Street Photography: Caught Looking

Parliament Funkadelic. That was what I thought of when I saw the fellow on the right and decided to take the photograph. Or did I take the photograph because of the coziness I felt from the coffee shop?

I no longer remember even though I created the image less than a month ago. And my memory is hazy as to whether this was the result of aiming my camera when I had it at shoulder level or whether I quickly held it to my eye and peered through the viewfinder.

Such is the nature of street photography for me. I shoot instinctively as triggered by whatever conglomeration of elements registers in my subconscious. The creative process for premeditated photographs, like the ones I make for the National Park Service, are the ones I can often recall in detail.

Looking at the photograph carefully, though, I think I was motivated to press the shutter because of the scene inside the coffee shop. My intention might have been to create a color-centric composition based on the lighting, patterns, and shapes as there is nothing inherently interesting about a customer at a counter.

The reason why I think this is because the coffee shop is in sharper focus than the George Clinton doppelgänger. Since my focus point is in the cafe, it makes sense that “George” – given my settings – will look blurred as he rushes into the frame.

On the other hand, it is possible that – since I am also a musician – “George” caught my attention and I timed the photograph to get him in my frame. In my hurry to position my camera before he rushed into view, I may not have noticed that my focus was trained on the scene inside the shop – especially if I was not looking into the viewfinder.

So I guess I don’t really know. I would have to check my folder of RAW files to see if I might have any other photos of the shop or of “George” to indicate what I was thinking. Though even that is not dispositive. Maybe it was a combination of things.

In the end, whatever the motivation, I really like the instant of time that was preserved. If you’re on a smartphone, you may have to zoom in to fully appreciate the customer’s surprised gaze as “George” walks by the window.

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Street Photography: Slow Catches Fast

New York is fast.  And for that reason, I can almost always pick out who the tourists are.  They tend to amble along impeding the natives who are speedwalking to make their appointments or to catch a train, bus, or taxicab.  Perhaps this businessman had the right idea in avoiding the sidewalk altogether and taking to the street on a rented Citibike.

I wanted to convey that sense of hurried motion.  To do that, of course, I needed a subject that was actually traveling pretty quickly.  I was looking intently and I saw this bicyclist way down 32nd Street and heading my way.  He was coming up fast so I knew  that I, too, had to act fast.  I immediately made an adjustment to the shutter speed on my camera.  Interestingly, this adjustment meant slowing the opening and closing of the lens in order to catch him moving fast.  

The impulse might be to hold the camera steady and snap the shutter as he passes by.  Doing that will show the background in focus (since it is stationary) and the bicyclist will appear blurred (since he is moving past).  And that would produce a perfectly fine photograph.

I decided, however, to create the opposite effect:   have the bicyclist as much in focus as possible as if I was moving along with him and was seeing the background move past in a blur.  To accomplish that result, I trained my camera on the bicyclist and panned my camera along with him, trying to keep him within the frame of my viewfinder.

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Street Photography: The Colors of Sixth Avenue

Several of my recent posts where about photographs that involved the juxtaposition of messages appearing on various signs.  Other posts were about the psychology expressed through the eyes and other body language.  Going back further, there are photographs that are all about the shapes formed by architecture and lighting.

With this photograph, my eye was lured by the colors.  When that big red bus passed by, the black of the light pole became more intense as did the blue shirt and hat.  The coordination of the colors was another motivation for me to click the shutter.

The red of the bus relates to the red of the flag.  The verticals of the dark tinted windows and the vents on the bottom create a clean, modern ,abstract feel against the black pole and even the dark windows on the white bus.  That white bus also has some yellow lights to go with the yellow letters of the sign above it.  The man is entirely blue – his duffle bag, shirt, and hat, which connect with the blue in the flag directly above.  And I like how there is a ghostly reflection of him against the bus.

Many of these color fields are within lines that form squares and rectangles.  Even the man’s shoulders and arms form a rectangle, which makes his round head stand out more within the composition.  Finally there is the left-to-right diagonal of the duffle bag, which mirrors the same angle of the flag.

None of these attributes were noticed individually by me at the time of the photograph.  I just saw them as one united composition.  It’s only afterward, with the image frozen in time, that I can analyze it and break down the components that formed an urban landscape interesting enough for me to want to preserve it.

 

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Street Photography: New York Attitude

When I get a commission from the National Park Service to create a collection around a historic house or a preserved landscape, I am photographing an interior or exterior environment where rooms, furnishings, trees, and rocks are stationary.  The variables might be the lighting, the season, and the weather.  I am also a variable as I choose where to position myself.  And I can pretty much take my time making incremental adjustments to my tripod to frame the shot and to adjust other settings on the camera.

On the street, those luxuries are nonexistent.  Everything is in motion – even me.  It’s a totally different experience and challenge.  As with the park commissions, I have to engage in critical seeing.  But on the street, it’s being in a state of high alert:  constantly and critically surveying the action all around me and having my camera ready to hit that shutter reflexively.  In this case, I saw the confluence of people within the crowd and fired off a shoulder-level shot without looking through the viewfinder.

For me, it’s a very New York image.  The lady on the left and the fellow on the right are looking straight ahead somewhat dismissively.  I’ve been to small clubs where new rock bands are baptized by the cool and aloof faces of an audience waiting to be impressed.  Indeed, the tousled hair, Wayfarer sunglasses, and black T shirt give the fellow a very downtown Bohemian look that reminds me of Lou Reed or the CBGB era of New Wave and Punk rock.

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Street Photography: Feels Good

I don’t know if he is her caregiver, works for the Port Authority – where this photograph was taken – or if he is a good Samaritan.  In any case, it was a nice scene to encounter and I had to get a shot of it.  I especially like how he is stooping over to check on her and the path they are taking in the crowded street.  In the background, the posture is echoed by a man wearing a white shirt.

I remember a time when New York City was a lot rougher place to live and work in.  The Port Authority area, in particular, was kind of seedy.  Starting during the mid-1990s,  I noticed the city became cleaner and safer.  The streets also became more crowded as tourists from around the country and around the world starting visiting in higher numbers.

After the city started slowly recovering from 9-11, the feel of the streets improved even further – or so it seemed to me.  Of course, there are still problems as one can expect when you have over 8½ million people in a confined geographical area with a variety of ethnicities, languages, cultures, and educational levels.  Despite the city’s fast pace and energy, however, there are moments when things slow down and a scene that looks like it could have jumped out of a Norman Rockwell illustration comes alive.

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Street Photography: Expression

The urge to express oneself can lead to some comical happenstance.  I was on Fifth Avenue, which is not a typical route for me.  But I was looking for something different to photograph.  I was not sure what I would find on Fifth, but I’m not as familiar with it and thought I might encounter something that would inspire a shot.

There wasn’t much that was of interest to me.  The avenue is lined with high end commercial establishments like on Times Square, but without the energy.  It was pretty boring and I was starting to think that I was not going to have any photographs worth perusing at the studio.  As it was, I only had only taken a few mundane shots.

It was starting to annoy me because I know from experience that the problem often does not have anything to do with my surroundings.  The fault is with me.  It’s my seeing that is mundane.  I’m being too passive and waiting for the images to come to me instead hunting them down.

That moment of self awareness was the ignition I needed to start actively and critically seeing.  Rather than hoping for an interesting scene or person to materialize before me, I began looking for something more abstract – relationships, contrasts, oppositions, and other conceptual connections.  Within minutes the small sticker declaring “Veggie Power” and “Meatless Monday” caught my attention.  Within milliseconds, I looked to see if there might be something in juxtaposition and there I saw the hot dog sign.  Maybe, in reality, my peripheral vision registered the sign and put the thought in my head.

There’s nothing high and lofty about this photograph.  I don’t mean to make more of it than what it is.  The point for me is remembering that photography is not just a passive intake of what happens to cross my way or – as the street photographer Joel Meyerowitz puts it – the collection of objects.  As soon as I became aware of that again, I became engaged with the environment and in the creation of – rather than the taking of – an image.

 

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The Art of Phoneography | Photos from the August 3, 2019 Workshop at George Washington’s Headquarters

 

The inaugural workshop at Morristown National Historical Park.  Photo by Rita.

It was exciting to bring my phonegraphy workshop from Connecticut to New Jersey’s Morristown National Historical Park — the site of the Ford Mansion, which served as George Washington’s headquarters from 1779-1780.  This was the first time the workshop was offered at the park and the 20 attendee maximum was filled quickly with an additional 10 on the waiting list.  As a result, a second workshop was added for October 5.

Photo by Mike

The spacious auditorium at the park’s museum provided a large sharp projection of my examples from the masters of photography, film, and painting.  Thunderstorms threatened to drench us during our walk from the museum to Washington’s headquarters.  But the weather does not heed the predictions of our apps and we were pleasantly greeted with a bright sunny day.

The park agreed to my request that we have the mansion exclusively to ourselves for the hour without having to compete with the guided tour groups.  For most of the attendees, it was their first time at the park.  Many said they were planning to return to explore the museum, Ford Mansion, and grounds at their leisure.  In addition to giving away a copy of The Jacob Ford Jr. Mansion authored by Jude M. Pfister, I also gave away a print from my photographic collection of the Ford Mansion that was commissioned by the National Park Service, and a Xenvo Pro smartphone lens kit.

It was pleasing to find out that the majority of the workshop attendees came from New Jersey camera clubs and photography clubs that promoted my event.  They were eager to expand their learning beyond the scope of my class.  Indeed, several went online to purchase  my booklet, The Art of Phoneography:  Book One, for step-by-step instructions on the techniques of artistic cropping, dodging and burning, and artistic black and white photo conversion.

I’ll be speaking with park officials toward the end of the year about scheduling more of these workshops for 2020.  Until then, these are some sample images submitted by several attendees.

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Carol

Inside Washington’s headquarters.  Photo by Linda.

David

David

Judi

Delirious.  Photo by Linda.

Judi

No, he’s not part of the museum display.

Linda

Linda

The second floor at Washington’s headquarters.  Photo by David.

Photo by Mike

Photo by Mike

Photographing a replica of a portable folding camp bed.

Tom

Tom

In the servant’s quarters.  Photo by Carol.

 

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