The other week in our Southern Home in Genoa, I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed something different in the room. The full moon was shining through the bedroom window. I was immediately intrigued by the scene, the light kind of magic, the textured curtains casting soft silvery shadows onto the bed. It felt simple but special. I had to get up and grab my iPhone 14 Pro to capture that moment. Sometimes, the best scenes are the ones you almost miss.
Taken with my iPhone 14 Pro with the built in dark monochrome filter. No post-processing.
The Lion never sleeps. Neither does his marble companion on the other side of the grand stairs leading up to Genoa’s San Lorenzo Cathedral. The silent sentinel just lies there, watching the threshold and people come and go. Somehow it also feels welcoming, inviting passersby to lean against it or climb up and sit for a moment. My kids did exact that when they were little, turning the ancient guardian into a temporary playground companion. The pedestal beneath the beast is hardly empty. There seems to be always someone sitting there, resting, watching other people or, like in this case, checking whatever on the cell phone.
I took the image with my Nikon Zf and the Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR. Specs are 1/160 sec @ f/6 , ISO 400 and 60mm focal length. Monochrome jpg out of camera.
Visiting my archives looking for a particular image from my time in the PNW, I stumbled upon this street photo I took during a weekend stroll through the Pearl District of the Rose City. Titled “Call me”, it is one of my favorite street shots from that year. Originally in color and portrait orientation, I decided to convert it to B&W, crop in and turning it to a landscape aspect ratio.
Doesn’t it look like a scene straight out of Francis Ford Coppola movie? Two sharply dressed men meet in on a quiet city street. The younger man, holding a vape and signaling a phone call, looking nervous. The older man, calm and steady with a cane, listening closely, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. Whatever they discussed, it was serious—like something best kept off the record. The photograph certainly has a kind of cinematic look. To this day I wonder what those gentlemen were discussing. The gesture is clear, isn’t it? One of those fascinating stories of the streets that wait to be captured by the passing street photographer.
Taken with my Olympus E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 pro zoom. Image specs 1/200 sec @ f/4, ISO 250 and 172mm focal length in full frame equivalent. Post-processing in Lightroom Classic.
This one is from the archives. What is more refreshing than seeing kids having fun? All the more when they seem to enjoy themselves with something as traditional as soap bubbles (aka rainbow bubbles or Seifenblasen in German)? Look in their faces and you see bubbly happiness!
Soap bubbles have been used for entertainment purposes for at least 400 years. There are Flemish paintings from the 17th century that show kids blowing soap bubbles with clay pipes. According Wikipedia, more than 200 million bottles of bubble solution are still being sold annually. I think this is an amazing factoid when these days I see children entertain themselves with their smartphones.
The thing is, they could even play with soap bubbles on their smartphones. Don’t believe me? Check the app store, there are various apps about the bubbles. How crazy is that? I much prefer the analogue ones, no doubt.
To see these kids having a blast with something my kids loved when their were younger and that I had fun with as child really made me feel good. Although I don’t recall bubbles of this King Kong size back in the days. It seems there are also innovations in the field of things like soap bubbles.
I stood there watching this guy blowing his magnum bubbles for a good 20 minutes. Plenty of children came, had fun, their parents in the background smiling, then giving some coins to the guy. I don’t think though this is a sustainable business model. But he looked happy when he got some donations, and he made the children lough. Life can be good, also in the simple things.
If you still want to go out shooting today and are looking or tips and inspirations, check out my free Learning Center.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women, merely players”, said William Shakespeare once. It’s also the motto of this blog. This monochrome street photograph is yet another example of it.
Roaming the Streets of Nuremberg with camera in hand, there is always a new background to discover, like this mural, a perfect backdrop for passing people. My stage on this Saturday morning. I did set up the camera and then merely waited. For people entering the scene.
I took quite a few shots. I rarely nail it with the first one. My favorite was this one, of the man passing with his white shopping bag. The juxtaposition of the funny face of the cartoon figure painted on the wall, looking up at the (smiling) bird, and the passing man with his bowed head, looking down. If he’d looked right instead of down, maybe the mural would have cheered him up a bit. All the world’s a stage….and we street shooters capture the stories.
Taken with my “leftover” Leica, the vintage, 13 years old Leica M Type 240 that I keep for sentimental reasons, after having divested the SL2-S that failed me so badly. The lens was a Summicron 35mm F/2. I’ve used zone focusing here, pre-focusing the lens at f/8 so that everything between 2 and 10 meters away was in focus. Increased the ISO so I got a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 sec to freeze the action.
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around street photography, check out my free Learning Center.
These days I’m revisiting some older posts to clean up some SEO errors I did in my earlier blogging years. Originally titled “Apocalyptic Fountain”, it very well describes my approach to Street Photography when I work the scene. When I see an interesting setting, just like a stage set. Then I wait for things to happen. Click below to see more street shots from that apocalyptic afternoon in Munich….
While thoroughly enjoying our days in Greece (and being busy filling my SD cards) here is some more from the streets of Bologna. This series is all monochrome (RAW conversion in Lightroom Classic). I loved the harsh contrasts the bright afternoon summer light threw onto the streets in the old town.
Chances are that you are sick and tired of hearing about polling these days. But I have another one for you – a preset poll. I’ve been playing around with Lightroom putting together some new presets.
I have no idea if the guy staring into his cellphone was checking the weather. But a weather check for the Streets of Nuremberg would have shown a cold front passing through today, with heavy rains and a significant drop in temperature. Was definitely time for a warm jacket for everyone out and about.
I was playing around with my Elmarit F/2.8 90mm on the Leica M. Image specs 1/125 sec @ f/4 and ISO 3200. The high ISO is not a problem for the M, and the monochrome images directly out of camera are quite beautiful. The backdrop shows the historic Heilig-Geist-Spital with the River Pegnitz passing underneath.
Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg. A strange first day of May it was. Covid-19 lockdown, stormy weather, empty streets – far away from the usual cheerfulness at the start into what we Germans call the “Wonnemonat”. Dearly in need to see something else than our home and the supermarket, The Significant Other and I headed downtown to the Wöhrder See, where the Pegnitz River is dammed to a lake just before entering the city walls.
Public life has come to a total standstill on the Streets of Nuremberg. Bavarian state authorities have issued a 24/7 curfew for the next two weeks. We can leave our homes only to go to work (if we have a pass from our employer), to seek medical assistance or to buy groceries. Single persons (or people living in one household) can also go for a walk outside. Only grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and places selling take-out food are open. When things got bad in China and the government locked up 15 million people in Wuhan, we all said that would be impossible to do in our western democracies. Four weeks later we know better. Crazy world. Amazingly, the majority of the affected population is fully supportive of the measure. Including me.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women, merely players”, said William Shakespeare once. It’s also the motto of this blog. This monochrome street photograph is yet another example of it.
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