Here’s the link for the magazine…. http://streetpresets.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=f821ae9f3574c83b22b72a30f&id=5a8dc09e48
Category Archives: Street Photography
Just some photos from the day.
It’s Easter Sunday here in Philly. I hear it’s the same all over but I can’t confirm that. Anyway, I took a Nam Vet friend to the VA Hospital this morning. Last November the Docs cut his legs off just above the knee. So his wheel chair is his only means of transportation outside.
One of us vets takes him when he needs to get there for meetings or treatments. Oh no…don’t get this wrong. See, Joe flirts with woman all the time. Yeah, he don’t care where or who but sometimes the woman’s partner doesn’t appreciate Joe’s humor. So I took him and brought him back to the transportation terminal. He left with his daughter and I was stuck there with just my camera. What to do? Just me and the camera. I wasn’t sure so I figured I’d make a few photos.
There’s others but I like these.
Happy Easter and Passover everyone.
Latvia, One Year Ago
My wife and I went to her nephew’s wedding in Latvia last March. Aside from photographing the wedding and parties etc, I of course found the STREET. I was amazed at what Latvia offered. The wedding stuff was in Riga and I did the entire event with a dedicated passion.
Ok, ok…so what? Yeah, I hit the streets as much as I could. Now Latvia thinks different then Philadelphia. They have their own definition of cold. I don’t like it. The definition or the cold. I won’t complain about that issue back here for a long time. We stayed in an apartment in Riga that was an Aunt to my sister-in-laws friend. The apartment was a 5th floor walkup. To be honest, I didn’t care. Ya see…the building has not been repaired or painted since the start of World War 2.
Dasha
Above is my niece Dasha. She’s Russian and came to the wedding and also to meet me. She had been here before and wanted to take me for a walk to see Old Riga. Actually, it was the Ghetto region but it’s called Old Riga. As I was making photos, I could see bullet holes on the walls. They were still there. Unreal! We came to a section and Dasha was nervous because it was a rough region. I told her that this place looked highly improved in comparison to the ghetto in Philadelphia. Being the protective guy that I am, I agreed to take her to safer quarters.
When we got back to the rest of the family, I insisted that we go for a walk to the other side of Riga.
We went to the shopping district and of course the women wanted to do just that. My wife told me that I’ll be very bored in the stores because I don’t speak Latvian or Russian. What to do I asked. Would you mind just walking around for an hour or two? I pouted and said….sure. Oh yeah….I took off like a bat out of…of…..you know where. Man, I got lost in the streets and the crowds. I had a reference point so I wasn’t worried about getting lost.
I made many photos and here are two more from the trip. Above was entering the Underpass and below is inside the same place.
I posted these on Flickr last year but these are part of a collection of prints I just sold. The collector asked me to post them so he can show them to some friends
More fresh things tomorrow………Peace my friends…..don
PS….don’t forget the magazine is available on Monday. Go to the Facebook link over there on the right….
Personal Work For Many Is Still Personal.
Personal work for me is just that, NOT! Really, on Flickr the last few days a few of my photos went to Explore and kinda viral. The one above and the one below. I love the photos, that’s why I made them. That’s why I will continue making them. What I didn’t know it that YOU like them too.
This comes at a very special time for me. We are a few days away from launching the Inspired Eye Magazine and Website that includes a FORUM. The energy it took and will continue to take is a heavy load. Just as I was almost depleted, remember I’m chasing 64 in a few months, has been replenished above and beyond thanks to my friends and Flickr.
It’s nice to know that my energy has been feeding youse because youse have been feeding me too.
I’ll post links to the Magazine, Forum, Presets shortly. Till then, go in peace but go with a camera in your hand.
Don
It’s What I See When I Feel The Image.
Photography for me has always been a visual escape from literal reality. It’s more then visual but I can only think in visual terms for this post. I’m walking around, camera at the ready and suddenly I start to feel an image. What happens is that the reality in front of me is starting to present a new surreal view of what I see.
Let’s face it. There exist no literal translation of reality in a photograph anyway, so why not find your own vision along the way and just do it.
Inspired Eye Magazine will be published soon. Please like us on the Street Presets Page on Facebook to make sure you get your notification for your copy. It’s free and a real treat for the eye, heart and mind. Yeah, yeah…that’s the link over there on the right….
Sometimes I ain’t working the street….I’m just having fun….but I’m supposed to be working.
So I’m preparing for a few workshops this Spring. I really didn’t want to do any more classes but to be honest, I can’t refuse the money. Now that’s not my only motivation and never was but times being what they are, these pro people can afford the cost and insist on some street classes.
I have to be comfortable with my cameras, my work and myself to be able to get into the ZONE with this group. I am comfortable, in all respects. What I do is work and get some photos that explain different aspects of being a street shooter. This group of photos explains it very well.
I have one young woman that takes classes and has off and on for 4 years. She’s a Doctor at Graduate here in Philly. She has a great eye but is somewhat intimidated on the street because she’s very attractive and stands out in a crowd. Of course we all know that’s a bad thing on the street. Anyway, she has a hunger for walking on Market Street and making photos. She was using an M9 but I ended that about a year ago. Now I’m not sure what she’s using but she has the gift of being able to get what she wants.
Her photos are excellent.
Self Portrait
It’s nice to have a purpose when your working but really, working for yourself is more important then what you can do for anyone else. This is truth but the best truth is when you work for yourself and others benefit from your efforts. Working from the hearty and having others take your work into their heart…..it probably won’t get much better then that……
Till we meet again………
Uh oh…we’re reflecting again.
Reflections have been a part of my life and work since forever. I remember back around 1974, Paul Cava was trying to get me to loosen up. I told him I had all my photos grouped neatly in categories. Paul told me to forget that and just work and not try to organize things so much. I took what he said to heart for about…..well…a year. I thought that I wanted to do things my own way. I guess the fact that he had a Masters in Fine Arts carried weight with me as I had nada. I had 13 months in Viet-Nam as a grunt.
I just felt that maybe I could be right. Maybe, just maybe the future would prove that I did the right thing. I kept the organizational thing going all my photographic life and still do. I still have series that I work on that are 40+ years strong. I have a filing system that I still follow to this day. I can find any photo I ever made in less then a minute, whether it be film or digital.
What does this mean? Well, I gotta say….it means that one should follow ones own path and stick to it. Maybe some mistakes will come up. They will be your mistakes and you will learn from them. You will learn to improve.
We are shooters. We are the visual recorders of life in our time. No one lives our life for us. We do it alone, we do it because we have to. Not many understand that nor do they even care enough to understand. We have a new means of communication for all of us to share and use. It’s places like forums, Flickr and a gazillion other places. We become a part of a community and we feel great being around like minded shooters. That’s all nice and fine and dandy…..just remember who you are.
Remember that no one knows better then you about what camera you should use, what lens you need, what subject matter you should work with.
The next time you see one of those cat photos, just remember….that cat cares more about it’s owner then most people do. Just remember, you are your own guide thru life and thru your photographic journey. Yeah, sure….you may meet a few along the way that care but in the end….it’s you, your camera and your subject matter that makes your photos….
Now get your butt out there and work…..
don
Street….Keeping The Familiar Interesting. I’m being ESOTERIC again.
Broad & Chestnut.
I’ve walked past this subway entrance more times in 45 years then I could even count. I’ve worked the streets of Center City for so many years and still, it never fails to interest me with new images. I never feel bored or complacent. I always feel inspired, invigorated and ready for a good long walk. I never fail to find a few photos to feed my soul.
Familiarity breeds contempt. I don’t really agree with that. I think that we owe it to ourselves to see the everyday things in a new way so that, that saying becomes null and void. We are photographers and as such should have the instincts and knowledge to SEE in a way others can’t unless they SEE our photos.
The best photography is about the life we live and how we live it. Even the street isn’t a place you visit, it’s a place you live. I’m not saying that if you don’t live ON THE STREET….you can’t do street. Far from that….it’s about how you relate to the life you live and more importantly how you relate to the life others are living.
The Liberty Bell
Maybe this sounds kind of esoteric, I’ve been accused of being esoteric, and it is. Street shooting is about finding ones path thru life with a camera. It’s not a struggle. It’s not a battle. It’s a choice each and every street shooter makes. It’s a life decision and we take it seriously. If that makes me ESOTERIC…..so be it!
Like above….the alternatives are not so pleasant.
As Minor White Taught…..PreVisualize!
There are a few solid ways to previsualize. Any street shooter worth his sore feet should know about this. One way is to SEE in your mind a scene and the image you want to make. This works from the memory section of the street brain. Your out there on the street and your street brain is recording scenes even if your not working them at this moment. Then you go to sleep and you dream about the scenes from the day. when you go out again, those dreams could manifest into a photo because you dreamt about working them.
Another way is to have whats commonly called….The Decisive Moment. Really what that is, is the previsualization that a photo is being borne right now, right in front of you. You must be prepared for this experience at all times.
I was walking south on 18th street just below JFK and I saw this window. Suddenly my heart started skipping beats….my pulse raced….I struggled to maintain my composure…..I was still over 50′ away…as I got closer I started to raise the camera….
I got to where I should be without looking at the screen….the guy moved his head in and out and everytime I could see his entire face….then at one point…..
his head was there and his face disappeared and….CLICK!
Walk By Shootings or How The E-P3 is Like The GRD4
I will start by confessing the absolute truth about how I measure a cameras worth. It’s not a money thing. It’s strictly a working thing and how the camera lets me do my work. I compare every camera to the Ricoh GRD4. Believe me, that’s not an easy task for any camera to take on.
One of the most important issues I deal with, with any camera is focusing and not focusing. Well I guess in a way I always focus but when I do Walk By Shootings, I’m in either Snap mode with the Ricoh, or MF with any other camera. The E-P3 has a few things going for it. One is that it writes to the card very fast. The GRD4 doesn’t….fast but not as fast.
That’s not a major issue and it’s maybe off base for this post.
Once you have an understanding of your focal length, then you must surrender the idea of visualizing the photo on the screen or finder. You of course will see the image in your head and you and the camera will make a collaboration on the content of the photo. So, it’s important that you have an understanding of your camera and try to stay in good spirits with it.
The Pen3 has a good interface. I use Fn1 button to switch between MF and AF. Then I use the RED video button for AF. Fn2 button switches the screen on/off. I then use the Olympus Distance Calculator. I stand at a wall and walk out to the desired distance, then hit the red af button to lock that distance in. Of course with the Ricoh, you just set the snap distance…imagine that…hmmmm
So like the photo above, I used f5.6 to get the DOF I want and then I just frame in a way I can’t describe and release. Working this way allows anyone to get close, even closer and not feel intimidated as most subjects never know your making a photo.
What I fing most exciting is the way the camera works with me. I know the subject matter in front of me but I can’t SEE the screen. The camera gets what I want in the frame and then makes the photo depending on my position. It’s very exciting. This is one area of street that I have fully enjoyed for over 45 years.
If you haven’t tried this kind of work, I encourage you to give it a shot. With digital cameras it’s very easy to get a strong feeling for the way the camera interprets your photo….
You then become a collaborator in another way with your photography. Maybe, just maybe…you’ll feel like naming your cameras like your trusted friends.
Go in Peace but go with a camera in your hand…..
don