I see two problems with this photo. This first is I don't think it works as a B&W, there isn't enough contrast bettween the background and the subject.
The second I see is there seems to be a person at Alice's right hand which I find distracting.
The person being there is part of the point. If there was nobody there, then it wouldn't matter at all that this is a 60 second exposure.
The contrast thing is a good point, though. That's one of the things that I don't love about it myself... could probably play with the color channels a bit to help that, and maybe some dodging/burning.
The problem I have with them is that I don't see WHY they are there. What are they supposed to contribute to the image? The person doesn't seem to be "interacting" with the statue so I am having problems seeing why they have been positioned where they are.
My original idea was something more like the photos below, but then they looked a little too busy to me, and you can hardly make out the Alice in Wonderland statue.
I would say have the person interact more with the statue. In the ones you just posted the people are climbing on or looking at the statue. In yours the person doesn't seem to be interacting with the statue and so looks out of place.
JG: To be clear, those are all my photos, not somebody else's. I liked the way the children were interacting with the statue, but it made it so the statue is unrecognizable at that point.
Fryewire: Fair enough.
This was sort of an experimental thing for me. I don't want to artificially try and make this image more than what it is by coming up with some artsy-fartsy reasoning behind the image... I just thought the result would be interesting. I don't think I was totally successful in my attempt here, but it was an interesting experiment in any case and I had fun doing it.
I really like the idea, and the main thing is you had fun. I think you came very close to pulling it off with the second set of photos. I agree a bit too messy so you can't see the statue well enough but I like them quite a bit. They make the statue seem more "alive" and the children contribute a lot to the photo. It just seems quite a juxtaposition to have the first one you posted compared to the second set.
Maybe next time get the people to play around Alice rather than on top of her?
A really nice attempt all in all. So close and a great idea.
Thanks, JG. I didn't really want to tell anyone what to do in the shot, as the idea behind the series was to capture a slice of time (one minute) in New York. Think of it like New York as a living, breathing thing so to speak. I felt like I'd be cheating if I was telling people exactly what to do, know what I mean?
