My first thought was that you got a great angle and stopped the action with just enough blur to make it fun and realistic; my second thought was "Leica M6? Hope it's in a waterproof housing..."
Cant decide if I want the dock to be straightened or not... great shot!
2 kids are like "YAAAAA" the other two are like "ok...we are jumping I guess..." hahaha
I didn't think much of this shot when I first saw it. My infancy and the "technical mentality" perspective at first defused my appreciation of it.
I revisited it several times and finally, early yesterday morning I got out of that head space and was astonished at the realization that the things I value most in a photograph - the layered depth and textures of nuance, light, shadow, character, emotional interest and in particular in this case - the lines... I suddenly saw it. Thus my initial, hurried scribble and first reply.
I was like "holy cow"... how many shots did he have to take to find this one?
And I agreed with Doug's head-scratching over the dock line. I'd have probably either leveled it or exaggerated it. I think the former would have detracted, the latter would have been clumsy and affected.
Evan's an interesting character. I don't find myself inclined to want to mimic him - probably because I couldn't. But man I do want to get inside his head and see things with his eye. He has a way of discovering and creating something extraordinary from the seemingly ordinary.
Finally, and this was what I didn't have time to mention yesterday. The contours, vitality, modeling and visual "firmness" of the water. No way that kid broke the surface. He had to have bounced off it.
The one thing I think that would make this better would be if the child on the far right was slightly overlapping the other overlapping kids on the left putting them all together (see Bresson). The entire group forms a nice triangular comp.
This is nice, Evan. I love the water. Great tonal quality. I'd like to see the right side cropped off (house and tree) to give the boys more prominence.
I really hesitate to tell anyone how to crop or compose an image. I think there is a very nice balance here and the right side of the frame gives the image a place as well as balance.
A great quote by Weston:
"......so called “composition” becomes a personal thing, to be developed along with technique, as a personal way of seeing."-Edward Weston
To many times I see comments about how photographer A would crop/compose and image instead of looking and excepting they way it is composed. To many times, in my opinion, some think there is only one way to do it when in reality there are as many ways as there are creative photographers. The important question does this look like and Evan Baines photograph? Is it put together the way Evan puts his images together not the way others would?
So here are some thoughts I had, spurred by particular comments and critique. I try to be careful about stating my "artist's intent" when I've solicited feedback, because sometimes it comes across as defensive: IE "this is why your feedback is wrong." In general, I also find that part of the point of soliciting critique is to see if my work is effectively communicating my intent, so if I have to give the reason, maybe the shot isn't working. But for this one I'll talk about a few of the things that I'm thinking and about my process... this does not mean that I place any less value on critique that does not agree with or support my intent... if anything I value dissenting views MORE, even if I look at the picture differently than that critic does.
1. The camera was not in a housing. I was belly-deep in the water, and I quickly turned my body when they splashed to shield the camera. It did not get wet.
2. I've played with the crop on this one a few times. You're looking at an image that was cropped in from the top and left a bit, where the boys were a bit more centered. The shot was pre-focused, but tracking and composing in a moment like this is tough and I knew I'd probably wind up cropping when I shot it, hence a looser initial comp. Every time I try straightening the shot, it feels less energetic and chaotic to me. I'm usually REALLY anti-tilt, but for some reason I feel the shot loses some vitality when I straighten it. I also felt strongly that the dark wave shadow in the bottom right and the hint of boat house balance what would otherwise be off-balance with the boys justified slightly left. I considered the extreme reductive approach of a square crop tighter on the boys, but I feel like this abstracts the photo, eliminates the chaos, and provides less of the useful context.
3. RE: expressions. Part of what I actually LIKE about the photo for my interest is the variety of expressions and commitment to the jump we see. If this were and advertising photo for an awesome summer camp or otherwise trying to sell something where boys are uniformly and universally having the best experience ever, I'd want everyone smiling, engaged, and probably all in the air. However, as a photograph for its own sake, I actually find the diversity of expressions more interesting and has more long-term appeal as I try to infer what each boy was actually thinking about during the capture.
4. RE: triangles. The triangular comp is part of what drew me to the shot as compositionally interesting. I concur that it would be more cohesive if all the boys were connected visually, but I don't mind how neatly the fourth boy fits under the arm of the 3rd. I'm not sure whether this makes the shot more or less successful.
5. How many shots: I only have one frame of this on the roll.
I think that's mostly it for me. As I said, I value all of the feedback, and if you see things differently than I describe above that is particularly valuable to me. I just saw Chuck mention "getting inside my head" so I figured I'd share some process stuff.
great shot! 