Inside the car (Yes this is HDR)

Mexico City streets

Little boy waiting (40 years later)

Street Photography

"Photojournalism" Sort of...

Moments

You ever get a little too caught up in technical details? Sometimes we all do. In those moments it helps to step back and visualize the whole concept. Maybe take a break. That tends to bring us back down to earth and realize that ultimately the settings in a camera often matter very little.

Take a look at the first image below. It was NOT taken by me, but by one of Fresno California's favorite "foodies" and all around interesting fella. James Collier who becomes our first ever guest via one of his images [original post].
Now this image caught my attention because of the caption that James posted with it initially. He pointed out that this technically bad photo ended up being the favorite of his recent trip. When I saw the photo I thought "this is a great shot!". Maybe he was right maybe not, but it really didn't matter. My eyes saw right through that and focused on the moment, and what a great moment it was. One single frame told me a story too hard to convey in a short paragraph. What was James referring to? Maybe it was the slight blur on grandmas face or the fact that the gentleman in the backs face is only partially visible. I really didn't ask. I can tell you that the slight motion blur in grandmas face only adds to the picture because I can almost see her moving. The gentleman standing... what a smile! If you wanted to only catch one single part of him it would be just that, and James did it.

So I'm shooting FUSE Fest a while back and I wander into the DJ venue. I showed up just in time to catch DJ Bradley start his set. This was my first time seeing him perform, so I did not know exactly what to expect. To my surprise he was very visually entertaining. Not in that "let me put a visual show" kinda way, but more like "I really enjoy doing this and I let it take me". The music was good and the crowd was interacting and absorbing. His moves were swift and calculated all while never loosing sight of the music. Vinyl records went back to cases while others took their place on the turntables. As all this goes on I'm walking around with my camera shooting images. I come back to Bradley and the show is in full force. I change a few camera settings and refocus on him. I snap a couple shots and look at my screen for quick review. The settings at this point were ok for still subjects, but under lower light conditions too slow for a moving subject. All this is going through my head in seconds as I see Bradley grab a record and start lifting it straight toward his face. It almost happened in slow motion. I saw him hold on to it with two hands and I knew a great moment was coming. I had no time to change more settings. I lifted my camera at the same time he did the record and I realized "he's going to kiss it!" There was only enough time to put the camera up to my eye and snap! I took two shots. The second was milliseconds late; the record was already coming down. The first however caught him right in the moment. Even before reviewing the image I knew there would be some blur because of the movement. I looked at it and realized I was right, but guess what I still liked it. It bothered me that I was unable to capture a technically perfect image, but somehow I was actually ok with it. The moment was everything. Nevertheless it became one the images Bradley picked for keeping a print of.

This brings me back to something I realized and told James after I saw his image "great moments = great images" perfect camera settings don't.

Now go capture great moments!

Shoot (through) clichés

I am the first to admit that when it comes to anything artistic the first thing that comes to mind is "how can I be different?" As I tried here. Today I will persuade you to do the exact opposite. That doesn't mean you will stop there though. Here is the deal. You don't want to have an image that looks exactly like what hundreds or thousands of tourist and amateur photographers have right? Well why not? I'm going to ask you to do just that. Reason: because you never know what could happen after you leave. If you are shooting a city scape and god forbid an earthquake hits the day after. Guess what? You could have some of the last images of that particular place as it was. Lets say you are shooting a landscape. Things erode over time and often fall apart. Its part of nature. Something drastic changes there and bam! You have another important image. Ok so you got that done. Now I'm going to ask you to shoot past that. To shoot through clichés. So you showed up to Yosemite and shot the typical Tunnel view. One of the most photographed places on earth. Now you got your bases covered and you can switch your mindset to other images. Maybe a close up or a less typical angle on one of the waterfalls etc. It gives you that sense of "I got some good images already I can move on".
Rembember, don't be affraid to shoot a "cliché" image. Shoot it, make it great, and move on.

Fire and Negative Space

I'll start with the details of this photo. ISO 400, 27mm focal length, aperture at f7.1, and a 1.3 second exposure on a tripod, no flash.
The camera settings sound very weird right? I'd say yes they do.
I had less than 10 minutes to set up and shoot a series of impromptu images. I ran for my camera and decided that spending the extra couple of minutes to grab and set up my tripod will make a difference.
I was trying to get good exposure with out the preparation time that is sometimes needed for less conventional shoots like this one. The LCD screen preview saved me on this one. I shot a couple aperture priority images and got a generic idea of exposure. I quickly switched to Manual mode and dialed what I thought was something close to a correct exposre for what I wanted to achieve. A relatively long exposure was key to grab the trails of the fire. I tweaked a few more times as I kept shooting images and quickly looking at my LCD. I shot a few more and the mini show was done! I was comfortable enough with the exposure that I was also able to put some thought in to composition. I love negative space, so I used it. Also I tried hard not to show in the image that this was done in a back yard.

Long exposure + negative space + the a sense of anonymity from not showing his eyes makes this picture for me. What does it do for you? Good or bad.