Street shots

[Terry Breedlove]

I was visiting the public market in Seattle last weekend and here are my shots.

[RSL]

Terry, Number one illustrates why Cartier-Bresson preferred overcast days and diffuse light for his photography. The interactions between the people are interesting, but the wild dynamic range gets in the way. I don't know what you were trying to do in number 2. Number three is excellent. Depth of field confines the story to the two principals, and it's an interesting story. 4, 5, and 6 seem like nice snapshots. They're technically excellent, but it seems to me that all three need more context. #6, particularly, is an interesting face, but I don't know what her expression conveys. But I love this kind of shooting. I'm always looking for more of it.

[braeburnboy]

I agree with Russ

I also love this stuff - reminds me of shooting a roll of tri-x and printing

oh well - now you can adjust out the contrast and even crop out the distractions

good shooting and i bet it was a lot of fun

[Terry Breedlove]

My approach was to shoot things that interested me and were happening in real time naturally. To shoot with a nice overcast day would have meant driving home for four hours and coming back some other day hoping the weather was better.  I was there and I had my camera so I shot. These are not planned or staged shots they are events captured as they occur. The top image works for me because the man on the left in the top hat gives a certain air of mystery, the man in the back ground with the balloons tells a little more of the story and the old lady is the only one whose face is visible and luckily the light just happens  to hit her. The other people do not need the light like she does to make this work in fact I think the light helps to focus your attention on her first and then you get to wonder around discovering new things to look into.

[RSL]

Terry, I know how hard it is to let go of a shot you really thought was going to be great, but sometimes you have to do that. I understand what you were doing, and I'm happy to see someone doing that kind of thing instead of landscape or nudes or some of the other kinds of static photography that often can be beautiful, but too often turn into cliches. I've been doing the kind of thing you were doing on the street since before 1953, and I've had to let go of an awful lot of shots I thought should have been winners but weren't. On the other hand, out of six frames you nailed one. That's a great average. Don't knock it.

You're right about the light in the first shot, but the shot should have been a vertical. At the risk of a roar of laughter from the others on this forum who know my views on cropping, let's try this:

[attachment=21011:_DSC7065.jpg]

I've cut off the extraneous and distracting stuff in the left that makes #1 look like two pictures stuck together, and I've used Viveza to tone down the too bright flash of light on the one hand and bring up the woman's face on the other hand. Now I think the shot works. The woman's face is the focus of the picture and the guy in the top hat is, as you said about the extraneous guy on the left with the balloon on his hat, somewhat mysterious.

By the way, the EXIF in your photo says you shot with a D2X at ISO 100. But the dimensions come up as 1024 x 680 pixels. That means the cropped version is going to be about 348K. That's not enough for a decent print. You might want to think about shooting at ISO 200, which is the D2X sensor's default ISO. You also ought to consider shooting raw instead of jpeg. Even with street photography you need all the pixels and latitude you can get -- especially if, heaven forfend, you shoot loosely and plan to crop.

[fredjeang]

You're right about the light in the first shot, but the shot should have been a vertical. At the risk of a roar of laughter from the others on this forum who know my views on cropping, let's try this:

[attachment=21011:_DSC7065.jpg]

!!!  Russ !!!  Did you join the cropper squadron?
I thought you where flying VFR.

Fred.

[Terry Breedlove]

.........  I like the crop but not sure I am ready to let the rest of it go.  LOL    I did shoot in RAW pixel size 4288-2848 and processed with Aperture then made the file into a greyscale jpg with Photoshop for a small file size and quick display online. I shoot with a D2x with the updated firmware and I believe 100 is the default.

Nikon D2x
100 iso
Nikon 80-200 f2.8   shot at 200mm f2.8 shutter speed at 1/350


Thank you for the awesome replies I think I am going to like this place.

[RSL]

I shoot with a D2x with the updated firmware and I believe 100 is the default.

Terry, Quite right. I was thinking about my D3. I still have a D2X and I usually have it set up for ISO 200 -- same as the D3. But you're right. Default for the D2X is 100.

[Terry Breedlove]

This is a shot you might enjoy. I was hiking in Yosemite park and came around the corner to see this man standing there waiting for his friends to catch up. The air was filled with a strongly back lite mist from a huge water fall behind him. I was shooting with my D2x, JPG files at the time.

[RSL]

Excellent, Terry. Bravo!

[RSL]

!!!  Russ !!!  Did you join the cropper squadron?
I thought you where flying VFR.

Fred.

Fred, Better treasure this moment. You'll probably never see such a sight again.

[fredjeang]

This is a shot you might enjoy. I was hiking in Yosemite park and came around the corner to see this man standing there waiting for his friends to catch up. The air was filled with a strongly back lite mist from a huge water fall behind him. I was shooting with my D2x, JPG files at the time.

Brillant. Impacting.
Bravo.

Fred.

[tokengirl]

This one is brilliant.

[Terry Breedlove]

Thank you guys. This image is really special for me because it  shows exactly how I was feeling about this moment after decades of  wanting to visit Yosemite and all the emotions I was feeling being there with my daughter and finally getting to experience this amazing place with her.  You see I lost her for a few decades after a divorce when she was only 1 1/2 and to drugs in her late teen years and this trip was our first together on her way back to recovery. Thankfully she is doing really well now and has been clean for a couple of years but I will always remember being there with her and how special it all was for the both of us whenever  view this image.

[Terry Breedlove]

Here is another shot special to me. I took it about 2003 or so, 35mm film. Again I had always wanted to visit the grand canyon as a kid and finally I went on a long road trip of 4000 round trip miles that lasted two weeks. My truck was having  some sever problems and I thought it wasn't going to make it but I decided I would make it to the Canyon even if the truck blew up and I had to abandoned it and walk. The truck got so bad the fastest it would go was 35 mph but I made it. LOL  Anyway when I got there it was raining and water was running everywhere and there was several flash floods in neighboring states and even some deaths.  Because of all the heavy clouds I never did get to fully view the Canyon and the trails to the river below were closed.  I was at the rim and I noticed this Japanese family trying to get their little boys photo but the wind was strong and the rain very wet and he was crying.  I took this shot and tried to move behind the family to take a shot of them all dressed up in their rain ponchos trying to take a picture of him but they moved before I could to get there. This is what I was able to get and it really demonstrates my frustration after so many years and so many hard fought miles to finally reach the Grand Canyon and not able to see it.

[tokengirl]

Another terrific image.  After reading your story, it all makes sense now.  The reason why these last two images are so emotional is because YOU were so emotional.  I am guessing the first batch of pictures you posted were not taken while you were in a particularly emotional state, and maybe that's why they're so, well, ordinary?

[fredjeang]

Another terrific image.  After reading your story, it all makes sense now.  The reason why these last two images are so emotional is because YOU were so emotional.  I am guessing the first batch of pictures you posted were not taken while you were in a particularly emotional state, and maybe that's why they're so, well, ordinary?

I would like to think like that Tokengirl,
But I think that it is not exactly why it happens.
I remember reading something very important in one of your post, when you said that you like to come back in the same spots over and over again.
Well, this is a great clew to me. Generaly when we do something for a certain time, or when we insist over and over again, then luck is coming. It is like the elements are miraculously working for us. Emotion, even deep ones, have little to do with the precise moment when all the elements are smiling to us, I even think that it is more problematic, because you won't need the picture then.
I saw this many times in my paintings. When I really felt deeply emotionate, the plastic, artistic result was totally independant of that emotion.
Sometimes disapointing. But when you have something that has been coocked (exactly like the time for a meal to be ready), then things happens.
All you have to do, is being ready to taken them, being receptive, and it happens by itself.
I think he did these great pictures because it has an history with this particular place that started before the moment of taking them...edit: and I forget to say, he was ready to take them, receptive.

Fred.

[tokengirl]

I would like to think like that Tokengirl,
But I think that it is not exactly why it happens.
I remember reading something very important in one of your post, when you said that you like to come back in the same spots over and over again.
Well, this is a great clew to me. Generaly when we do something for a certain time, or when we insist over and over again, then luck is coming. It is like the elements are miraculously working for us. Emotion, even deep ones, have little to do with the precise moment when all the elements are smiling to us, I even think that it is more problematic, because you won't need the picture then.
I saw this many times in my paintings. When I really felt deeply emotionate, the plastic, artistic result was totally independant of that emotion.
Sometimes disapointing. But when you have something that has been coocked (exactly like the time for a meal to be ready), then things happens.
All you have to do, is being ready to taken them, being receptive, and it happens by itself.
I think he did these great pictures because it has an history with this particular place that started before the moment of taking them.

Fred.

Your points are very valid.  But I do notice with my own work that when I'm not in the right mood, the product of my efforts is poor.  Or perhaps it is my effort that is poor when I'm not in the right mood.

I am interested to hear what the OP thinks also.

[Terry Breedlove]

Another terrific image.  After reading your story, it all makes sense now.  The reason why these last two images are so emotional is because YOU were so emotional.  I am guessing the first batch of pictures you posted were not taken while you were in a particularly emotional state, and maybe that's why they're so, well, ordinary?

True but I think ordinary shots over time can become something very important. A big part of the power of photography is the documentary aspect of it. For example artist Toulouse Lautrec said photography helped him to capture life. He said “I don’t want to make things beautiful I want to make them real”  That is where photography really shines in my opinion to capture an event, a split second in time forever. That is very real. So maybe these images aren't creative or artistic or emotional but they do hold value in their own way don't you think ?

[Chairman Bill]

[attachment=21011:_DSC7065.jpg]

I can hear the old woman asking to have her grandchildren back