Let's try this

[thewestbackline]

I’ve gotten into photography as a hobby and would appreciate some real C&C on my photos – family and friends aren’t too helpful in this respect.  No intention of ever going pro, this is just for fun.

Here are some (probably too many) of my shots: http://www.thewestbackline.com/

The film ones are probably the most problematic – I’ve just recently begun messing around with film on some old all-manual cameras and have a ways to go.

[nesgran]

You are right, there’s a lot of photos, too many to properly say much about. I like the pigeon shot a lot in fact. The holiday pictures look like something you see in a travel brochure

There’s two things I think you should do. First is to get rid of all the photos which wouldn’t make any sense to a stranger. This includes most of your building shots. They don’t make sense as architectural photos, they aren’t interesting enough to work as abstract and there is no interesting light/colour play to make them stand out. Second thing you need to do is watch your framing more carefully, I see an awful lot of chopped off feet. You aren’t holding your camera straight either, sort your tilted horizons out.

Your shots are nice and interesting, keep going with it!

[Worst Case Scenario]

I just looked through them all while I ate my lunch, and I won’t mind doing it again tomorrow!

I’m a stranger but they all made sense to me. There’s a few that aren’t as good as the rest, but only a few. The cycle section didn’t seem needed and the heights shots weren’t as interesting as I thought they would be.

I liked the idea of showing film and digital images (why do some people still think film is better?) In the digital sections you  have great colour and some gorgeous  B/W conversions.

My only criticism would be that the home page opened on a picture that was dominated by a bin! (unless that was some subtle comment that I missed)

More please.

[cameraclicker]

As WCS said, great bin on the home image!

Even that photo would be alright if the whole photo was exposed.  Perhaps the page menu should be moved to the right side to cover the bin and expose the man?

I liked the photos.  Keep shooting.

[Stillthere]

I regularly come to this page to learn from other people mistakes, so I’m not the right person to give advice.  However I couldn’t resist myself  to comment. The NYC  sets made me nostalgic. You captured the real life one can see in such a great city, only if we open our eyes instead of rush to catch up the daily routine. Life, humanity, art, and details of the urban environment are conjugated in this pictures and gave me a wide range of  emotional memories, as I found a story in every single picture (BTW, I’ve never been physically there). In the Heights I love the first one most. I know the exposure time was 5 sec. Did you make some postprocess in the sky?

[emf]

There are some really interesting images here and it’s nice to see that you seem to be looking for your own style rather than copying clichéd scenes.

In the street section I love the first image with the strange juxtaposition between the wall art and guy with his head in/on the bin, balancing each other out.  I also like things like the poster of the nude against the peeling paint and worn brick work.

In the heights section, I like the aerial views the most, in which the busy, noisy street scenes below become abstracted and kind of muted, if that makes sense.

I assumed the bin was intentional, i.e. so it appears as if  he is fishing out of the bin?

[ebi]

i see a little cliche. The dumbo shot of the Manhattan bridge for instance – i’ve got that shot too. it’s an outtake. I wouldn’t use it. I don’t think you should either. And not much in the way of people shots that I haven’t already seen on the Humans of NY fb page. I don’t like his photography that much btw. I think you do capturull ye some occasional interesting moments, but you need to cull your photographs down into something more concise and meaningful….and keep shooting b/c you aren’t bad.

[thewestbackline]

Thanks everyone!

Nesgran, thanks for the tips.  I’ll work on framing people / not cutting off feet and double check for level horizons (with the film stuff I did no post – not even levelling/cropping).

Stillthere, I did some minor adjustments in aperture to that photo with the light trails but the sky was kind of lucky timing, it was right at dusk so the 5s exposure got quite a bit of light.

I’ll also think about changing the cover picture – for some reason I really like that shot with the fisherman silhouetted… hadn’t really paid much attention to the bin (and certainly hadn’t thought about it looking like he’s fishing from it!) but now that you guys have raised it I see how dominant it is!  If I was a photoshop savant maybe I could remove it.

Also per your comments, I’ll probably fold the “cycle” shots in to the NYC galleries, I agree they’re probably not worthy of their own set.  And probably do some general culling, particularly in the film galleries. Again I’m not trying to sell anything here, just share some of my favorites. There’s probably something to be said for really making it a “best of the best” selection.

Thanks again!!

[Author]

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