Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise
(Above) Crossroads Bowling Center general manager Mark Williams demonstrates a perfect strike at the center in Beaumont on Tuesday, June 21, 2005.
(Below) Mark Williams, a former professional bowler, demonstrates the proper bowling delivery sequence at the Crossroads Bowling Center in Beaumont.
Enough for now,
4 comments:
If it was possible at all, a little motion blur, either by a slow exposure or later on your PC would have made the top picture even better.
As it stands, it's a frozen moment in time but you caught the action just at the right moment!
Wow. I intended for this post to spark a debate, but it took a different turn than expected.
Personally, I like the pins stopped for this shot. Virtual volume (motion blur) is useful at times, but I didn't want any motion. This image clearly shows the pins and ball position rather than the action.
PhotoShopping blur would mean the PJ didn't know what they wanted while they were shooting. Synch speed doesn't matter when light is this low, so I could have made a 10-second exposure with ghost pins and virtual volume if I had chosen to do so. I'm against PhotoShopping images unless it's clearly labeled as an illustration, obvious and has a definite purpose.
The reason I posted these images was to discuss the ethics of demonstrations – not PhotoShop. The sequence is in the gray area for me. The shots are straight and not manipulated, so I feel they should be labeled as any other photo.
The ethical bugaboo comes from him demonstrating for me. The problem is the ethics falling completely on the cutline. The photo is ethical if the cutline is not changed. It's a demonstration, the cutline says it's a demonstration, no problem. However, cutlines are often changed.
Demonstrations and fashion shots fall into the icky area I prefer to avoid for editorial newspaper purposes. There is no other way to show what this story needed. The story is about the steps and ball positions. The subject can't look at the camera while bowling. I did the best compromise I could by sequencing the shots into one frame. This should clue folks into knowing something's different about these photos. I also talked to layout so the cutline wouldn’t be changed.
I need to expand greatly upon these nuances, but I don't want to tackle it in the comment section. I'll let y'all debate it for a while, and I'll post some guidance later.
What I like about the above image is the sharp contrast between the black background and the white of the pins. I like it the way it is. It's sharper.
Was the story a how-to piece on bowling, or a feature about the bowler? Either way, I applaud your request to layout to keep the cutlines the way they are.
The story was part of a "sport or not" series. It included a how-to section to make the case of "sport," it's also why I needed a pro bowler.
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