Street Photography

One Frame 010: 3 Red Dots

The vernacular railway trip up the mountains to reach the Benedictine Monk Retreat at Montserrat in Barcelona, Spain is a spectacular journey. The cable car is another option but I would recommend going up by vernacular and coming back on the cable car. After reaching the top, the air is clear and the views are spectacular. There is also a peaceful quiet only interrupted by the church bells every so often.

I noticed these three red dots on the window before heading downstairs to the exhibition and decided to wait to see if someone would walk into the frame. I had imagined a single person or possibly a couple but a few seconds later these three people walked past and I captured this picture. I shot 6 more after this one but there was no point, I already had the shot I needed. Time plays tricks on you and I had it in my mind that this was the last picture of the sequence rather than the first.

See more pictures of Montserrat HERE

SHOT WITH FUJIFILM X100T & WCL-X100 CONVERSION LENS (28MM FULL FRAME EQUIVALENT)

That Friday Feeling

Although I like my street photography in black and white (mostly), the X100 has it's own look when it comes to colour. I can't really describe it...it just is! I'm back to shooting JPEG again, which I wouldn't dream of doing on my DSLR's. The JPEG's look great straight out of camera, they write faster and the exposure on the X100 is so easy to get right that I don't get any benefit from shooting in raw. I might even get round to trying the Velvia and Astia film simulations. I have a tone of Wedding & portrait work to get through, but I'm going to have some free time coming up for shooting more street. Anyway... back to work.

Take The Red Pill

I saw the Blues Brothers and looked around to see if there was someone on the street that would tie in with their dress code and make an interesting photo. Nope, nobody on the street, but I was delighted when I looked in the shop and saw this guy. I waited 5 or 6 minutes for him to come out and was rewarded with this.

Was he attracted to the shop because of the similarity in his and The Blues Brothers headwear, or was it just coincidence? By the look on his face, you would think that he hadn't even noticed Mr Aykroid and Belushi until this moment when he's leaving the shop. You get these things in street photography a lot. How much stuff do we miss in day to day life? When you really switch your brain on, like you do shooting street, you start to see all these connections around you that happen a lot more than you'd expect. Grab your camera and head out on to the street. Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes!

The Invisible Photographer: Shooting In The Rain

Invisability surely must be every street photographers dream super-power?? I found out the other day that you can come close to invisible by shooting in the rain. Not only that, but the heavier it rains, the more invisable you become.

I was in the city to pick-up some supplies and had the Fujifilm X100 with me (as always). I grabbed an umbrela from the boot of the car to sheild the X100, then headed off to grab a few shots. The rain was getting heavier as I stood on the street holding the umbrela in one hand and the camera in the other. I waited for the usual off look from passers by, but it never came. Even though I was shooting staight at people and not even trying to hide the camera, not a single glance.

Things returned to normal as the rain eased off and people would give me the "why are you pointing the camera at me" look. But when it started to rain heavy again...invisability resumed.

Bubbles & Balloons

The right place at the right time! Click HERE to see the full vertical shot with the rest of the balloons. It looked as strange on the street as it does on the photo. The girl blew the bubbles (out of frame) and the guy in the frame held the balloons (and let them go). I have no idea what they were doing. Do you prefer the cropped version or the full size???