I was shooting images at Rockerfeller Plaza last year and for me the difference was astounding. Here the skaters seem tentative - ice skating in California is not all that common. In New York there was an assuredness that isn't seen here.
This is a beautiful image, Rose, but what makes it so beautiful is the way the figures work their way across so differently within each of the different colored areas of the image. The people in the greenish light are caught at a moment of extreme tension -- one gets the feeling that the man is sending the woman off on a journey and she is now on her own. I love the way their shadows shove them forward, out of the shadows of others at the bottom of the frame. The people in the reddish light are grouped according to their individual journeys as well, but they seem more sure of themselves than the woman who is being launched into unknown territory in the greenish light. I liked the way you take care to avoid mergers here -- everyone in the shot has space in which to maneuver. You have to let the image compose itself, avoiding chaos. It takes time and many shots to get it to work as well as you did here, Rose.
