I mean, we've all been there.
On Wednesday I had a Feeling. Downstairs there were vines growing along cables and they didn't look so good but inside the Room she turned the lights on and I suddenly had a Feeling. All I could say to myself was: This is where my tuition is going.
I took out a Nikon D90 with an 18-105mm lens. I had her switch it out for an 18-200mm. I didn't want to change it myself. She wanted me to hold onto the lens because it went with the camera, but I didn't want to be hauling around five thousand dollars worth of glass.
200 millimeters. Aspherical. Ultraviolet filter. It's a beautiful thing.
My art teacher is quite partial to “street photography”, which essentially involves taking candid photographs of strangers in public places. I do not like the term “street photography” because I think it is inaccurate: many “street photographs” are taken in public places other than streets and sidewalks, and not all streets are indeed public property (those of Stanford are not, for instance). Also, “street photography” might suggest the literal photographing of streets, and I'm just the sort of man who might take that suggestion. In addition, the word “photography” is extremely poorly defined.
I prefer the term “involuntary portraiture”, which is fairly self-explanatory.
Today, February 20th, I walked through downtown San Jose with the D90 fitted with a telephoto lens (a lens whose focal point is outside the physical optics). I had a tripod, quite handy for shooting at anything past 75mm. or so. Additionally, it was cloudy, and that certainly makes tripods useful.
I shot about 250 photographs, mainly of people. Here are some selections; I am processing the rest. The original images are about 70 megabytes each, so this is something of a tedious process.
+++
Okay, Bobby, let's get it over with. Believe it or not, I shot this at just 42mm. and was on a tripod. I chose to photograph this woman because of her hairnet. Also, it was overcast in San Jose, and since I was shooting at a low filmspeed (1/30 sec), I was having trouble with people moving during my exposures. Because she was leaning up against a large object, I figured she would be stabilized and less likely to blur the exposure. She had her back turned to me and I set up my tripod, camera, etc. I then wanted her to face me, so I made a clicking sound with my tongue in the hopes that she would hear and turn but the bro would not. It worked. She stared at me stunned for about a second and I got the shot.
P.S. I'm getting really good at rapid setup and breakdown of my tripod.
P.S.S. People, like dogs, will turn to face you when you make a clicking sound.
P.S.S.S. Actually, it works better with people than dogs. Much better with people than cats.
P.S.S.S.S. I could outrun that bro even while carrying a tripod.
+++This young woman was crossing the street when some unknown person walked up to her and literally poked her in the face (I have a shot of the poke, but it is blurry). The young woman was not at all bothered by this.
+++This bro could be a model. He's becoming famous the instant I hit "publish post".
+++This bro was blazing a cig and did not want his photograph taken.
+++I noticed a group of four persons speaking French outside the San Jose Convention Center. I started talking with them and learned that they were from Quebec. One of them (the young man on the right in the image below) was extremely keen on my taking photographs of them. Strangely, he did not seem at all interested in receiving copies. I ended up taking the bussiness card of one of the others, and have since sent copies to him.
+++This is a second shot of the Quebec group.
+++This is a third shot of the Quebec group.
+++
See you in the streets with my two hundred millimeter.
Peas out.
6 comments:
The man blazing with a 'front butt' makes me mad.
The way you got the woman's attention makes me very happy. You are more of a man than I for throwing social convention to the wind and testing people.
Oh, and for some reason the woman on the bro's back picture kinda reminds me of the national-geographic-afghan-girl-with-the-crazy-eyes picture. Also, her bag is ugly.
I like these photos. You are good at this picture thing.
I've been trying to figure out what you chopped out of the Quebec peeps pics. Jewelery? wat
It takes practice. I think it's like running or anything else. I can very distinctly remember the first time I shot someone's photograph without their permission...I was at a fleamarket and was determined to do some involuntary portraiture, but every time I started to approach someone I chickened out. I made excuses to myself: "Yes, I'll photograph him...no, wait, the light isn't right...Yes, I'll photograph her...no, wait, she's not that interesting after all..."
Then I saw an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair wearing trendy bright orange plastic-framed sunglasses. She was possibly sleeping (couldn't see her eyes behind the glasses) and no one was particularly near her. I thought to myself "it's on" and shot her photo.
After that it got alot easier.
P.S. it's easier to test people (or safer, at least) in front of the SJ convention center because there are police everywhere.
P.S.S. I am not the most daring person in my class by far...there is a girl who goes to playgrounds and photographs people's kids. Less sketch because she's a girl, but still pretty sketch. She has gotten hassled much worse than I have. And she's pretty sketch-looking.
P.S.S.S. One of the guys in the class has a really high-quality camera/girlfriend. He photographs her quite a bit. On presentation days everyone on the class sits back while he shows the photos on a sixteen-foot-wide projector screen. It's a little much to tell you the truth. Stanford is a small enough community that I'm sure people from the class have seen her walking around randomly. I'm surprised she agreed to it but w/e. Art justifies everything, right Erik?
*The Quebec peeps had nametags and lapels with their company name which were legible at full resolution (i.e. I know their first and last names). Probably JPEG compression would have taken care of that, but I wanted to make sure. The girl had a wristband for re-entry to the SJ convention center which had her name on it, also visible.
I sent copies to one of the peeps from my Stanford account, so he knows my name...if he should Google my name, open Erik's blog, and see pictures of himself and his co-workers on the front page, he might not be too pleased.
Yes, I know I'm paranoid.
damn
these seem really creepy
Sorry I like to party.
3:41 AM. Time for a little grocery shopping at Safeway. In general it is legal to photograph people on private property if the area is generally open to the public (ex. a grocery store), unless specifically prohibited by the property owner.
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