(or, Pushing your Framing Off The Cliff)
Student's Thoughts while on assignment:
Hi Rick,
Again it was hard to select just four [three]!!
I went to the Trenton Farmer's Market to see what I could find. It's a much smaller version of Reading Terminal Market, but just as vibrant!
#1 Two Leeks....I saw the woman admiring the leeks and decided to try to capture her gaze at them...it took five shots and this was the best of the lot.
#2 Two Smiles...At the bakery, I had a discussion with the clerk about my camera and her halloween decorations. Her beautiful smile and the skull's smile seemed a nature "catch".
#3 Paper and Coffee...I had a sausage and pepper sandwich will I talked with this man, Bob, about the state of the world. He was jotting notes in the paper about things he didn't believe and I wanted to capture this dynamic.
I'm looking forward to your critique...
Bill
Two Leeks
I'm fighting a bit to see how you felt this was a challenging or unusual composition. Not to say it isn't a nicely composed picture. It is. There are some color elements that are nicely used: red pepper, purple jacket collar placed against lots of cool greens/blues. Making the leeks the SUBJECT, in a way, might be considered a departure as most of us would focus on the woman and her interactions with the seller. I like it on that level. And, if that is the direction you were moving, perhaps push it a bit further. The leeks and hand might be dead sharp (super side aperture) and the woman nearly out-of-focus. Also, definitely, imperatively, think how the negative space (those out-of-focus areas in the background) are relating to and supporting your main subject?
Two Smiles
I like the insight and awareness that struck you in this image. Yet, compositionally, it is still fairly straight forward—situating the skull at a lower 1/3rd intersection and the girls' face at the upper 1/3rd intersection. Not taking anything away from the scene and moment, the push/drive of his assignment is to radically place elements in your picture. So, that said, fully 1/2 your frame might be dominated by the scull with the girl peering out from behind it. Or, you might choose to show JUST the teeth of the girl and JUST the teeth of the skull to make an even stronger expression. Just a few thoughts and pushing you to think extreme, at least in terms of shaking up your approach.
Professor's Crit:
Paper & Coffee
Right, this is more about the notion of the assignment, but probably not as clearly appealing as your first two images. By removing the man's face, there is perhaps a bit more drama. I like the use of the styrofoam cup at the lower right to anchor the composition. Somehow, I am imagining the scene shot from directly above perhaps? Emphasizing a bit more, maybe, the clean white/blacks of the paper against the burgundy table tops. When you get down to it, however, your main action/subject is still pretty much directly in the middle/center. That creates a little stagnation for the eye and doesn't let us roam around in the picture.
Final thoughts:
I urge you to keep at this idea of challenging your ideas about composition. The pictures, while all pretty good, still adhere to standards. In all three, the main focus of the image is right in the middle. In the last, a challenging cropping, for sure. And the girl and skull has great potential with a bit more stretching.