Submitter's name:	Tris Schuler
Title:	Crowd Pleaser
Gear used:	OM-4T, Motor Drive 2, Zuiko 100mm f2, B+W KR 1.5 MC
Diaphragm:	f4
Shutter speed:	1/250
Film used:	Kodak FarbWelt 800.
Technical information:	(2 September 2001) What I had in mind was to use my 28mm/2 in close for detail, but due to the crowd that dog didn't hunt. Thus my other 4T swung up into action, its 100mm affording agreeable reach. The Covent Garden throng helps stage the action, out-of-focus heads serve as a foreground frame. The day was overcast (it rained later that evening as I strolled back from dinner to my hotel in Kensington) and I wondered about cast and contrast. I habitually use my 4T's with motor drives with just these sorts of opportunities in mind--drives do add weight but give practical purchase for hand-held work, and speed. I'll take the latter attributes every time. In this case, I shot off what was left of my roll of FarbWelt 800 (over 20 frames left from 36) to help ensure the capture of a pleasing moment of action. The existing light (at dusk) didn't help the focus, but it's close. (Or, as they a friend of mine at the Magnet Bar in Oshkosh mumbled one New Year's Eve over a tap, "Yeah, kos.")
Subject Information:	This photograph came at the end of a long day's picture tour conducted by a cabbie friend I made. The driver (Mark) was parked at a stand over by the Museum of Natural History. A slow Sunday, he was more than happy to cart me around. Five hours later he dropped me off in Covent Garden for my dinner, with an hour's light still left to work with. On my way back from dinner, by the way, I took my favorite picture of London this time through, a marquee shot off The Palace Theatre around 11 o'clock (in the rain). That photograph can be viewed here. The photograph I wanted to submit to TOPE 7 (of a street mime during Semana Grande in San Sebastian, Spain) has yet to be scanned.
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Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

That's one scary looking guy! Personally I would have tried to get a tighter cut out when composing the picture, or cropping the end result, such that more emphasis is put on the artist, otherwise, it's a good shot!

Comment left by: Tris Schuler (tristanjohn@mindspring.com)

A tighter shot would have focused more on the juggler and less on the theme of TOPE 7 (or such was my thinking when I cropped the photo), which is community interaction. Of course we could surmise that a juggler probably wouldn't be doing that in a vacuum, though on second thought this guy looks about crazy enough to "practice" down there at three in the morning. ) Anyway, I just thought I'd provide my rationale for this picture's composition.

Comment left by: Dan Mitchell (danielmitchell@smarttech.com)

Re: 'we could surmise that a juggler probably wouldn't be doing that in a vacuum' -- as you mention, I've seen almost exactly this -- 2am at a juggling convention, came around the corner of a building, and there was a guy on a giraffe unicycle, 8 feet in the air, playing the accordion in the middle of the night under a floodlight. I like the vertical lines in this picture; it's difficult to tell that he's 'inside' until your eye gets to the top left.

Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

Tris, I see your points for not composing tighter and think they're valid. Furthermore I wanted to add that the picture of Mark would have been an excellent entry too. Was that shot taken within the TOPE 7 time lines?

Comment left by: Tris Schuler (tristanjohn@mindspring.com)

Yes, Olaf. I'd say Mark posed for that shot about an hour and a half prior to dropping me off at Covent Garden, where the juggler was captured some thirty minutes after that.

Comment left by: Tris Schuler (tristanjohn@mindspring.com)

It isn't often you try to get out-of-focus heads in your shots, but it's unavoidable at times. I used up more than a roll on this activity and have plenty of images with no obtrusive heads. But the thing is there's an entire picture to consider, and this image is the one which turned out best on balance with re to the action, people in the baclground, etc. If I wasn't a motor-drive junkie then we wouldn't even have that! (Since I uploaded this picture my scanner arrived and so now I have a digital image of that mime shot I mentioned in the technical notes. And you know what? There's a head in that one, too. )

Comment left by: Bruce Hamm (bhamm@magma.ca)

When I first saw this photo, I thought I'd be tempted to try to get a bit closer to the action. Then I took another look at those knives... Very interesting photo.

Comment left by: Chris Barker (imagopus@threeshoes.co.uk)

I have been to Covent Garden many times and this is a great show to see - any of them. This shot has captured the size of the building behind without losing enough detail of the performer and some of his audience.

Comment left by: Miles Nordin (carton@ivy.net)

This could have been much better. The Kodak FarbWelt800 emulsion is epically ugly, as this picture demonstrates. Moreover, it is entirely too fast for the moment - a slower emulsion would have favored a narrower DOF, which would have softened the rubes gaping in the background. Of course, that's unless you LIKE rubes gaping, in which case you should have used a deeper DOF. It's amusing, BTW, to read Tris's defensive and oh-so-deep comments on the posts so far. Since he's been kicked off photo.net, I guess he needs an outlet. Too bad he debases the Olympus exhibition by showing up here.

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