Muthoni Ngatia
February 2025 - The meeting
Original
About the Image(s)
The image was taken during an indoor meeting at a community center for the elderly. I was drawn by the skeptical look on the face of the woman who's leaning forward.
ISO 8000 50mm f/10 1/125 sec
Taken with an OM-1MarkII
Lens12-100mm F4.0
8 comments posted
I agree, the look on her face is priceless. If you had room you might have moved slightly to the right to capture a bit more of her face and avoid the cut-off man at the edge. I like your B&W version maybe even better. Posted: 02/08/2025 17:37:42
Thanks Leslie! I like the idea of moving more to the right to have her more as the subject Posted: 02/21/2025 08:24:01
Hi Muthoni. An awkward photo to capture in a clean way as people are all in close proximity. This means you will get a lot of partial faces this can be all you can do and you have presented a very close up photo of one lady in particular. She is leaning forward so you would expect her intent at listening etc far greater than the others, a well composed photo of people in a meeting being spoken to by person on a stage? Posted: 02/10/2025 18:55:13
Thanks Ron Posted: 02/21/2025 08:25:57
HI Muthoni, a wonderful character study of this women in her meeting and it invites us to consider what is actually going on here- the seriousness of the expressions really makes this. I note Leslie's suggestion to have more of her face by moving to the right and this would remove the person on the right, and give us more information about the other people.
You might also consider moving to the left to give us more information about the reason they are there - were they looking at a speaker, a demonstration of something.
I do prefer the color version as this tells us more about the culture which adds to the story for me.
I note your settings and with an ISO of 8000 I'm assuming you also had to denoise the image.
I know that we often don't have time to think about the settings when something like this pops up, but given that the woman is so interesting a wider aperture (f4) would isolate her from the rest of the people around her. Posted: 02/13/2025 13:24:42
You might also consider moving to the left to give us more information about the reason they are there - were they looking at a speaker, a demonstration of something.
I do prefer the color version as this tells us more about the culture which adds to the story for me.
I note your settings and with an ISO of 8000 I'm assuming you also had to denoise the image.
I know that we often don't have time to think about the settings when something like this pops up, but given that the woman is so interesting a wider aperture (f4) would isolate her from the rest of the people around her. Posted: 02/13/2025 13:24:42
Thanks Jen! It was awkward in a dark-ish room with many people. I've attached a shot with more of the room Posted: 02/21/2025 08:27:04
I like this image and the story it tells with the concern look of the main woman you are focused on as well as the facial concerned expressions of the others. A small area of concern for me is I feel that the chin area of the woman is somewhat lost with the pant color and dark paneling in the background. I adjusted the image with shadows and feel that some separation is represented. I do agree with Jen on the camera settings. Posted: 02/15/2025 14:19:51
Thanks Tom, I like your version, agreed also that a wider lens would have brought the subject into even greater focus Posted: 02/21/2025 08:28:08