Living (in mono)
With 6277 views 71 favouritings and 3 sales, this is probably by far my most popular image: 
I shot it on my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot S80 compact in the main street of Kempsey NSW on a particularly trying road trip for work. It was a lucky shot, I just thought the billboard was a fairly self-reflexive thing to find in a rundown country town, but when this dejected guy limped into the shot it made it into a poignant statement.
Having moved on in the equipment and (hopefully) skills aspects of my photographic practice due mainly to the encouragement I received here in the early days, I often look back at this image and see things I could improve with it.
One of the assignments for a course I am doing is to convert an RGB image to greyscale. I’ve applied noise reduction, and unsharp mask, then tonal and exposure adjustments in the green channel. After converting to greyscale, I’ve despeckled it a bit and clone stamped out any larger specks that stand out more in greyscale. I’ve also cropped it a bit tighter and increased the resolution by decreasing the image size rather than interpolating.
Wow, that was boring.
Anyway, please enjoy the new mono version of Living.
“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake…”
Living (in mono) belongs to the following groups:
Kairos, Street Photography and Photojournalism and Sydney Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
Shanina Conway
Hey Chris, no surprise this is so popular, it says so much and I love the conversion;)
Deanna Cicchino
awesome
Alan Findlater
excellent work well done
MissKristy
“You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. ... You are not special.”
transmute replied
“This is your life – and it’s ending one minute at a time…”
MissKristy
“I am Jack’s complete lack of suprise”
PJ Ryan
“Life is like a box of chocolates … “
lol
Great capture and presentation Chris
LittleHelen
...you’re not how much money you’ve got in the bank. You’re not your job. You’re not your family, and you’re not who you tell yourself…. You’re not your name…. You’re not your problems…. You’re not your age…. You are not your hopes.
Glenn Alderson
LOve it! wonderful capture & find…............well done!
andreisky
Supa!
Firedrake
Fantastic capture.
Tainia Finlay
Fabulous! Wonderful image & statement
TextureoftheSin
Brilliant capture! His stooped stance is perfect… and the lone seated figure is the icing.
Love the B&W treatment – adds to the poignancy
aglaia b
wow, that is quite an achievement and looking at this image i can see why.
i love your mono edit. ;-) xox
GLAMAZON
Astounding in its relativity. Beautiful work.
Caroline Gorka
This is excellent, so moving in it’s stark dourness.
Lauren Marr
great shot! makes you ask yourself…
mekea
Wonderful candid capture!
midzing
brilliant shot,,, well done
gabryshak
living the dream chris
just not the road i envisioned as a child
but i’m there
i’m present
i’m giving
i’m passionate
i’m here
i’m appreciated
i’m seen
and i feel really really blessed
even tho times can be tough!
raae
It sounds like such a simple thing yet so far removed from how anyone actually lives…
Rosalie Dale IPA
Congrats on the feature – stunning image – well spotted and presented.
Jo Hoden "C'...
Terrific shot….
linda858100
very nice,
BonitoPhotography
I Love It!
Tracey McKeown
Speaks volumes.
BJChambers
Well done, no wonder it is so popular..
Jane Keats
Wow, just adding my two cents, although I’m sure you get the gist that this is a fantastic shot! Nice work :o)
Steve Chapple
LOve the treatments and it creates an image that speaks without words! Well done.
Rachael Comisari
6278! :)
Tenee Attoh
‘I dream the dream’ reminds me of that song, great work well done:))
Lena Bartle-Smith
nothing like a fight club reference that has seeped out into society. i wonder how many people walking past like their answer to that question. nice capture
cathrinedp
it tells a huge story, one we all identify with at times. Wonderful edgy capture
Peter Denniston
Very cool image and message
sketchesofcoop
Love it!
anaisgirl
I get so excited when I see shots like this. Great capture. Very poignant.
Vicki Ferrari
Fantastic capture Chris! And at Kempsey, of all places! Well, there you go! Go figure! glad you had your camera there!! :)
Mika
Awesome shot!
berndt2
It is a good shot – there’s something just so perfect about that message and the guy just walking past, an oblivious zombie like most of us most day (or at any rate me!)
titus
Outstanding shot. This would be great addition to our THIS IS RELEVANT group. Congratulations on the RB front page feature.
Sharon Brady
Amazing!!! Makes ya think…:)
Heabar
i am a unique beautiful snow flake Chris haha you ask me & i’ll tell you i’m definately unique :) i just love the capture & its very deep meaning makes me really start thinking again about my own life !!! TC Heather !!!
April Mansilla
I am in love with this…
JRGarland
Excellent shot. You’re right the guy walking does make the picture unique.
halftone
So good to see this on the front page again! What a fab shot.
hsien-ku
very depressing – but a wonderful capture!
oneperfectkiss
very unique….and says so many things. congratulations. x
Stephen Colquitt
Happy birthday Whitey!
John Spies
Great shot, good question…congrats
Maria Dryfhout
Powerful image… captures much of today’s situation.
Angel Warda
fab! love this!!!
Duncan FitzGerald
We all shoot to live the dream, but day to day is the reality for most, and we should try to be happy in that. The dream is what keeps us going (i.e. the grass is greener). Great shot
shadowzone
brilliant shot! what a capture! say’s so much
Daniel Angeles
The way that man is walking is perfect, it makes this work so strong. It is as if he read the message and realised… “No, i definitely am not.”
Its quite a fine capture.
Clare Colins
Great capture. You are the creativity that saw the possibility here. Great stuff!
Candy1974
GREAT, GREAT WORK!
Luke Stephensen
One of those great moments in photography. Well done.
CapturedByKylie
Congratulations on being featured on the home page. July 9th 2009.
Dongedy
Well done ;)
Colleen Milburn
Fantastic capture, Chris!!
Chanel2
Good eye and great image.
DLDesignWorks
This is a eye-opener in more than one way.. I love it!
Christian Hartung
marvelous, everyone ask’s themselves that question everyday, and by the looks of it this man is’nt, well done
LifeDrawing
As long as I am practicing my drawing…even a daily sketch.
KreddibleTrout
Awesome shot. It reminded me so much of this shot of mine that I just had to share it.
ViktoryiaN
Image with a message! Love it! Cool catch!
Michael Stocks
Awesome picture! I would love it even more, if you offered it as a poster!
Anthony Hernandez
i love this picture! great job!
richman
great image
just walls
Scott d'Almeida
brilliant work,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
luis ferreiro
Awesome street image!!!
joannemaree
fantastic photo, its one of my favourites.
jpbradshaw
genius
Elana Bailey
Fab capture and I love the mono. How many faves how you got now? I’ve just added another fave…lol…Well done. Cheers Elana.