Street Photography Now Project

[kutting]

I'm in it for the challenge.

I went out twice in the past week and I'm still not sure what Mr Gilden meant by "the smell of the street" I tried both literal of figurative interpretations and just posted the picture I liked the most.

It certainly made me think, and I think it prompted better results than my usual random snaps, so I'll give #2 a go next week.

 

[John Elder]

If you read carefully, any pics submited can be used by the Street Photography Now project free of charge, seemingly without limitation.. So , assume you are Bresson and enter your best 52 images, The project can, technically, make a book consisting soley of those photographs. The usage of the images is too loose for me to enter. I don't want to lose control of my best street shots to a competition.

 

[Brian Legge]

I'm not interested in joining a new group each week. Nor am I likely to follow through on keeping with it for 52 weeks. Those points alone were enough to kill my interest in it. 🙁

 

[jsrockit]

So , assume you are Bresson and enter your best 52 images, The project can, technically, make a book consisting soley of those photographs. The usage of the images is too loose for me to enter. I don't want to lose control of my best street shots to a competition.

OK, let's assume that there is a minute chance that you make your best images during the 52 weeks and submit a masterpiece each time (or even once)... that does not mean you will never be able to use your photos again... they are still yours. It just means that if they want to make a book after the whole year is over, they want to be free to do so. Your scenario is so over the top. A "Bresson" doesn't need to enter this.

 

[ederek]

In many way I agree...perhaps we could start a similiar project here?

We could always post here based on the current Topic of the Week, even allow older images not taken during the assignment period? A revolving topic w/nw thread..

Last week the challenge was 4-legged friends. I thought back to a trip to Taiwan maybe 9 years ago, and pulled this image from the archive, taken with a Canon P&S. It wasn't quite as remembered, and the blown sky bothers me more than ever, as well as the car behind the bull's head. This bull was retired and now the man's pet, who was taking him for a walk.

Regarding a pic from the current time period, snapped this pup sporting a pig costume last weekend at a local parade:

Great, I am in, great challenge to follow.
Pirate, read the Bruce Gilden statement on the home page, that is the instruction.
http://streetphotographynowproject.wordpress.com/

Yanidel - I enjoy your blog, some very nice images you've been sharing with great captions and commentary. Hope you don't mind me quoting a rather large chunk from your Lesson #2 learnings?? I think they're spot on!

Unless you are very lucky or go to the zoo, your chances to see an elephant in a corner of the street in Paris are pretty low. Therefore I decided to look out for dogs for the last couple of days and I did learn quite a few things :
- dogs are small in relationship to humans, so one needs to get close, actually very close in most cases. That is not easy as you can’t anticipate the animal’s reaction.
- you have to willing to go low, as low as the ground to get to the same level as your subject. Indeed, shots from above will result in pictures with no depth and therefore it will be very difficult to include the surroundings. Thus be ready to look silly as you crawl on the ground.
- talking about surroundings, this is a street photography excercise and there is often a very fine line between a portrait and a street shot. If the picture is only about the dog, lacking any interaction with its surroundings, then it most probably will fail as a street photography picture.
- I started with the 60mm focal, then went on with the 35mm, to finally use exclusively the 24mm today. I found long focal to result in many chopped head and little surroundings. I found the 24mm to be the most effective though it meant getting even closer to the dogs.
- full frame sensor is not an advantage here. Indeed when getting very close (less than 1 meter), I had troubles to get large depths of field, even with a 24mm lens. So many of my shots had the animal partly in focus while the surroundings were blurred. It is part of my style but it does mean that the surrounding will often have substantial blur.
- manual focus was a nightmare. Dogs are like kids, they change tempo, path and love to turn their head inexpectedly. I even had to whistle a few times to get their attention.

Here's the image to illustrate how true the learnings were for me:

Yanidel's Lessons applied to image above:
1) get close - Check
2) get low - Check (camera was on the ground)
3) surroundings - Fail (feet with cool laces don't cut it, composition sucks)
4) wider focal length helps - Fail (think this was a 75mm)
5) Depth of field and focus - Fail (focused quickly but didn't focus ahead of dog, so by the time I put the camera down and pressed shutter, it was back-focused)
6) Manual vs Autofocus - Fail (missed the shot, AF might have helped, but I could have had better anticipation with MF). At least the manual exposure was spot on!

The nice thing about these projects for me is the lessons learned, and insights gained. The reflection helps, and who knows, maybe I'd do better next time...

 

[Florian1234]

no way for me, shooting film, to be able to submit a photo every week. I put in one for the first though.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

yes the time limit is a bit nuts for people who shoot film, especially since apparently they do not accept shots that have been on flickr prior to the release of the current 'instruction'.

 

[Florian1234]

well, if I'd do it color all the way and maybe edit it to b&w, then it would work. But the acutal task 2 about animals is a hard one somehow. I took a shot, but wasn't able to get the roll souped, so I'm out for #2 it seems. Or is one out for the whole thing then? 😀

 

[jsrockit]

Or is one out for the whole thing then? 😀

No, you sign up for each one individually.

 

[yanidel]

Yanidel - I enjoy your blog, some very nice images you've been sharing with great captions and commentary. Hope you don't mind me quoting a rather large chunk from your Lesson #2 learnings?? I think they're spot on!



Here's the image to illustrate how true the learnings were for me:

Yanidel's Lessons applied to image above:
1) get close - Check
2) get low - Check (camera was on the ground)
3) surroundings - Fail (feet with cool laces don't cut it, composition sucks)
4) wider focal length helps - Fail (think this was a 75mm)
5) Depth of field and focus - Fail (focused quickly but didn't focus ahead of dog, so by the time I put the camera down and pressed shutter, it was back-focused)
6) Manual vs Autofocus - Fail (missed the shot, AF might have helped, but I could have had better anticipation with MF). At least the manual exposure was spot on!

The nice thing about these projects for me is the lessons learned, and insights gained. The reflection helps, and who knows, maybe I'd do better next time...

No problem and thanks for mentioning. Too bad you missed slightly on the focus because the expressionof the dog was great.

And you are fully right, this project is about lessons to be learned. IMO, people must not register in search of glory but to learn something and see others work. I spent 4 days chasing dogs, it was fun and I did learn a lot. Eventually I got tired of kneeling on the ground and look silly, so looking forward to the next instruction (tomorrow).

 

[jsrockit]

I spent 4 days chasing dogs, it was fun and I did learn a lot. Eventually I got tired of kneeling on the ground and look silly, so looking forward to the next instruction (tomorrow).

Hahaha, I know the feeling!

 

[kutting]

Between work and young kids I managed to snap a few on my way home on Monday, developed them after the kids went off to bed and scanned and uploaded them on Tuesday night. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Instruction #3 should be interesting, I'm not sure about hanging around in public toilets with a camera though. From the moderator postings it sounds like their tightening up on the submissions criteria.

 

[semilog]

The film thing really bugs me. Unless you have an inordinate amount of time every week, or shoot digital, there's simply no way to participate. Much prefer the monthly themed salon at www.Streetphoto.info, even though it's a comparatively tiny and eccentric group of shooters.

 

[John Elder]

I have just read the rules again, and Isee No requirement that the photograph has to be shot after the instruction for the week is made. You can use photographs shot years ago.

 

[umboody]

I think I am going to find it difficult to shoot a roll of film every week, seeing as I work 6 days a week and have little time to go out and do some street photography. But I'm determined to create a better body of street work, so I'll give it a shot.

I have just read the rules again, and Isee No requirement that the photograph has to be shot after the instruction for the week is made. You can use photographs shot years ago.

There was a lot of discussion when the first and second instructions had been issued regarding this. The moderator is no longer accepting photos into the group pool that have been taken before the brief was issued.

 

[semilog]

The moderator is no longer accepting photos into the group pool that have been taken before the brief was issued.

Given the relatively large proportion of street shooters — more than in many other genres — who are still using film, I can only see this as a mistake. It certainly killed any enthusiasm that I might have had for the project.

The book's great, though.