Tilted Street Photography: Go out, do some, post results here :)

I sooo hope globally happier times will come back sooon. At the Obama Rally, again, mixedmedia, you have presented the feeling of a whole event, embedded with distinct moments and meanings; that they are within a collection keeps me moving and swirling. Thank you

Is Boohead your friend/relative/daughter? I like how you got the light highlighting her within the throng. In the pictures above and below her - adults and children in relationship, the trust and caring is palpable. Very difficult to do in England, where someone in public with a camera in the vicinity of children (occasionally even their own), is guilty until judged cameraless or interrogated.

In your number three, with balancing patterned shirts and "CHANGE", I got the sense of 'crowd', yet also of 'contained and purposeful'; it was, to my eyes, an immediate magazine cover or powerful accompaniment to a news-article.


I'll carry on sorting Adams, then will find some street pics including children.

 

yes, boohead is my daughter.

Unfortunately, I think a man with a camera is seen as more menacing than a woman. Yet, occasionally I do get 'looks.' I find that the venue you're taking photographs at/in determines reactions, as well. For instance, it's more 'suspicious' to take photos of children at a playground than in a more diverse setting such as the Obama rally.

It's also less 'menacing' to have your own child with you that you are photographing.

It's stupid that I have to say those things. But, at the same time, I understand why.
I do like taking photos of children, though, they are great subjects. Including my own.
--- merged: Aug 31, 2011 12:33 PM ---
and thank you for the nice words

 

This is a beautiful idea. Strangers are definitely more fun to take photos of, but sometimes it's hard to be brave enough. I feel a bit creepy when I take pictures of people without their knowledge. Has anyone gone up to their subject after and shown them their pictures? I know I've had my photo taken by strangers more than once, and I would have loved to see the results.

Well, when I go out on the next sunny day I'll bring my camera and give it a shot.

 

Hi cellophanedeity

Thank you so much! I am looking forward to what you will bring home to all of us here

Since it seems to be this thread which has inspired you to do something you have not deliberately gone out to do this before, and you are going to do so this in spite of your mention of bravery and feelings of creepiness, I give you much respect. Also, I will share a check list I have established (for me )to preserve safety and inner integrity (sense of non-creepiness).

Make sure you go out on this adventure in a safe place, and that you assess which individuals and groups are 'safe' to take a picture of. Regarding 'creepiness', for this foray, go ahead and take all those pictures - if in doubt, go ahead and click, and that could mean up to about 100 pictures in a 25 minute concentrated foray. Now get back home and look at them; assess them, using your feelings of creepiness, composition, self-critisism and self-congratulation as a guide. Your learnings will influence who and how you will or will not wish to photograph the next time you go out. A few such outings will give you what you need to establish your own boundaries and criteria for appropriateness, and you will increasingly feel less creepy, and more proud. If you have time or inclination, I would very much appreciate your sharing an account of your experience while 'doing', as well as the pictures themselves; how you felt about yourself doing this.

Now, about your question re going up to people I've just photographed: I rarely do this because, however well I think I might have planned the shot, I am still not confident until I get home whether it is any good, and more importantly, whether it shows them in what I choose to call a respectful light. If it does not, I delete it from my hard drive unless there is a strong reason to preserve it.

Once I have decided a picture is complete, then there are times I sting with regret that I cannot give a copy to the fleeting subjects. Occasionally I achieve atonement, for example if I had taken a picture which includes them at their place of work, for then I have a chance of finding them.

This shop's security guard, for example, has a print of this on his wall ...

An makes up, to a small degree, for those I have lost.

Best wishes as you go with your camera in hand, permanently switched on, and the universe tumbles over itself to provide you with magic moments.

 

Walking about, on my fortieth birthday in my favorite city I hadn't lived in since 1985.
San Francisco - 1999

--- merged: Sep 3, 2011 11:00 PM ---

 

Here are some more candied shots of children I took the same day (Canada Day) as the other ones I posted.

 

@Magpie Thank you very much for these and for mentioning it was Canada day. I've got some friends in Canada. Were they this year, and have you got any more of the festivities?

@Ring, Hi and thanks It's your favourite city ... and I see the time gone by. would you like to live there again? Is there a chance that you could?

 

Your welcome Zen. I do have quite a few fireworks photos from the Canada Day festivities. Yes they were taken this year at Ontario Place. I took the candid photos of people to pass the time while waiting for the fireworks. I'll start a new thread for you of the fireworks to show you.

 

Oh Yes! That will be grand. Thank you. Which part of Canada is this, if I may ask?

 

Toronto, Ontario.

 

@Ring, Hi and thanks It's your favourite city ... and I see the time gone by. would you like to live there again? Is there a chance that you could?[/quote]

I'd like to live there again if I could have enough rooftop acreage to keep goats & a vegetable garden.
I don't have any goats where I am now, though. Always desired a bit of earth to tend & keep a few goats & chickens happy.
Next time I see some folks out on the streets, I'll take a few pictures. Small-town street photography with people, happens infrequently.

 

Canada Day, 2011 in Ottawa.
I was kind of amazed at the security as the Royal Newlyweds were expected.
They were cops on all the rooftops.
We couldn't see anything, but I got a shot of the monitors when Wills and Kate were on.
We stayed for the fireworks!

 

@Magpie Thanks .. now that's where my friend works

@Ring Ah, that makes sense. More space needed than for, say, keeping a cat. But ... 'rooftop acreage' I BET I don't full understand that. England doesn't 'do' big rooftops but I remember seeing films set in America, where roofs have a lot more space for action ... (and pigeons - I'm getting flashbacks to Karl Malden for some reason). No goats or chickens where you're living at the moment, though .. that likely to change soon? I look forward to your small town' street shots

Hmmm .. actually, I'll set up a 'landscape and architecture' thread ... some great images of 'place' might not have people prominent.

@CaptainBob thanks! Great shots of the day ... rooftop military, passers by and ... good thinking, getting that royal couple on the vid screen

 

Someone has taken to painting hearts around our downtown district. It's become a game of mine to try to find them all. Here are a couple.

 

We were walking around Belize City looking for a liquor store when we came across this church under construction.
We couldn't believe the shoddy scaffolding. This wouldn't be allowed in Canada!

 

WOW! psykosis. Bear Cub, CaptainBob

Captain ... Divine Mercy .. they NEED it! Let me check with you: those uprights in the scaffolding - am I seeing basic butt-joints with planks nailed on?! Looking at picture number three, I'm seeing many missed opportunities to improve stability at the corner of the building. It wouldn't be allowed in England either. You y'all have that tubular metal scaffolding, held together with custom metal clips which tighten with bolts? I'm still holding my hand in front of my eyes ... have you got any more detailed shots of this? Eh ... have you got any shots of people actually working there ... or looking up in horror!


General thought: The new 'Architecture and Landscape' thread is an ideal place not only for 'nice buildings' and 'nice landscapes'. As far as I'm concerned, constructions sites, scaffolding, as well as total ruins are also totally good to go there. It is aways an interesting question ... 'Men at Work', and 'What they are working on' - What's in the street, who's in the street and the echoes of their presence. For example, what we come to next:

Psychosis ... Hi. I reckon graffiti is a special form of street-shot ... the hand of the person who created feels very close and in this series of yours, especially so. This might be a long shot, but wouldn't it be mega sick ... as in well wicked IF you could Catch the Artist and get a picture of him or her? Maybe even leave messages under the hearts indicating wish to make contact. This is such a - a Real World equivalent of Tweets and Following. Also of hunting.

Bear Cub - Hi and thanks for these. You've got that lady in a great moment of think/ponder/contemplate. Quite intense expression on both visible faces: The woman in white could, of course, be in pre-bite mode. Now that chap with a beard - talkabout energetic - he's on some kind of a roll. Maaan, that posture so totally contrasts with the white beard, and he obviously knows what he's doing. Expressive or what! Please could you say a bit about what he's doing? And any more of those special moments to show?


Another general thought: When I get taken out on walks, it is my reviewing, my 'revision' of all the pictures in this thread, and the others, which puts the templates of 'future possibility' into my mind. Whether it be officially famous photographers like Ansel Adams, or people like my friends here who choose to make our own and each others' worlds a mere click-away, your eyes go with me, and I'm sure I'll be gratefully noticing graffiti, buildings under construction, street artists and cafe-dwellers more often this week.

Best wishes to all

 

The gentlemen above was feeling the music of this gentlemen:



and he wasn't the only one:

 

^^^ thank you for this.

I love it when a scenario comes together
/Peppard

 

not gonna happen. No new hearts have appeared in months, and I have talked to every photographer and artist I know in town, and no one knows who's doing/did this.