France friendship

[hukipola]

The last time I went from Freiburg to Colmar (France) and saw this nice guy on the bike.

I just took this shot and he was so nice that he showed me the well known french hospitality.

What do you think?


By the way, colmar is definetly worth a day to stay and I met so many great and friendly guys there... He was just awesome, on his bike being all gangster and stuff!

Cheers

matthis

[kdoc856]

Definitely a "decisive moment".

[Karl]

Hmmm - we were there last year and had the same reaction from a couple of the locals as well - thought it was because we could only speak English but it seems to be the way they greet everyone

Nice place to visit but I don't think we will go back.

Karl

[rpcrowe]

I think that you must have caught him just as he finished picking his nose!

[hukipola]

Yeah, I think he was just a proud little boy showing me his bogy!

This is a very nice way to think about him... Thanks richard! ;-)

[KCBrecks]

France is such a lovely country if it wasn't for the French.

Perhaps he is just sick of having is picture taken.

[gaijin]

Yes, French is a lovely country, but no, there's nothing wrong with the French, really! Yes, they can be a little impolite at times. Yes, they are incapable of queuing. Yes, they can be a bit chauvinistic. Yes, they drop litter. Yes, there are delinquents, thieves and murderers. Yes, they don't like following the rules if these rules go against their interests. Yes, French drivers are a menace. But then there is a lot of impoliteness, chauvinism, littering, delinquency, thieving, rule breaking, and bad driving going on in most places in the world. Well, not so much in Japan, but the French are better able to speak English than the Japanese, and far better than the English and Americans are at speaking French!
In other words, (1) don't generalise (2) try speaking a little of the local lingo when abroad - not easy, I know, in the Far East, but not too difficult in Europe. And, no, I'm not French.

[AB26]

Matthis,
You should try using a longer lens capturing French wildlife.

[wlou]

Yes, French is a lovely country, but no, there's nothing wrong with the French, really! Yes, they can be a little impolite at times. Yes, they are incapable of queuing. Yes, they can be a bit chauvinistic. Yes, they drop litter. Yes, there are delinquents, thieves and murderers. Yes, they don't like following the rules if these rules go against their interests. Yes, French drivers are a menace. But then there is a lot of impoliteness, chauvinism, littering, delinquency, thieving, rule breaking, and bad driving going on in most places in the world. Well, not so much in Japan, but the French are better able to speak English than the Japanese, and far better than the English and Americans are at speaking French!
In other words, (1) don't generalise (2) try speaking a little of the local lingo when abroad - not easy, I know, in the Far East, but not too difficult in Europe. And, no, I'm not French.

In my traveling experience it always helps to know a minimun of words to be able to communicate. As for the practice of taking picture of people without asking for their permission first, you may get result much worst than you have here, ie. more violent causing physical dammage.
A friend told me that there is now layers specialising in suing photographs for doing just that.

[Harpo]

A friend told me that there is now layers specialising in suing photographs for doing just that.

Soon coming to a camera dealer near you… James Bond hidden cameras with the quality of todays top DSLRs! (while gesturing in French as to say- "now, take this. you lawyers!")

Oh, remember that thingamajig in the movie "Men In Black" that erases a persons recent memory?… They need to start adding that to cameras for use in street photography!

[Andrew1]

The problem with shooting the French is you used the wrong type of Canon.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Not many people are happy when are photographed.For street photography the lack of eyes contact with the "victim" is a must.

[hukipola]

By the way, I was totally not aiming for him... He was a part of the composition, in the background and then he drove very fast across my capture, sigh. Maybe I should sue him instead... And I just have a Fuji X-100, so I try to avoid the obvious photograph look, or I didn't get you "wrong type of Canon"-joke ;-)

And for the last time: This picture was just funny and a bit ironic, him, being on his mother's bike giving me the "finger"...
So , Guys: France is a lovely country, lovely people and very polite street photographer scene!

But what do you think about this picture beside it's obvious criteria?

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Colmar is near Freiburg but Freiburg is a university center with a known library and so on.In fact the photograph is well done,my advise is to try a black and white one.

[wlou]

Hello Matthis,I found this link and hope it can help you. This guy wrote a book about street photography.
http://digital-photography-school.co...t-photographer

Too bad about the guy impolite gesture.