Street Photo - Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Finding Vivian Maier At A Design Film Festival 2014

Last week I got the chance to watch the documentary film Finding Vivian Maier at the local A Design Film Festival 2014. ADFF was conceived in 2010 as a film festival dedicated to architecture, fashion, photography, street art, motion graphics, technology and the subcultures of design.

More after the jump.

Read more

Street Photo - Undercover

Undercover

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - In-grown

In-grown

After all these months of posting my street photographs in black and white, this week a color street photo is featured.

I came across this in-grown plant that grows right out of a concrete wall covered with algae. It must have been there for many years as its leaves are richly green and part of its roots is growing outwards hanging by the wall. It shows the power of Mother Nature. Look at how tough this plant is and they are capable of growing out from any surface of the Earth.

I approached this plant with a fine-art style of shooting and by showing the plant and the so-called decayed wall and surface textures, and a small patch of grasses, I want to show the living condition that supports its growth as well as a sense of scale.

Street photography doesn't necessarily involves human subjects, architectural buildings a.k.a. concrete jungle, still found objects, etc etc. It involves landscape as well. As a usual practice, I converted this color image into black and white with added warm tone. In some sense, warm toned images have this 3-dimensional effect on them. It works well on this image too.

In-grown (warm toned)

Samsung S3 on default mode except WB set to Daylight. All post-production processed in Snapseed.

Before I made the above image, I visited this place at night a day before and made a few exposures with my Nikon D70s. Below is the edited one.

In-grown (at night)
Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm @ 24mm f/3.5 1/2 sec E.V. +5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Center-weigh Metering.

This shot was exposed for half a second handheld, hence it looks slightly blur which has this soft painting effect but flat without shadows. I would have mounted my camera on a tripod and do some light-paintings but it's best to make the shot under natural ambiance lighting. Personally I prefer the warm toned version shown above. However the main purpose of showing these images is to explore with different lighting condition at different time of the day and see which works well.

Street Photo - Wonderful Childhood

Wonderful Childhood

A mother and her child are seen here in this street photo, walking down the stairs. I first noticed the little kid's printed T-shirts followed by that robot toy he was holding. I don't see many kids these days holding their favorite toys while,they are outdoors, not to mention playing with them. I can say this was a rare scenery. Look at their hands. The mother was holding her child's hand so tightly as they walked down the steep stairs. I guess the kid is about 8 or 9 years old. Or even 10. I'm sure he can walk down the stairs all by himself, couldn't he? It goes to show and proves how much the child's mother loves her child and pampers him with toys.

I was standing right at the foot of the stairs when I saw them walking down. As my camera has had set accordingly and pre-focused, I quickly turned towards them and took the shot. By then they were quite close to me. One moment, one shot and I nailed it down. Lucky shot? Yes it was.

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - On Reading

On Reading

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Personal Hygiene

Personal Hygiene

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Suspicion

Suspicion

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Artist At Work

Artist At Work

Seagull 205 RF on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Rodeo Shopping Time

Rodeo Shopping Time

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Hoody Lady

Hoody Lady

It was mid day sun as I walked around this busy street in downtown area, keeping a constant look out for interesting characters. As I was walking towards the bus stop, I saw this old lady with her head covered with a floral patterns scarf. She kept her head low with her eyes fixated on the ground and walked at a slow pace, which allowed me to have enough time to halt, lift up my camera to focus and click on the shutter.

Here I used the Sunny 16 rule i.e. aperture set to f/16 at 1/300 seconds which is Seagull 205 rangefinder camera maximum shutter speed. As i was shooting on black and white film and with the super hot and strong sunlight, f/16 is good enough to expose for the shadows. During the film processing, I was able to control on the highlights development. So in this street photo, the old lady's face is still visible with enough shadow details, especially on her eyes.

I was focusing on her alone and after I scanned the negatives, I noticed the word "WANTED" on the bus stop advertisement panel in the background. Somehow the subject in this photo can be misinterpreted as a "fugitive". Well all by accident. I didn't notice the bus ad when I took the shot. If I knew, I would have changed my position and perspective where the subject's body shape would cover most part of the bus ad leaving the headline "WANTED" right on top. That might make this street photo more interesting and humorous, I hope.

Photo info:
Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.

Street Photo - Shadow Shifter

Shadow Shifter

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor contrast adjustment in post.