Street | Urban | Travel | Photography by Marcus Puschmann
“You’ve got a friend” is a great song by Carol King. If you don’t know it, look it up on Youtube. Big Girl got a new friend while hiking on Lake Gosau in the Austrian Alps this afternoon. The butterfly initially was attracted by Grandma’s shoes, then hopped over onto the legs of The Significant Other. Then he transferred himself onto the fingers of Big Girl. He sat on her hands for a good 15 minutes. The amazing close-up shot you can find after the jump…. Continue reading “You’ve got a Friend”
“Another Portrait” is the last task to accomplish in Cassia Denner’s 10 Day Photography Challenge. It was a fun challenge, and made me shoot a lot outside my usual street photography arena. So this somewhat different portrait of my two kids is a nice ending to the 10 day photographic fun. Image taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-40 F/2.8 Pro Zoom, Image specs 1/25 sec @ f/2,8 and ISO 1600, focal length was 40mm.
Thanks, Cassia, for organizing the challenge, other participants are Susan, Gracie, Ariana, Jenna, Arabella.
If you look for tips and inspirations around photography, be sure to also visit my free Learning Center.
Wish you all a great weekend!
Marcus
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Can you find the photographer in this Portland street portrait? I was awfully close with my 25mm F/1.8 prime attached to my Olympus PEN-F. The image is not cropped. I took this photo with 1/80 sec and a wide aperture of F/2 to throw everything behind the face out of focus. ISO was 200.
Another super friendly person I met on the streets of Portland last weekend. I just asked him for his portrait. He said “sure – why not?” While I snapped a few shots we had a nice chat. Not all that difficult! Go out and try it!
Have a super Sunday!
Marcus
Related Posts:
Street Photography Quick Tip 7 – Work the Scene
Street Photography Quick Tip 8 – Capturing Gesture
Street Photography Quick Tip 13 – Shoot in a Coffee Shop
Instant Inspiration (8) -Make a portrait of a stranger
For all my free tips and inspirations around photography visit my Learning Center
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
Have a great and peaceful Sunday!
Marcus
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Instant Inspiration (16) – Dusk at the Ocean
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.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section.
Have a great Wednesday!
Marcus
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Instant Inspiration (8) -Make a portrait of a stranger
Finding your photographic style
Have you checked out my learning center for all my photography related tips and inspirations?
Today I want to share this portrait out of my archives, again from the Streets of Chennai, India. The lady just had treated herself to a coconut to quench her thirst on this very hot and humid afternoon. Beats a Coke, doesn’t it?
Image taken with a Canon Powershot G11, specs are 1/160 sec @ f/4,5 and ISO 200. As usual when on the streets I shot in P-Mode.
Tomorrow at 4:15 am my taxi will pick me up for the 30 minute trip to the airport. Then it’s off to Portland via Amsterdam. Looks like I trade the Nuremberg snow for the Portland rain. Right now I’d take Chennai over both 😉
Have a good week!
Marcus
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Today is a happy day! My big boy is turning 17. But it is also a very hard day. For me. Because it is the first time I can not be with him to celebrate. Because I’m half a world away. It is the first time ever in my life that I’m not home for a family birthday. To be where the job that pays the bills requires me to be was the only rational decision. We face-timed while back at home he blew out the candles on his birthday cake and unwrapped his presents before going to school. While video phoning home I was already in bed ready to go to sleep after a long workday in Portland. Where I was it wasn’t even his birthday yet due to the 9h time difference. I was there but I was not there. Virtual hugs and kisses are not the same. Happy Birthday, Daniel! Love you, kiddo!
There is no other way to start the photographic new year than with a new edition of my “Instant Inspirations”, something for you to try to overcome photographers block or if you simply want to give your photography a new angle. This eight episode might be tough on some of my readers, as it is about shooting Street Portraits. For a bit of how-to, more examples and links to previous episodes 1 through 7 continue reading after the jump…..
Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (8) -Make a portrait of a stranger”
In a follow-up to my first post about “Studio Anywhere” I’m once again venturing far away from my usual posts around Street- and Travel Photography to try my luck at some portrait photography, this time using my daughter Sarah as my model. To see more of our “shooting” and learn how this studio-like portrait was taken on a 1m stretch of white wall inside our rented apartment’s bedroom continue reading after the jump.
It has been a while since I last posted from the Streets of Nuremberg, but lets just say I had my summer break 😉 Was back in town yesterday doing some shopping with my wife and brought along the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 25mm F/1.8 (my m4/3 equivalent of a nifty fifty, considering the m4/3 crop factor of 2).
Passing through the old town we discovered that this weekend was an Italian Market on the bridges over the Pegnitz River. The food vendors offered plenty of Italian goodies to try and we even bought some delicious Italian truffeled salami to take home.
And right across from the food stalls I saw this guy leaning on the bridge railing, all relaxed and having a smoke. And I decided just then and there it would be a good time to put my new resolution (shooting deliberate street portraits with short primes instead of shooting unobtrusive candids with more distance to the subject) to a first test, so I walked up to the guy and just asked him if I could take his portrait because I like his style. And sure enough he smiled and agreed. Talking a bit to him learned he’s Italian himself.
Visually, his bright red cloves contrast perfectly with his black coat, so I left the photo in color, just increased clarity in Lightroom to give the portrait more punch and worked a bit on the graduation curves. I also added a slight vignette. The image was taken at 1/160 sec f/3.2 and ISO 200.
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Purist Street Photographers want go get composition right when they shoot and reject cropping in post production…but why not? Continue reading after the jump….
Holidays means also having finally time for a lot of (photography) related reading of books, blogs and websites to get fresh doses of inspiration. And also having time to try out a few things off your usual beaten paths.
In this case I decided to do some portrait photography with my (more or less willing) family. First victim up was my son Daniel. To see more and learn how this studio-like portrait was taken without help of any flash on a 1m stretch of white wall inside our rented apartment’s bedroom continue reading after the jump.