[ksnyder]

Most of the street people in Santa Monica just want money

I did a bit of work on this. I used a mask to blur and darken the background and also made a special effort to keep the possible future Mrs Cowboy bright and sharp.

Ken

[Toad]

Nice use of mask - normally I would say that it is incongruous to have the woman in focus when the cowboy is not...but in this context, it works beautifully.

Never be afraid to bend the rules, Well done.

[dewy]

hahaha, I'll take the girl, errr she don't have the sign does she, damn =P
lol
nice capture =) did you use a large apature and do the blur in photoshop?

[ksnyder]

hahaha, I'll take the girl, errr she don't have the sign does she, damn =P
lol
nice capture =) did you use a large apature and do the blur in photoshop?

I used a program called PhotoImpact for the adjustments. The image was sharp throughout so I believe the aperture was set in the higher range. Here is a before after. I didn't mean for the cowboy's hat to be out of focus that was just some sloppy editing on my part. I'm actually just getting started using the mask feature. It's very cool.

[Don Schaeffer]

Neat experiment. Where did you get the guy with the sign? Golden opportunity.

--Don

[ksnyder]

Neat experiment. Where did you get the guy with the sign? Golden opportunity.

--Don

Characters like the guy with the sign are a common sight in Santa Monica.

[slejhamer]

Characters like the guy with the sign are a common sight in Santa Monica.

Is that 3rd St? Haven't been there in a long time. Used to live in Venice. That's why I developed a habit of ducking for cover in response to loud noises ...

[shuttertalk]

Great one kysyner...

You've done the blurring beautifully. At first I was trying to make out what the sign was mounted on. I thought it was a little girl holding the sign over her head/body... then I realised it was his backpack

[ksnyder]

lol It's funny, I never noticed that but I've seen the uncropped version. "Poor Girl" in the title reinforced that, interesting, The girl heading towards a face to face with the needy cowboy is the poor girl. Very helpful comment, thank you

Yes, Thirds Street Santa Monica