Tormented, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

Back to my ongoing series of shots takien at the street fair in Ocean Beach while standing near a musician as plausible cover for my photography. In this fashion, I captured this fellow scuttling along muttering to unseen stimuli.

In today's San Diego Newspaper, there was a big article touting the latest thinking on homeless mentally ill. It seems that it's cheaper to provide long-term housing with no strings than to 'treat' the mentally ill in emergency rooms and jail. What a surprise!!

PP: Nikon Capture: Crop, resize, convert to JPEG, In Photoshop: Select background, decrease noise and darken. Frame and save for web

Emile, lestans, MLINES, pablominto, xuaxo, pboehringer, weswang, aloyho ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

Emile (20352) 2006-06-16 1:18

Hola Patricia.
Excellent portrait of this interesting man, you got very good details and his expression was very well captured, good colors and sharpness. I like his glasses. Good DOF.
Well done.

lestans (17258) 2006-06-16 2:20

A strong, well done portrait, Patricia!
Sometimes I think that dark glasses are unfit for a portrait, but I see that this is not true! His glasses are strange and are a part of his personality.
Brava!!
Livia

Angshu (56760) 2006-06-16 3:33

Hi Pat
You're mastering portrait photography slowly, but surely. A great closeup here with excellent clarity. A little bother about the light perhaps, but I'm impressed overall. A learning experinece for me
Regards
Angshu

MLINES (12516) 2006-06-16 3:53

Hi Pat, Another good life portrat you have captured here. Catchy title and it looks to be a good label somehow. Your details and colours are good. True message, we are coming to the same conclusions here also. Good work. Murray.

pablominto (53746) 2006-06-16 4:27

Hi Patricia,
Interesting to see your continued series with portraits off the streets..!
This is well done, you capture a lot of the experience chiselled in that face...
Well framed, sunlight well handled! Maybe I miss some clue to his close environment, something to hook him on..? Without your comment I'd probably be mistaken in my interpretation...
Greetings,
Pablo -

xuaxo (6854) 2006-06-16 4:48

Hi Pat
A great portrait, as other critiques mention.
A problem here, it's the contour around the hair, owing to PP (like in your previous portrait). Or is it something else?
Francisco
>> Meu sistema de pontos está desligado; ver detalhes no perfil/intro.
>> My points system is off; see details at my intro/profile

[workshop] [compare] +

gebala (0) 2006-06-16 4:53

hello Pat:) I like ur faces:) really nice point of view, clear clouse up with beauty details, exellent cropping and light:) well taken
rgs

feather (51130) 2006-06-16 11:21

Very good portrait Pat; it will soon become your forte. The light on his face is good and I like the tight crop, although he doesn't look homeless and his beard seems trimmed. Interesting news article.
Kath

pboehringer (770) 2006-06-16 14:44

Another excellent potrait out of your photo office. However, this time you lost a little bit of sharpness. The timing between your title and pictures are always so perfect.
Yes, I agree with you. The San Diego article is really such a big, huge surprise. Just a little bit of more socialism and sharing would be so helpful.

weswang (18247) 2006-06-16 16:42

Hi Pat, You have raised a social problem here. I think the article is biased assuming that if staying in houses for everyone, the mental problems would be totally disappeared. I think the mental problems are part of the reasons those people walk out from their regular life. The social argument is part of the careers for some.
A nice close up portrait to the guy. From the baseball hat and the sunglasses, it looks that this guy has been on a normal life.

john_c (24666) 2006-06-17 11:48

Hi Patricia,
You have really captured the man's plight here, with great clarity. One cannot help but feel compassion and pain for such people. Your framing and cropping are first rate to enhance. Well done, Pat.
John

aloyho (6798) 2006-06-20 23:57

Hi Patricia,
I like this portrait which is full of character and the very good details that you managed to capture. I should say the lighting is good judging from the tones and skin colours. I can understand the problem of masking around something as delicate as hairs. I wish I had a solution for it too. Interesting shot!! Have an exciting day.

gunbud (34066) 2006-11-30 20:20

Hi Pat,
Charles Dickens said "the worst place in the world to be poor is in America" For some reason he was right there seem to be more homeless in this country than any other developed country in the world. Great picture with fine color and expression.
Regards, Tom