Leaving It Out

A man's hand drips blood as he stands in front of riot policemen during a demonstration in Athens December 9, 2008. Hundreds of protesters threw stones and bottles at lines of riot police outside the Greek parliament on Tuesday, in a fourth day of anti-government clashes triggered by police killing a teenager. REUTERS/John Kolesidis (GREECE)

There are times when a photo just grabs me for some reason or another, and this was one of those photos.

I was browsing a series of photos on Rueters that all had a technique called 'Leaving it Out.' The style is to only show part of the total image. From the lack of information, the viewer has to extrapolate the rest of the image and what is happening. For me, it is all drawn to that one little stream of blood going down the man's hand. Add that he is holding a folder, and the police shields. Each piece separately is rather boring photography. Perhaps if you had the man with his folder after the protest holding his bloody hand up to his face might make something... but add the lack of rest of the information and I am left somewhat spellbound with this image.

It is easy to take a photo, it is easy to share the result, it is easy to have the right gear, it is somewhat easy to know how to use the gear and edit the photos. It is VERY hard to make that image compelling and interesting to the viewer. And I am very certain that many other people will think the opposite of it than I. I am also sure this photo could have been bigger and contained more facts in it, but with a little crop it becomes something else. For this photo it is called 'Leaving It Out.' Capturing a scene through a camera lens is sometimes more about telling the viewer about events that are happening outside of the frame. This selection of images hints at the context that surrounds them. - Rueters

As I find more photos that just hit me right, I will try to add them here as a running commentary on things that interest me. I know one of the keys to me thinking about a possible photo is part of my brain going, "huh, thats interesting." I wish I had a better description of what makes part of my go, but that is as close as I have ever gotten. I am not very knowledgable in the different pantheon of photographers in history, styles, edits, cameras, shows, etc. Though I am learning, slowly, oh so slowly.