My current exhibition named " Roads. light "

[johnchoy]

Hi,

This is my current exhibition named " Roads. light "
http://www.johnchoy.com/2011/09/roads-light-exhibition%E3%80%8A%E8%B7%AF%EF%BC%8E%E7%87%88%E3%80%8B%E6%94%9D%E5%BD%B1%E5%80%8B%E5%B1%95/
All images / prints exhibited was done by stitching.



john

[cybis]

Awesome!

[RSL]

John, Splendid. Some of your "snapshots" give Elliott Erwitt a run for his money. This is real street photography. Bravo!

[johnchoy]

Thanks Russ for comparing my snapshots with Elliott Erwitt's work. And aren't these images you're mentioning?



However, I get so tired in this rapid changing world that I prefer to slow myself down a bit.  To what I understand, most people in Hong Kong treat street photography as an invasion to its life.

And sadly, to avoid the probable confrontation,  I think I lost the touch for snapshots for almost 5 years.

[louoates]

Great work, John! Very inventive treatment of otherwise mundane subjects. Great looking show!

Also, I love your "snapshot" street shots that aren't snapshots at all in your hands but very well done photography.

A note about intrusiveness worries: When I do people shots on the street I set up my tripod and focus the lens at the likely spot where I want the people to do the "posing" as they pass that spot. I use a tethered shutter release in my hand that is hidden from anyone I'm shooting. I stand looking away from that spot as if I'm considering where to point the camera. I trip the shutter when I can see the person pass that spot in my peripheral vision. With the usual street sounds any shutter release sound is inaudible from more than a few feet away. I've never had anybody ask if I had taken their picture.

[RSL]

Lou, That'd be a great approach with an 8 x 10 view camera. What on earth are you using? Surely not a Leica on a tripod!

[louoates]

Just a Canon 1ds Mark III on a tripod. Most people just walk around it. A few will stop and ask about the camera or what I'm shooting as in curiosity. I usually just say I'm taking a shot of (the building or whatever across the street). I've found that aiming the camera through the eyepiece directly at someone is too intimidating to the casual passerby.

[RSL]

Depends on how you do it. All summer long I'm able to do street photography in my home town of Manitou Springs, Colorado with a Nikon D3 hung with a 28-300mm lens. I can do that because the town is full of tourists lugging cameras. Now that the kids are back in school and the bulk of the tourists have left I've had to switch to my E-P1 that I've jury-rigged with a 25mm (50mm equivalent) lens. I also have a 50mm Leica bright line auxiliary finder in the flash shoe. At f/8 I can focus about 10 feet out and have a huge zone that's in focus. I can raise that camera to my eye and shoot fast enough that most people don't think I'm really shooting a picture. But the raising and lowering has to be smooth -- not jerky. Here's one from yesterday. It's not much of a street shot, but it illustrates what I'm talking about.

[johnchoy]

Here's another story of mine that I would like to share.



The above image was taken at Central, Hong Kong ( June, 2011), it's a composite stitched from 600+ images. This is another project I'm planning to do. I hate crowdy places with lots of people and I thought I need some kind of  "self therapy"  to overcome this "weakness". My self therapy is to go to the place you hate and have a picture with no people. Of course the fun is about the technique of removing people, not neglecting people.

And during the 3 hrs that I was capturing the individual images with a tripod, another scene happened next to me. The security guard was persuading the disabled guy who is also a beggar to stay away from their properties. I used my P&S camera to take a picture of it but then I was discovered. The guy shout at me and said if I ever take another picture of him, he vowed to pull my tripod off. I kept silence until I finished off capturing the images I need.



After I packed my stuff, I went to him and explained that I thought the place he was doing his business cause no harm to the passerby and it is a public area. I take the picture because it didn't look fair to him. He apologized and explained to me that this was not his usual place, he moved there because he didn't want to block my view ( normally he is located somewhere in the picture which I was photographing. I apologized to him too and I left with both of us smiling to each other.

Have to say, I hate conflict with people. And I don't want to tell a lie too. I think a lie will made us lost more than gain.

[RSL]

I think a lie will made us lost more than gain.

I think you're right, John. Seems to me that one of the most important things for a street photographer is to avoid an attitude that makes him seem even mildly threatening to the people around him. You can't actually make yourself invisible, but being non-threatening is the next thing to it. Start lying and your whole attitude toward people changes. People sense it.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Wonderful work, John!

And thanks so much for sharing your stories of the pictures with no people and your encounter with the disabled guy.

Eric