Marnie, I don't know what it is, but I often find people ~want~ me to photograph them. It may be my carefree demeanor while walking about, my charming and disarming smile - who knows. People often "invite me in." Once in, it's easy to talk with them and photograph them. However, what I want to capture isn't necessarily the same things that Juan or Godfrey or you want to capture. I'm looking for some intimacy, closeness, a bit of a character study, something of a portrait ... for example:
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbelinkoff/images/motherchild.html http://home.earthlink.net/~pdml-pics/nflguy2.html http://home.earthlink.net/~scbelinkoff/puppet-woman.jpg However, for the most part I've been working close since i started photography. Only had a 50mm lens, then got a 35mm ... had no choice but to get close. When I got a 135mm lens I was disgusted with it. Everything was so far away. My next lens was a 20mm and that lens may have changed forever how I looked at the world. To this day I rarely use anything longer than an 85mm lens on film, and have never used anything longer than the 77mm on the digi - and that's mostly because it's such a great lens and I'm still a little excited about auto focus, although the 50mm and wider lenses are starting to see much more service now that I'm getting comfortable with using the MF lenses on the camera. The 50mm, 35mm, 30mm, and 28mm focal lengths are becoming more "normal" lenses, and the 24mm and 18mm are next in line for experimentation. However, there's no reason why you should do "street photography" if that's not what you enjoy doing. Photograph what you enjoy, and get good at ~that~ and forget about making photos that make you uncomfortable and that you don't enjoy. Unless you want to change your personality, and have a compelling reason to photograph in the concrete caverns, stay out in the countryside and photograph what gives you pleasure. Frankly, you don't have the temperament to be a good "street photographer." You're too tentative, too concerned about intruding on people, too unsure of your gear (as I remember it), and you've not the time to practice the needed skills. It's like me doing macro flower shots or photographing insect genitalia .. I don't have the interest or the skill, so why bother? Shel > [Original Message] > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Godfrey said (at the NorCal PDML meet) regarding "street photography" that > one has to get in close (5-12) feet otherwise the photograph lacks intimacy. > From what Juan and Shel have said (and the lenses they recommended, 24-55mm) they > concur. > > I found when doing street photography, well, I can't. I have great difficulty > penetrating someone else's personal space bubble. I can shoot people I know, > sure, and I did all over the place. Shot PDMLers at lunch even if they didn't > want me to. > > So I liked personal space, because I left the guy his space. And I didn't > think the composition was that bad. Not great, but not that bad. > > I suspect, however, that it does not meet people's expectations regarding > "street photography" and closeness (i.e. people found on the street). > > Therefore I have made three crops, each successively closer. (I thought it > might be a bike besides the guy, but turns out it's a fence in the background. > Bit distracting. Oh, well.) > > Of course it could just be a lousy photo. > > But I'd be real curious if anyone likes the crops better. And which crop do > you like? > > If people do, it would tend to support the above thesis. Although I was not > using 24-55mm; I was using a zoom. And I probably shot at 70-90mm or so. And I > was about 15 feet away. > > I used the first technique Shel's listed to convert to B&W. > http://home.earthlink.net/~scbelinkoff/color2bw.html > > And the technique Boris showed me to sharpen after resizing to convert a RAW > into a JPEG (I see artifacts so I am still not doing it right). > http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/high-pass-sharpening.shtml > > FIRST CROP: > http://members.aol.com/eactivist/PAWS/pages/space1.htm > > The forward arrows take you to the next crops.The back arrow on the first one > takes you to the original (however, the forward arrow on the original does > not return to the first crop, since the crops are in a separate loop. But your > browser back arrow will do that). > > Anyone have a stronger emotional reaction to any of the crops? Like any of > them better? > > TIA, Marnie aka Doe :-)
