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Kal Khogali | all galleries >> Transition >> New Images > Solitaire, Shanghai 2005
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26-NOV-2005

Solitaire, Shanghai 2005

A lonely game...

Canon EOS 20D
1/80s f/2.8 at 70.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Guest 29-Nov-2005 16:42
eh... here it comes.... the chinese version.....
no need to enter technical issues....
love it and you know it.

alem
Phil Douglis28-Nov-2005 04:34
Peter raises a significant issue here, not just for you, but for all of us. It is true that a long focal length can be a double edged sword. It can bring us so close that we can gain tremendous intimacy. However, if the long lens makes it "look" like a "long lens shot," you can, as Peter implies, make the viewer feel distant and detached. It's a very fine line we draw here, and we can only look at such a line in terms of each individual image and what we are trying to say with it. In this case, I think you are OK, because you are still creating those layers and shapes here that combine for meaning. I feel a tremendous sense of intimacy here, and as Ray said, isolation. That empty chair is poignant. It would have been almost impossible to make this image without a long lens. If you had walked up to him, you may well have broken his concentration and ruined the shot. That's the wild card here -- long lens effect or not, if you disturb some subjects, the image is lost.
arminb26-Nov-2005 21:04
I really do like it...right out of reality!
Tomasz Dziubinski - Photography26-Nov-2005 17:24
It's a great shot :)
Guest 26-Nov-2005 15:36
I do like it. I don't mind the use of long lens (not so long, I must use longer mostly when I do candids, I'm not brave enough).
As you said, you would have disturbed him with a shorter lens.
The distance is good to me: because he's isolated in his "solitary" game, separated from us by the chair too.
Kal Khogali26-Nov-2005 15:15
Thanks for the honesty Peter. I got as close as I could without disturbing him. Two shots later and he was looking up. The layers intended were the empty players chair, the barrier of the card chair (it intrigued me that he had a chair for someone to play, but chose to turn the chair he is playing on as a barrier...an almost deliberate act of solitude). I will certainly thing of closer and perhaps 50mm for this kind of image in the future. Rgds, Kal
Guest 26-Nov-2005 13:59
This one doesn't work for me as much as many of your other shots Kal, by using a long lens you give me a feeling that we are quite separated from this man, merely a distant observer and I don't see any feeling of closeness or compassion for him. Also by using the long lens everything seems so cramped together, but IMO it doesn't create desired layers or shapes.
Peter
Ray Rebortira26-Nov-2005 12:07
I like how the chair 'imprisons' the player, isolating him further in his solitary pursuit... And then there is that other empty chair in front --- how much sadder does it get?

Brilliant!.
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