I was in Paris last week. Part work, but mostly fun. Eating, drinking, being merry, and of course, snapping photos my iPhone–as I do everyday–with no end goal beyond staying creatively engaged.
I was just now kicking through photos from the trip and stumbled on a couple of snapshots I thought were interesting for various reasons. I’ve posted stuff like this before and was really excited by the resulting discussion, so I figured I’d throw it out there again… These are of course just snapshots, but even snapshots have merit. AND these photos are VERY different from one another…. So, simply put, I thought I’d ask for your thoughts, which is better, A or B? And why?
Vote in the comments. Also love to know ‘why’ if you care to explain. 500 px wide images after the jump…
[ASIDE, since Paris reminds me of good food… if you like chasejarvisLIVE, I’m bringing in 2 special guests TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 12 noon pacific/3:00 eastern time. The goal is to combine a few of my passions and share them with you: photography, food, the internet. As such, join me tomorrow to welcome….
Guest #1 Penny DeLosSantos: Food/Lifestyle/Travel and National Geographic photographer Penny DeLosSantos (@pennydelosantos). Well talk about photo, food, and travel…photographing in the world’s most suicide bombed markets in the middle east, travels to more than 40 countries, and the art of combining your passions into a career.
Guest #2 Barnaby Dorfman: Barnaby is a legendary tech guru turned entreprenuer who recently founded Foodista [@foodista] – the world’s leading online food encyclopedia/wiki and an overall amazing site. Combine food, tech, and storytelling and you get a thick slice of Barnaby. Hope to see you at http://www.chasejarvis.com/live tomorrow ….]
Now go vote on those photos below. Tell me what you think…
Here’s Photo A:
Here’s Photo B: 
Which is better and why?
The fact that no one is looking at the man laying on the floor (dead?) is what makes photo A so strong for me.
A is definitely the winner because the people, for me, add more interest.
although B is pretty sweet looking, i enjoy people in my photos because you never know what they’ll do.
a. It tells a story that grabbed my attention immediately and got me asking questions. b does not do much for me at all. Technically I do not like it as the shadow detail is lost ( from my screen at least ). Maybe its the size of the photo, but I do not feel the depth either. The great thing about a is that it could be a simple capture, but the subject overrides the technical simplicity.
I am by no means trying to belittle the technical aspects of your work. I am just trying to justify my answer 🙂
Mel
A – It looks like a point of view photo that a sniper would take. It looks, at first glance, like the guy was shot and his red jacket looks like blood flowing. The carefree people walking by make it that much more interesting.
I think A wins compositionally and conceptually. Compositionally, B’s lines draw you to the center – they’re perfect… almost too perfect. I know that might seem weird.
A’s lines and the placement of the people seem a bit more interesting to me. Let alone the ideas that one could get from it, being as though there’s a man clearly laying as if he’s hurt and no one seems to pay him any mind.