my new favorite photo | a community game

[oldBCguy]

.. portraits of a special lady … outside on our apartment's balcony, for happy-hour on a rather cold (and snowing) day in mid-February, 2021.

 

[Yoused]

People drive the highway to get somewhere. We sometimes stop in the spot that almost everyone just drives past, because we feel like stopping, or, um, reasons.

This is an old favorite of mine, that has lived in my desktop rotation. Original camera image, untouched. US 93, somewhere between Kingman and Wickenburg.

 

[Alli]

 

[Citysnaps]

When I'm on the street making candid photographs, I try to be mindful of a handful of things; what to include and not include in the frame, quality of light, shadows, gesture, keeping vertical and horizontal elements vertical and horizontal, human interaction, letting some details drop into the shadows to evoke mystery, etc.

After making this photo and processing it, I'm reminded that I also need to pay attention to potential unwanted reflections in windows.

 

[Yoused]

After making this photo and processing it, I'm reminded that I also need to pay attention to potential unwanted reflections in windows.

Well, is that not what cropping is for? Some 15 years ago, I bought an inexpensive camera (see above photo), choosing the particular model because it included a viewfinder. These days, unless you get a bulky DSLR, cameras are nearly all devoid of a viewfinder: in daylight shots, framing using the LCD display is very difficult, so I take multiple shots and crop aggressvely to get what I want.

 

[Citysnaps]

Well, is that not what cropping is for? Some 15 years ago, I bought an inexpensive camera (see above photo), choosing the particular model because it included a viewfinder. These days, unless you get a bulky DSLR, cameras are nearly all devoid of a viewfinder: in daylight shots, framing using the LCD display is very difficult, so I take multiple shots and crop aggressvely to get what I want.

I guess... But for candid photos, especially with movement, I don't make photos with cropping in mind or make multiple exposures. Rather... I wait for the right moment to release the shutter - with all elements how I want them in the frame, and in this case waiting until the woman was directly in front of the man, with eye contact between them (that was a bonus, and not guaranteed).

Sometimes in post I need to mess with perspective skew to correct vertical and horizontal elements, which usually forces a crop.

I do make multiple exposures for posed street portraits when things are static and have a lot of time.

 

[Alli]

After making this photo and processing it, I'm reminded that I also need to pay attention to potential unwanted reflections in windows.

I’ve seen worse. Like the guy who posted a tea kettle on eBay, but forgot that tea kettles reflect so the photo showed his reflection taking the photo…in the nude.

 

[Citysnaps]

It's tough to pick a single favorite photo. So here's one that might be in the top ten or twenty if I were keeping track (I'm not). What I like about it is that it's an expression of young love and candid. It just happened where I happened to be hanging around at the time in San Francisco, and luckily I had a camera.

 

[Citysnaps]

Not a favorite photo, but rather a collection of a my favorite photography projects I've worked on over the years. Thought I'd share a few.

In general, they are sets of photos that follow a theme, or subject matter. Some photo sets are contained in an enclosure I designed, such as handmade wooden boxes using different hardwoods (cherry, mahogany, and maple) that are used to display one of a dozen single prints contained within the box. Others are tins. Some are handprinted, others commercial. A couple were printed off my laser printer.

At the bottom is a handmade double accordion book I designed and printed. When folded, it's contained in the tin right above the book.

The book in the center, Tenderloin USA, is a collection of portraits another photographer and I made of people we encountered in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood over a year walking around in the neighborhood and hitting people up for a chat and portrait. We offered that book for sale online with all book proceeds donated to Larkin Street Youth Services, a SF charity that helps kids living on the street, providing various services and shelter.

 

[mollyc]

changed my computer desktop screen today.

 

[Alli]

IYKYK

 

[oldBCguy]

.. two views of the Miami River, Harrison, BC -- taken during a clear & bright early-morning walk -- from bridges over the river at two different locations (1 June/23).

 

[oldBCguy]

.. three views of a 'favourite tree' and its location in Harrison Hot Springs ... located on green space alongside Harrison Lake, with the lake and surrounding mountains in the background (photos taken on two consecutive days, on a trip & stay in September, 2021).