Kevin Nibur
Daily Evergreen
Graduate Student
Washinton State University
This week’s image is a wonderful reaction shot by Kevin Nibur. Nibur photographed Brea Thompson being mobbed by friends and supporters after winning the ASWSU presidential election. The caption is very informative and adds the fact that she will be ASWSU’s 6th female president. The one problem is that being from Chicago, I have no idea what ASWSU stands for. The addition of the full university name or the city and state would have added to the good but fairly standard caption. A quote from Thompson commenting on her victory would have been a nice touch and would have personalized the emotion.
Now let’s get to the critique of the photo itself. My first impression was “Wow!” A great moment shot from the perfect angle. The joy on the face of Thompson just pops out of the frame. The elation is further enhanced by the repetition of her celebrating sorority sisters. No matter where I look, my eyes come immediately back to the center of the frame. The darkness of the non-blondes surrounding Thompson in conjunction with the blondes in the outer circle create a target effect bringing the attention back to the main subject. Nibur got very lucky with how this scene unfolded but he was prepared for his luck and definitely made the most of it. I would rather have a photographer take a risk now and again and fail, then be successfully boring all the time. I believe that the best photos are made on the edge of failure.
Since this is a critique, I have to point out two things that keep this photo from being perfect. First off, every young woman is totally into the moment except from the one on the top left who just had to peek out of the crowd to look up at the camera. I hate when that happens. Nothing the shooter can do but keep on snapping away and hope that in a frame or two she’ll stop gawking and get back to celebrating. Secondly, I’m not sure what’s going on in the top right hand corner of the frame but it leads my attention away from where it should be. The only way to clean that up would have been if Mr. Nibur had been two feet to his left and had brought the right side of the camera down a bit. But since he was probably standing on a chair and hasn’t yet mastered the art of levitation, I’ll let that slide.
On the whole this is a fantastic photograph and probably be the best one that I’ll critique on this site. I’m also quite sure this image will anchor Kevin Nibur’s portfolio for years to come.
