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?
I like A because I think it engages the viewer to wonder what the hell is going on. Did that dude drink too much? Is that your cousin? Who the hell knows and I love that.
I am definitely a fan of A, because it’s DIFFERENT. I have seen tons of photos similar to B. Also, A is somewhat interesting because of the subject, it makes me wonder whats going on, it tells a story… makes me wonder.
Photo A is more interesting to me.
1. To me, people are inherently more interesting. The fact that one person is doing something different than all the others in A make it even better.
2. The strong lines in A lead somewhere; to a visual point of interest. The lines in B sort of just go to the dead center of the frame where there is not much of anything of interest for me.
3. The point of view of A is more interesting. It’s out of the ordinary.
4. The timing of A is of a specific time and at that place–A time when a group of people are walking in one direction, another in the opposite direction and one person lying prone on the ground. If anyone went back at another time you would (probably) not see the same configuration of people ever again. B could be pretty much anytime at that place.
B for me please.
Photo B is my pick.
Photo A leaves no questions in my mind and isn’t interesting to my eye in any way. I’ve seen this photo before a hundred times.
Photo B makes me wonder about the street, who is in the car, where are they going, what’s up with the ferris wheel, etc. and I’m sure if I dove deeper in more questions would emerge.
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Most interesting is that I just read the several comments above mine, and they say the complete opposite. That’s what I love about art and expression…