-like, contemplative posture. This photograph is an interesting and opposing parallel: Adult looking at juvenile art v. child viewing mature art.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), August 01, 2001.

And, like the one of the little boy who has such "adult" posture, this gentleman has such a child-like posture.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), August 01, 2001.

Wisdom

I liked this photograph immediately - well done! It is technically good, but what caught my attention was the contrast between the viewer and the view. After a good look at the wall, the man is comical to me (although that may not be what you were going for). I'd really like to know what the man is thinking. This is a photo I would like to have taken.

-- Derrick Morin (dmorin@oasisol.com), August 01, 2001.

Thanks for the comments guys.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), August 03, 2001.

I don't know why, but I love this photo. I suppose it's the tension portrayed between the older gentleman and the wall writing. That's my intellectual evaluation. Now then, I just like it. That's my gut feeling. It just hit me as being meaningful...I'm lost for words here.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), August 03, 2001.

I love this picture, for one reason: it reminds me of my grandfather.

He would walk with his hands behind his back like that when he was contemplating something. Or when we were in a store and he wanted to resist the impulse to pick everything up and look at it.

This photo brought back a flood of memories; it's a shame he isn't here to share them now. Heck, this photo could be my grandfather... where was it taken?

-- brian reeves (bri1217@yahoo.com), August 07, 2001.

Brian, it was taken in the Melbourne (Australia) city square.

Good to here a photo touched you in such a way, I come across pictures that do the same thing at times. When I here a reaction like this it's very rewarding... Thankyou for sharing.

This... photo will trigger those sorts of memories in my wife's family in years to come as Ruth passed away last week. Whenever anyone visited Jack and Ruth you'd be treated to tea and biscuits while they sat in 'their' chairs. I snapped this pic whilst waiting to take a 4 generations photo of Grandma, Nana, my wife and our boy. When I posted this pic sometime ago, someone said they looked like they were watching TV, but they are actually talking to my wife and the plate is empty cause the fruit cake hadn't been put out yet or the tea had yet to be poured. The biscuits had been placed on the plate ready for consumption :)

For the technically minded, the film was Konica IR750 (no filter), 28mm lens and exposure of 1/2 sec @ f2.8 (camera was on a tripod, I just waited for a Grandma to stop speaking before tripping the shutter).

I'm very glad it came out ok.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), August 07, 2001.

Nigel,

Love you last picture! Any chance of a bigger scan? It is a little dark but I'm guessing that the room was dimly lit so it is an accurate reflection of the scene?

Why that film?

--- Allan.

(Off-topic: Is it me, or are there more 'Get Rich Quick' postings than there used to be? :-P)

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), August 08, 2001.

Somewhat off topic : Allan, that was the film I had in my 'B&W' body. My other body had colour stuff ready for the '4 generations pics'. Some HP5 or similar would have been more appropiate, would have let me up the shutter speed a bit! The room was quite dim but my print/scan is probably a little dark, mostly cause the shadow areas are underexposed and I preferred to make them blacker than washed out greys. I have since had another go at printing this (my wife wants to give copies to relatives) and might have done a better job. I'll try scanning that a bit bigger and will post in this thread.

Completely Off Topic : We seemed to have a heap of those SPAM notices a few weeks back, but recently I haven't seen to many... What I'd like to know is, does anyone ever respond to these things? Maybe they do, otherwise surely they (the SPAMers) would have given up a long time ago!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), August 08, 2001.

Larger scan of Jack & Ruth

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), August 09, 2001.