Street - Fuji 23mm f1.4 - Colour or B&W?

This is a cross post with my blog at Derek Clark Photography for the following reason. When it comes to street photography I've always had my feet planted in the black and white side of the fence as it just looks more interesting to me. It strips away the distraction of colour and narrows the photograph down to composition and content. It also gives street shots a timeless quality. This blog has had only three colour pictures (I think), which were on the earliest posts. Since then it's been B&W all the way and even the post processing has been the exact same home made recipe that I cooked up in Silver Efex Pro way back. But lately I've noticed that some colour street photography has been catching my eye and that's unusual for me. I tend to think colour street shots look a little too bland, but never say never!

So here's the thing. All the shots on this post are in black and white, but you will find the same ones in colour over at DerekClarkPhotography by clicking HERE. They were all shot with the amazing new Fujifilm 23mm f1.4 on the X-Pro1, a pair that hasn't been separated since the lens was released. Have a look at both blog posts and see what you prefer. I'd love to here what you think. Do they all look better in colour? Do they all look better in B&W? Or does it depend on the individual photo?

Have a look at both B&W and colour versions, then leave a comment & use the poll bellow (or both).

[polldaddy poll=7679802]

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Slow Streets Of Hong Kong :: Street Photography With A Tripod???

Here's a couple of long exposures that I shot with the X-Pro1 and the 18-55mm f2.8-f4. It might be a bit odd to shoot street photography with a tripod, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while. The shot above was 2.5 seconds at f18 ISO 200 and the shot below was at a quarter of a second at f6.4. I've posted some long exposures of a different kind HERE.

I almost forgot. This is post number 100 here on 35mmStreet. Thanks to all of you who've stopped by here, left comments or clicked like. It's thanks to you guys that I know I'm doing something right. You've gave me so much confidence as a street photographer. I'm in no way comparing myself to Vivian Maier, but maybe if she had a blog (and internet), she would have realised she was doing something right?

Wan Chai Market - Hong Kong :: part 2

So here is more photos from Wan Chai Market in Hong Kong, or to be more precise, four shots from the market and one on the way back. My stay in Hong Kong is coming to an end on Saturday. Next stop will be the Philippines. My next post might be more HK, or Macau or somewhere in the Philippines. But it will depend on wifi availability. Speaking of the next post, it will be the 100th post on this blog. But, I'll talk about that in the next post.

I don't feel I'm ready to leave Hong Kong, I like the way of life, especially staying on Lamma Island like we have. There's no cars on Lamma. It's relaxed and peaceful, but the buzz of Hong Kong is just a ferry ride away. Best of both worlds for a street photographer.

I think his was the last shot on the way back to catch the ferry to Lamma Island.

Wan Chai Market - Hong Kong :: part 1

I shot these photos in and around Wan Chai Market. It's an outdoor market in Hong Kong that is set on two side streets that cross through each other.  The photo above is one of the vendors, shot through his own merchandise. All of these photos were shot with the X-Pro1 and the 18-55mm f2.8-f4. This lens has turned out to be extreamly useful on this trip to Asia.

These next two photos show how you stand your ground, even when spotted by your subject. You can see that in the first photo, I'm busted. I took the shot then kept the camera to my eye. She turned round to see what I was shooting, then goes back to her phone convinced it wasn't her. Click.

These two shots (above) are especially for Don. If you read the coments in the London post, you'll get what I'm talking about

Part 2 coming tomorrow.

Death And Taxes

Three leftovers from my Death Makes Angels essay on The Kage Collective. Margaret Thatcher wasn't exactly the most popular person in the UK.

Pickin-Up The Pieces

A few shots from last week. 1 and 3 are from the X100 and number 2 is from the X-Pro1 (or maybe the X-E1). I'm so busy shooting and editing various things right now, portraits, events and documentary stuff for The Kage Collective. So I just wanted to post a few shots for now. If you're in the maket for an X100, check out the reviews by Patrick La Roque and Kevin Mullins. If you haven't seen it already, take a look at Paul Pride's new essay on Kage Collective called Spray

Neither Fish Nor Flesh

Things have been a bit slow here on 35mmStreet as I've been really busy with a few projects, including a new website over at DerekClarkPhotography. I've also just posted Episode 3 of The Digital Contact Sheet on the blog too which might be of interest to street photographers..

I'll leave you with two sets of painted on eyebrows, one is a puppet and one is not, both are neither fish nor flesh.

Technology On The Street

These two shots were taken as part of A Mute Reminder on the Kage Collective website, but didn't make the final piece as there were photos that had more to do with the story. It's really hard to be ruthless with a full batch of photos and cut them down to 12 or 15. Sometimes you need to leave out photos that are better, so that ones can be kept in to better tell the story. I have two pieces of news that might interest any fellow street photographers. The first is that my street and documentary camera bag has been featured on Japan Camera Hunter and is number 390 of the regular feature called In Your Bag. Mine can be found here.

The second bit of news is that I have started a new feature on my photographers blog, called 'The Digital Contact Sheet'. The idea being that I'll show a sequence of photos, rather than just the money shot. You will see the warts and all side of things, the duds, the duces, the edited and the straight out of camera. I'll be featuring lots of different genres of photographs, but Episode 1 is a street shot that was posted on 35mmStreet last summer. Take a look at Episode 1 and see what you think.

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A Mute Reminder :: My Latest Story On The Kage Collective

I have a new story on The Kage Collective today. I say new, but it was actually shot back in November at the remembrance day parade in Glasgow, Scotland. As you can imagine, it was an emotional day for everyone involved, but especially for those who had lost friends and family in any of the conflicts around the world.

Please take a few minutes to have a look at A Mute Reminder and if you feel like leaving a comment on the Kage site, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story. I have a few street shots from that day which I'll start posting next week.

Hanging Around

I'm having a bit of a clear out right now. I haven't been feeling too great recently so I've not been able to shoot much street. But to keep things moving along here on 35mmStreet I thought I'd post some shots that I didn't get round to posting closer to when they were shot. The first two are from Venice and were taken back in May this year when I was in Italy and shot Running Into Darkness, which can be seen at The Kage Collective. The second two were shot at this years Edinburgh Festival.