Go out and shoot – something I need to keep telling myself these days. Which is totally ok, I guess, as photography doesn’t always have to take center stage in life. But then there is the sudden itch to grab a camera. In this case my vintage Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 25mm f/1.8 prime lens (50mm full frame equivalent with the m43 crop factor of 2). And heading out into the streets for a late afternoon stroll, capturing life that happens in front of my lens.
When I’m out shooting street photography, I’m rarely after something in particular. Most of the times, images come to me rather than me actively looking for them. Color, contrast, texture, gesture, lights and shadows. That’s what my eyes are unconsciously scanning for. And eventually the image just happens to be there, like these two scenes I took while riding the bus line 32 to Genoa’s Porto Antico. In these, as well as in the title photograph, it is the colors that make the image for me.
Walking into the harbor area with the late afternoon sun backlighting everything, it was more the contrast – shadows – light combination I was looking for, switching the PEN-F into its high contrast monochrome mode to see the scene already in monochrome on the back LCD screen of the camera.
The two monochrome photographs are good examples of me playing with the light, something I love to do. There are few more fun things in photography than shooting directly into the sun…
To come back with 5 photographs that I like is a good result for a short late afternoon impromptu stroll. Lately I’ve re-discovered the PEN-F with the little Olympus primes, because it is such a lightweight and unobtrusive camera/lens combo. I’ve moved all my Olympus gear to our Home (South) in Genoa. This way I don’t always have to carry gear back and forth when traveling between Nuremberg and Ligurian coast. Easier that way.
All post processing done in Lightroom Classic.
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Have a great Saturday
Marcus
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