pimpin' ain't easy
by muckpond

Comment by mk:
I used to live right near here. You know, to be near my pimp.

family vacation
by muckpond

Comment by SJCarter:
Great shot!

spoilt
by muckpond

Comment by Skip:
i can see you're honing in on a second revenue stream designing t-shirts, as witnessed here that you are considering 'what the market will support...'

family vacation
by muckpond

Comment by Skip:
if this were really a vacation photo, there would be a thumb in there somewhere ;-)

nice shot!

Cavity Creep
by muckpond

Comment by nova:
So what did ya find???

Self Portrait with Go To Hell Hat
by muckpond

Comment by Skyarcher:
Okay, who besides me, has looked at this photo and thought... Rob Thomas! Are you sure your last name is Elliott?! ;-)

And just to be sure of what I was seeing, had my sister, my mom and 2 of my nephews check it out. We all agree....

BradP isn't the only famous face here apparently! :D

coney island slalom
by muckpond

Comment by Skyarcher:
B/W Club
If this wasn't for a challenge, and just for personal collection, my honest opinion would be to first try and carefully clone out the watchers sitting on the bench. Think of it as photo restoration. ;-)

Fixing the slight tilt is no problem, although it really doesn't bother me. What I would love to see though is a little more definition/depth to the sky, without altering the rider and pier. Would have to be done carefully, so as to not mess up the rest of the image, yet look natural.

If changing the sky is not option, then just getting rid of the onlookers on bench would be improvement in my book.

I'm just amazed that he is able to do that on wooden pier! :)

coney island slalom
by muckpond

Comment by tfaust:
B/W Mentor Group:
First off on the tilt... It's hard to tell if it's quite as bad as first meets the eye. Just looking at the horizon I would say yes, but looking at the metal railing on the edge of the pier, I would say no. Anyhow - this isn't a group about tilts, so I'll move on. :-)

My first reaction before really studying the photo was that there isn't a whole lot of contrast. Everything feels grey to me. Then my eyes fall on the barrels and the unicycler - and they pop. I also like how the barrels lead my eyes right to the back edge of the photo and along the way I get to see a lot of people and I wonder what is going in their life.

I don't know if I like the position of the unicycler in the frame. Something doesn't feel right with that, but I can't place where I think he should be. He definately belongs in the photo though.

coney island slalom
by muckpond

Comment by Balko:
The tilt bothers me (using distort would solve this) but that has nothing to do with B&W :)You have the range from deep black to very white in the clouds. The mid range echoes the fog over the water and pier. Very nice.

coney island slalom
by muckpond

Comment by Falc:
B/W Mentor Group.

OK I'm going to ignore the tilt, its been noticed and could be fixed very easily.

What I find intiguing is the tonal differences here. The barrels are black, deep black and provide a lead all the way down through the image. The rider is also black so the eye understands that there is some linkage between him and the barrels. But then you start to absorb the rest of the image an dit fades gloriously frm left to right. The tones get whiter as it approaches the building on the right. I like that aspect more and more as I look at the image, it too adds to the pull on the eye from left to right.

I'm going to guess that you used a ND grad filter because the lampost gains darkness as it gains height and there is some added definition in the clouds. Tonal range feels right apart from the lamps

Now to be honest I hadn't seen the overlap of the rider and the couple on the bench, but having just read Kaveys comments that now jarrs quite badly and would have been better if you had stepped two paces left.