I know that neighborhood well, John, nice environmental portrait. I like the way the freckles render in black and white, they humanize him. I do have a pet peeve about sunglasses though, as not seeing the eyes seems to make people less human. But I give you lots of credit for engaging him and getting the photo, you probably didn't want to impose too much. Nicely done.   Posted: 12/10/2019 14:58:14

I really like the enigmatic half smile you captured. The sun glasses make the picture less about the man and mmore about the police officer. The glasses are part of his equipment. I think a little more contract would improve the picture.   Posted: 12/12/2019 14:00:57

A nice image John and B&W is right. I like the sun glasses and the fact you can see things in them - but not you! As Albert says, I would play with adding more punch to see if that would help to add more emphasis on him, the tough guy with his equipment, probably localised, so the wall doesn't start saying "look at me".   Posted: 12/17/2019 11:41:20

I think the sun glasses add to the tough guy look. To me he looks like someone you don't want to be on the wrong side of. Your image does a great job of showing the kind of man he probably needs to be in a rough neighborhood.
As for the quality of the image there not much to add.   Posted: 12/19/2019 12:56:09

Your portrait of the Policeman makes me think of the posing, especially what to do with the hands. He has a strong pose which suits his image. Another version that would be interesting to me to see more of the background or maybe using a wall to rest his arms on. That said, I do find this is an interesting portrait. Thanks for showing us John.   Posted: 12/20/2019 16:14:22

I find this a striking image. The issue I have with this is the extreme contrast in the image. It was already contrasty in the original. Increasing the contrast (as least that is how it looks to my eye) gives the image an almost surreal look to me - hard. Also the texture of his arms almost looks, to me, like he has measles or something.

All that is part of the image including the position of the officer's hands and his sun glasses gives the image a context of toughness.

With respect to your asking the officer to pose, I do not have a problem with posing if it fits the desired story intended by the shot.

Thank you for sharing with us John.   Posted: 12/24/2019 18:25:23