REVIEW PHOTO: Street portrait

Excellent shot, Ton... looks like a pipe just fell out of his mouth. He definitely earned that face.

The shot below was taken at Haymarket during the summer and this girl/woman--hard for me to tell just how old she is--was standing by a stand that sold garlic, onions, and leeks (not pictured)... anyhow, she was just standing there and there she was and there was sun on her face and that's that.

no Joe, not simply a case of that's that. It's not only direct sunlight on her face but controlled contrast. I often have a hard time understanding why people push a technique to it's limit or beyond. Hard contrast, bordering on graphic with total loss of any kind of texture or tilted compositions for instance are more often than not misused and either done for the sake of it without any understanding of the right technique and destructive to the endresult or simply used to cover up flaws. Here it's used effectively while it's obvious that you knew what you were doing. That's a difference and a very important one at that. Composition wise it also works very well, placing her on one side. Her direct, slightly downwards look works very strong.

I was out at an outdoor festival, shooting with the Flickr "Dallas Area Meetup" bunch. I went near the crowd that had gathered for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders handing out freebies. For this picture I was scanning through the viewfinder using the monster 70-200 f2.8 zoom, and was struck by the very distinguished face and the "texture" there. It is only later that I realized the bonus I had gotten in the reflections in the glass.

Sorry about the signature....I need to create a better action.

I forgot to mention, both the portraits above are superb. It is truly a fleeting moment that you get to capture, and to get everything framed right, catch the expression and light takes a great combination of planning, execution and reams of luck. Well done.

Okay, Ton, you're right... I forgot to mention that bit of contrast in post-production. But it's the only way that picture would have worked and it was also done when I was putting together a series of images against a black background... sort of an inverted Avedon. Good eye, m' man...

Nice execution, Shash. I like the sepia... the reflection off the glasses... only criticism is that your name and copyright is too small... just kidding... in this case, the "autograph" takes away from the image because of it's size...

And you're right about the luck part of street photography. An element that is underestimated... right place, right time...

Joe, it wasn't a criticism, quite the contrary in fact. Like I said, you used it effectively and as far as I'm concerned with taste as well. As far as luck is concerned I like to believe that it's only there for the prepared.

Shash, Joe is right about the copyright of course and about your photo. Your description of how you made this is merely proof that a telelens isn't really suited for this kind of work. Nevertheless, you bagged yourself a good portrait. I'm not too fond of the sepia but since that is dependant on personal taste one can hardly fault you for that.

Speaking of luck, I got tremendously lucky on this one. I don't think this couple ever saw me, mostly because they were pretty much the only inhabitants of their particular world. I ran through a 36 shot roll in about 10-15 minutes tonight on my way back from picking up the CD that this shot was on (as it was done on Elite Chrome). About half my shots have been done with participation from those I capture and the other half seem to be anonymous, like this one. It's an interesting mix.
So far, I've exclusively used my N80, which seems extremely well suited to the task of street photography (being almost silent and also small). Soon I'll be using my D300, which obviously presents a higher profile.

With regard to this shot, I thought the placement of the "fire lane" to be rather fortuitous.

Ton, you are right yours is timeless - also the background doesa not give (more less) a hint to the time done.
How do you feel that coles?
> mirroring his life
Mhhh yes - a lot is there and we can not know - - -

So here I am with one shot of some years ago. I have been in a city event which very very crowded. Suddenly the event ended and at one time all wanted to leave - this was causing somehow a situation as shouting fire in the cinema.
I found a schelter in a dorway and saw that young wome full of fear - and click.
The image may not show that realy but for me it's always goosbubbling to see it.

Ton, you are right yours is timeless - also the background does not give (more less) a hint to the time done.
How do you feel that close?
> mirroring his life
Mhhh yes - a lot is there and we can not know - - -

So here I am with one shot of some years ago. I have been in a city event which very very crowded. Suddenly the event ended and at one time all wanted to leave - this was causing somehow a situation as shouting fire in the cinema.
I found a shelter in a doorway and saw that young women full of fear - and click.
The image may not show that really but for me it's always goose bubbles to see it.