Just a quick snapshot from today’s stroll through the streets of Meran in Italy. For me, this photograph represents perfectly why I love Street Photography. It is all about capturing life as it happens. It is about walking around with open eyes, observing people going about their daily routines, anticipating what interesting scenes might just emerge in front of your lens. Capturing that candid shot that makes you laugh or makes you think…
Taken with the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Image specs are 1/80 sec @ F/2.8 and ISO 640, 40mm focal length.
Next weekend will be all Street Photography, as I’m heading to Berlin for a workshop with Street Photo legend Eric Kim, and I’m really exited about it.
I was waiting on the opposite side of W. Burnside Street in Portland for a pedestrian to pass in front of this advertisement of a Pizza Parlor. As Burnside is a street with heavy traffic, the problem was to catch a subject in perfect stride in front of the sign just as there was a gap in the passing cars. In the course of 10 minutes I snapped three photos, of which I liked this one the best, as the guy (who was in reality heading to Powell’s books that is just across the street) was in a perfect stride, his legs mimicking the triangle of the pizza slice. I was fine with the shutter speed of 1/80 sec which gave me a slight blur on the subject (you really need about 1/125 to freeze a moving person). I would be interested in your opinion whether you would have preferred the subject to be pin sharp. Let me know in the comment section.
Image specs are 1/80 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 500. Taken with the Olympus PEN-F and and the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4-5.6 travel zoom.
There are a few opposites also in this image from the streets of Nuremberg. Old vs young, big vs small, sitting vs standing, real vs virtual, smiling vs seriousness.
Then you have multiple layers in this photo as well. The man in the foreground, the dressing dummies in the middle and the wall posters of the smiling children above and behind as background.
How many opposites can you put in an image? I would love to see your results, post links in the comment section.
Shot taken with my Olympus PEN-F and the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4-5.6. Image specs 1/160 sec @ f/8 and ISO 1000. It was already late in the afternoon and a bit dark, hence I had to increase the ISO to get the necessary depth of field with ab f/8 aperture and the higher shutter speed to ensure sharpness of the man.
Just got back in from our marvelous Berlin weekend. My bag is already repacked for another quick trip to Portland. My alarm will go off at 3:30 am, then I’ll drive to Munich for a 7am flight to Amsterdam and then on to PDX.
The photo above was my personal favorite from the weekend, a shot I took in staircase of the Otto Bock Science Center in Berlin. Taken with the PEN F and the mZuiko 14-150mm F4-5.6 travel zoom. Image specs are 1/60 sec @ f/4.5 and ISO 320, focal length was 22mm.
Will sort through the rest of my Berlin photos on the plane tomorrow and post from the US.
This week’s Word Press’ Weekly Photo Challenge (WPC) has the theme “pedestrian“, which is obviously a home game for street photographers. For a variety of street images featuring pedestrians continue after the jump… Continue reading “Weekly Photo Challenge: Pedestrian”→
Another week, another photo challenge from Word Press’ “The Daily Post”. The theme this time is “Windows“. And after being late with the challenge last week, I’m early this time 😉 . I can’t really show what was in front of my window this morning, as I was sitting next to an airplane window. And when, after a seemingly endless night, I opened the blinds this morning while we approached Amsterdam there was…..nothing. After some splendid warm and sunny late summer days in the Pacific Northwest I’m back to the European rainy autumn weather. But in a few hours I will be back home, so the weather will be not something I will overly care about the next days.
So coming back to the “Windows”-Challenge, I need to revert to some monochrome photographs from my archives. To see my variety of “windowed” shots continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Challenge – Windows”→
This is a very alternative portrait of my big girl and me. We were riding the metro train in Hamburg on our way to see the “Lion King”. I took this shot with my iPhone. Have you ever thought about shooting portraits of loved ones or friends in a very different way?
Take your camera (or phone) and be creative! I’d love to see your photos – post a link in the comment section.
For all other episodes of my instant inspiration and many more photography tips visit my Learning Center
This weeks Weekly Photo Challenge from Word Press’ “The Daily Post” has the theme “Friend”. Here are a few of the street images that perfectly symbolize friendship for me.
Friendship is one of the greatest gifts of life and we all need to make sure we cherish it. Have you called an old friend lately? Pick up your phone and do it. One of the great treats of true friendship is that it is timeless. It doesn’t matter when you have last spoken. You start talking, cherishing to hear your friends voice, and it is as you have just spoken yesterday. Let’s all be inspired by this weeks photo challenge…..
This capture of an intimate moment between father and son is not a perfect photograph.
I took this photo late in the evening in a dimly lit street cafe. It was a difficult situation to focus in as there was just not enough light. Aiming and shooting quickly the auto focus did lock on the contrast rich edge of the toy tiger in front of the two main subjects of the photograph, resulting in their faces being thrown out of focus due to the long focal length and the wide open aperture of f/5.6 at the far end of my zoom range.
I took only this one shot, as a second later they changed their posture and that intimate moment was lost.
Missing the focus makes this technically a failed image. Is it a failed image? I think it is not. A photograph needs to have heart and soul, needs to carry a story. It’s contents over form. A technically flawless photo isn’t any good if it’s missing heart and soul. If you study the work of the masters of Street Photography like Henri Cartier-Bresson or Elliot Erwitt, you find many of their great photography are technically imperfect images. But they carry a strong story.
So my advice is press the shutter when you see something that touches your heart and your emotions and worry about the settings later. Having perfect settings or a perfect focus doesn’t help you when the moment is lost.
The photo was taken with my OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4.0-5.6 travel zoom, image specs are 1/13 sec @ f/5,6 and ISO 1600, 120mm focal length.
The magic of photographic archives is that whenever you like you can turn on the “wayback machine”. Today I was looking back into the very beginnings of my digital photography. Searching for a complete different photograph, I stumbled across this shot from December 30th 2001. The camera was a Sony Cybershot DSC 1. We just had moved to Italy that year. When friends from Nuremberg visited us in Genoa we visited the little coastal town of Camogli. The three little girls in this image are now grown women of almost 20 years. We adults have a few wrinkles more. And we all are still friends. Live is changing, but life is also good. Yes, we should capture all those moments in our hearts. But photography helps to preserve those hidden little treasures that put a smile on our faces when we look at them and remember……
During last weekend’s trip to the Oregon Coast I took some photographs that due to the high contrasts within the composition, I thought would look good converted to monochrome. When shooting with B&W already on my mind, I typically set my camera to a monochrome preset (most modern cameras have that feature). So when composing, I’m looking already at a monochrome image in my viewfinder or on my LCD screen. This helps me judging the impact of light and contrast before pressing the shutter. Maybe this is not the right approach for a purist, but I gladly take this as a great supportive feature of modern cameras and is as helped me discover the fun in B&W photography. For more monochrome coastal images and some more thoughts around it continue reading after the jump…. Continue reading “Some thoughts on monochrome shooting”→
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