Chinatown + Kensington Market Shots

[Chrix]

My photography class is now ending, so last week we had our year end assignment/trip. The whole class took a bus up to Toronto and we basically had free reign to go out and take as many pictures as we could. It was pretty enjoyable and I got a few decent shots, so I decided that I should post a few of the ones that I liked. One thing I did notice is that my "keeper" to "trash" shot ratio is increasing so that is a good thing!

I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions and constructive criticism to help me improve my technique. All shots were taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT w/ kit lense. Click for larger version.

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Chinese lanterns in a Chinese shop.


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Busy bustle of Chinatown.


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(http://maplepond.ca/dcrp/june17/IMG_1746.JPG)
A pair of shoes hanging out.


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(http://maplepond.ca/dcrp/june17/IMG_1753.JPG)
An old bike.


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(http://maplepond.ca/dcrp/june17/IMG_1755.JPG)
A classic car.


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(http://maplepond.ca/dcrp/june17/IMG_1757.JPG)
This is the best photo I took during the trip and probably the best photo I've taken as of yet. I just noticed this door in-between two shops in Kensington and I knew I just had to grab a picture. An old door.


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(http://maplepond.ca/dcrp/june17/IMG_1768.JPG)
The CN Tower from Chinatown.


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Lotsa fruits.


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A woman buying fruit in Kensington.


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A windmill toy thingy in Chinatown.

Again, any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
~Chris

[timmciglobal]

Let me preface this with "I'm being critical" because I hate responses for the sake of being mean...

Your composistion needs work. Too many shots too far off the rule of thirds, You should also be looking at "angel" on things like the spinner, looks like a great shot to have gotten a unique angle on, also the women buying fruit really should of been a portrait orientation shot imho to focus on "the action" over "some street with graffeti and a woman crossing oh and someone buying fruit too"

I think thats MY weakest area. I find myself taking too many "good snapshots" and too few "good photographs" because it's natural to point your camera at the center of what your looking at and click the shutter. Sometimes you need to stop and say "Ok, I like this but what could I do to make it better, what composistion would improve what I'm trying to show"

Just my opinion, feel free to trash me, CWphoto does! :p

Tim

[aparmley]

Thanks for sharing! What an interesting place - awesome! These are all excellent images from a technical standpoint. Exposures are pretty good. I have to agree with Tim though - I think the area in which you have the best chance of really improving is composition - I think we all are in that same boat with you though. . . I'm not a pro and I certainly have a very young eye with regards to the frame but what I try to remember when I find something that catches my eye - I try to remember "Take at least 10 different photographs of the same object." If you have time that is - Vary your angle, shot from up high, shoot down low, try some portrait, try some landscape - try different combinations of shutter speeds and apertures. . . .

For instance - That door shot is one of my favorties but I would really like to have seen it shot in portrait orientation. . . maybe take a few steps back, flip the camera to portrait, place the bottom of the door on the lowest rule of third line and see how that looks. . . maybe even a slight tilt in portrait mode. . .

# 1 I think I would have tried to tilt the camera to the right a little to get more of those red balls in the frame - something bothers me about the composition on this one. . . . I like the subject matter though, very interesting. . . again I'd try different framing versions and see what works the best.

#2 Maybe this image needs a foreground element? A stack of news papers, something. Perhaps it needs to be the strongest of the three elements here ? ? ? Again, this one isn't really grabbing my attention.

As far as the rest are concerned ways to improve: First - every images looks like it was taken from the same perspective, the one we all know, these all look how they would if we were standing there. Sometimes changing your perspective, bending your knees a little, sitting on the ground, squating, sometimes climbing up a little higher than the norm are all a photograph needs to look a lot better than what we would have seen if you just stood there. Second - Tim hinted at something I see as well - the good snapshot - Its a struggle to get over - I'm still not past this stage but I find it helps out a lot if I just "Move closer." Take that old bike you found - Killer subject BTW - I would have taken a few snaps and then moved in real close, isolate a few interesting intersections of the frame, spokes, what ever I could think of - I think you could do a series just on that bike! But, that was hard for me to learn at first - each subject has the potential of having sooo many different angles and framing that its overwhelming and hard to really understand at first - I still struggle with it. . . .

I hope some of this helps - I am definetely not trying to offend you at all - I enjoyed the photos a lot and thought I'd offer up some advice/tricks to try for next time to try and find that photo you can almost see in your minds eye!

Good luck and keep them coming!

[cdifoto]

For me to comment on composition would be the pot calling the kettle black.

[aparmley]

For me to comment on composition would be the pot calling the kettle black.

So call it black - maybe you say something the OP can benefit from. . . thats the way I look at it. . .

[ReF]

if i got those kind of responses i'd be thinking "ouch!"
but there's really good advice from what was said and it's only to your (the OP) benefit. you're off to a good start and you'll get there real soon ;)

[aparmley]

OK Ref made a good point. I thought I mixed in enough good points with my advice . . . maybe I didn't - Chrix - I think every subject you've choosen is very interesting - really not all that easy to do. As I stated in my first post most images are very nicely exposed. Just, next time out, I'd like you to vary angles and points of view more to prevent every shot looking like you are just standing there looking at them.

I wasn't trying to be harsh - and trust me it sounds like people are when they critique - but no one is saying you stink or you should turn it in. . . Trust me when I say whats been said to you isn't anything we have all heard before re: our images. . .

[Chrix]

Guys, guys! Stop worrying!

This is actually exactly what I was looking for on my photos - an honest critique in order for me to improve my shooting ability. Please don't worry about offending me or anything (unless of course you are being unnecessarily harsh for no constructive reason, which none of you are even close to) because I've found that these comments are not only true but are things I haven't thought about (such as taking multiple shots from different angles, moving around shooting the same subject many times). I'm not interested in having people stepping on glass worrying about offending me because it isn't going to help in the long run - I'm new to photography and I need improvement so I really appreciate the comments!

A couple of the shots that I took were simply for the sake of taking them as I didn't consider them important enough to be stuff that I'd be printing to hand in, something that I'm feeling really stupid about now. A good example of this is the bike and the door, which I think are some of the best of the set, but I only ended up taking one shot of each. Another thing that sort of bugs me about them is that the door shot has the end of the bike cropped out just because I couldn't fit it - for whatever reason I didn't even consider going to shoot portrait, probably because I never really do.

I agree completely in regards to the chinese lanterns as I was having trouble figuring out how I wanted to shoot them even before I lifted my camera up to take the shot. I knew there was a lot of stuff to fit in the frame and sadly I ended up cutting it off. A lot of my images I was looking at once I had grabbed them off the camera and seem to fall into the realm of "good snapshot" rather than something that jumps out and says to me "I'm a good photograph!".

I think it comes down to me having to go back and get that door and bike again some day! Chinatown and Kensington were definitely cool places and had a lot of potential for more shots - I just need to find them better I suppose.

Thanks so much for the honest comments on my photography, I really appreciate it. I'm really just here so I can figure out how to get better and improve my shots, as well as to check out what other people are doing too of course!

[ReF]

glad you took the critique very maturely. every once in a while someone takes it too hard and things get ugly. i really like looking at these kind of pictures but don't for some reason don't take any myself. will be looking forward to seeing more of these from you

[noyjimi]

Chrix,

I was in Toronto not too long ago but unfortunately I didn't really have a lot of time to shoot in Chinatown - I went there to eat with a friend, LOL. Anyway, from what you posted and what's been said, it seems like some of the shots would have come out more "focused" by framing tighter like the fruits, spinning toy, old lady and, dare I say it, the door - yes the door to the point where you're no longer framing the door but rather shooting an interesting part of it . It looks like there were plenty of colors and texture to be had from close-ups - maybe even the old lady's hands against the fruits on the stand.

From what I remember though of what I saw there, I really wanted to shoot things like the cables in the air with the cable car and street corners in the environment (too bad I didn't have my UWA with me), or the tightly framed cable car with its rich red color. Some of the colorful signs would have been interesting at dusk or nighttime although there weren't as dense where I walked. At one of the places where we ate, you actually had to go up one or two flights of stairs and I thought it would have been quite interesting to be able to shoot the busy environment from a high up perspective.

Just blathering out ideas - I miss Toronto. :D

-noyjimi