U Wanna Foto of ME?, a photo from Kabul, East

Photographer's Note

Out for an early morning walk in Kabul, I saw this man. Fortunately, unlike many other Afghans who get deadly serious when being photographed, “Smiley” here beamed for my camera. As with many in Afghanistan, this may have been the first time his picture has been taken. He smiled even more broadly when I showed him his grinning face seconds later in the LCD. A fun encounter. Gotta find more guys like him.

Dave

P.S. Note the somewhat unusual combination of Western dress and Afghan headgear.

bazal, Vagabond, Olienka, hispic, wata081, elena, jhonny_blue, rabani, trasher, alacious, fadingstar78, MLINES has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

kaychambers (1198) 2004-06-22 11:06

Top image demonstrating good composition. Here is hoping you have others similar to display.....

Regards

Vic, Singapore. 22nd june 2004.

Vagabond (5848) 2004-06-22 11:08

Good portrait ..
Excellent light and definition ..

alainh (33209) 2004-06-22 13:01

tres jolie photo David.
quelle expression superbe bien mis en valeur par une excйllente lumiиre.
beau tйmoignage
amicalement
alain

mustafaa (610) 2004-06-22 14:28

Good composition, very clear and sharp.

Olienka (145) 2004-06-22 14:45

Nice portrait! Very sharp & color balanced. What camera did u use?

wata081 (54) 2004-06-22 19:45

The light is excellent. Very nice portrait. Half Afghan, half western, must be a businessman!

cgrindahl (6113) 2004-06-22 19:55

Hi Dave! I just saw your work for the first time. This is a lovely portrait without much need for post-processing, at least as far as I can see. The colors are realistic and the depth of field nicely handled. You will certainly learn much about processing images if you hang out around here for very long. Check out workshops done by participants whose work you like. And, of course, keep looking at images. There are some very talented and generous people at this site. Welcome. The work you are doing fascinates me, but that is another topic for another venue.

bazal (7900) 2004-06-23 4:00

A very positive posting: it's great to see smiles in Afghanistan whereas TV most often shows us pictures of death coming from this country. Your pict is very natural.
Sorry, out of points for today ! I'll come back tomorrow...
...And here are the points !

Burnham (2428) 2004-06-23 9:47

He made my day :o) I think LCD screens are a good invention esp for showing people what they look like. I still havn't learned how to take pictures of people which makes me even more impressed with this shot. You are rith the clothes mixture is a nice touch to this allready interesting picture.

Same as Loic, I'm out of points but you'll get two tomorrow :o)

elena (1054) 2004-06-27 21:02

wow!! dave!! this one belongs to the "holy trinity" chapter of quality photos!!!! i guess you have gotten used to the contrast adjustment / unsharp mask?? iґm starting to use these tools and they do make a difference!
you have captured a beautiful smilem and the warm early morning light adds a sweet atmosphere. Funny contrast between his head turban? and his western clothes...

dominique (11414) 2004-06-28 13:25

Beautiful portrait, much of joy in its eyes in spite of a life not very simple in this area, beautiful work.

eleparc (24063) 2004-06-29 12:30

bravo david, for some reason i have been pretty negligent lately and i have missed your afghan shots...;-) superb captures;-)) i love portraits and my deepest regret is to have missed that time when one could shoot beautiful afghan portraits...without getting in danger for just being westener... how did you get there? on a NGO mission?

jhonny_blue (4956) 2004-07-19 9:04

Fantastic shot David ! Perfect colours and smile !
Very beautiful model.
Congratulations

PixelTerror (0) 2004-08-20 1:17

Excellent portrait, a very positive image from this country, hope there are many more guys like him there.

flydragon (0) 2004-11-27 18:28

Another great portrait
with a beautifull light
u are really good to take natural
portrait, this guy seems enjoying to be
your model ;o)
well done a beautifull shot
••simon••

sn00zie (2384) 2004-12-02 9:08

this is a jolly good photo David. love the man's smile. a very lively picture, full of warmth and affection.

Janice (4403) 2004-12-17 1:21

Excellent portrait of a willing model. Well composed, thank you for sharing...

rabani (9645) 2004-12-22 20:14

Just to prove a point of the cheerfulness I had mentioned in my first comment about your work. At least I can say, all your works here is not the deer-caught-in-the-headlight kind of shot.
Dave, it is like the people here is saying, HOPE is working here and I am feeling it.

Auslander (353) 2005-01-06 7:51

Really beatiful picture. The face is so clear and even in worst situation the human being can still be smiling.

A true portrait of this world of Kabul, thanks for sharing !

Dave

alacious (56) 2005-11-23 4:59

Another fabulous shot. I can't say that I haven't enjoyed any of the photos I've seen from you.

The composition is excellent, and the subject matter both amusing and fascinating.

One small thing about a lot of your portraits that I've seen, and it is a VERY minor detail. If you have the ability or a camera that can do it, I'd contemplate using some fill flash on your portraits, or, barring that, a reflector. A reflector may be easier, cheaper, and more effective actually. You can get a nice 38" one from bhphoto.com or countless other places and they fold up meaning they're easy to carry around.

This would help remove some of the overly strong shadows that are present in your shots, and could make them even better than they are right now!

Thanks for sharing your amazing shots with us.

oochappan (4880) 2005-11-23 7:06

Hi David
A classical portrait with an incredible good interaction that I can appreciate a lot, trespassing window-shooting where you hide yourself behind your occular, both you were enjoying the moment and that we can enjoy too.
Excellent.

MLINES (12516) 2006-04-08 21:41

At last a happy looking Afghan. Great portrait of this character. Good to see some smiles from a place which we mainly see sad news. Well portrayed.

voyagenation (1180) 2006-08-19 9:27

what a delightful smile! totally warms the heart! bravo david!

mabuhay!

raul

caproger (168) 2006-10-06 18:23

Great photo David. I like to see and take pictures of people - and there are not enough of them on TE.

Mike

dareco (17136) 2007-07-26 15:01

This really makes me smile. A wonderful shot!