Street photos with M9 in Paris

Congrats, Mikko, an impressive series!

As already mentioned above, some shots look like views as spectators do. But it's not so easy to train with a new RF AND train your self confidence in order to hit the 'borderline' of unknown persons. Go On!

Here my first trial in Paris, as a young and hungry guy 35 years ago with a new NikonF and a 28mm lens:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N00/sets/72157594175716964/

Cheers
Bernd
 
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Yes, many were shot from a distance and for a simple reason; I was continuously on the wrong side of the street, stuck behind a crowd or just too far away when I saw something interesting.

I can sympathize. I often run into the same problem here in the U.S., because outside of a few older big cities like New York, the population density is generally low & things are more spread out.

Thanks. And no that's not my main job, concert photography is just a by-product of my interest in live music.

You're welcome. I also shoot a lot of live music for fun & appreciate the challenges & rewards.
 
Great images - thank you for sharing!

I also enjoyed your comment about taking a picture on the RER to CDG. I was in Paris during the riots in November '05, and totally know the feeling of really wanting to take some shots but being deathly afraid I'd have my camera (or more) wrenched from me.
 
fine work. well done and provides a quick trip to paris.
my favorites in part I.: the guy who looks like s.l. jackson and the crowd exiting the theater.
my favorites in part II: guy on cell phone and umbrella in rain.
 
fine work. well done and provides a quick trip to paris.
my favorites in part I.: the guy who looks like s.l. jackson and the crowd exiting the theater.
my favorites in part II: guy on cell phone and umbrella in rain.

Thank you. Funny how everybody seems to have a different favorite :)

I've also got the 35/1.2 Nokton on an M9 and love it.
Bit big for a street shooter though, no?

Definitely too big for my taste, although still smaller than almost any of my Nikkors.
But it's still better @1.4 than the CV 35/1.4 I tested and I could only afford a 35 Summilux
if I sold most of my Nikon gear, so what can you do ..
 
Impressive work, particularly considering that you are coming from an auto-focus DSLR.
Your bw conversions are excellent: the high-ISO noise - e.g., in the metro shots - is very film grain-like, at least on my computer screen. I assume your captures were RAW: did you do a straight LR conversion, or did you use SilverEfex (or other)?
 
Impressive work, particularly considering that you are coming from an auto-focus DSLR.
Your bw conversions are excellent: the high-ISO noise - e.g., in the metro shots - is very film grain-like, at least on my computer screen. I assume your captures were RAW: did you do a straight LR conversion, or did you use SilverEfex (or other)?

Thanks :) .. BW conversions were mostly done by messing around with PS until it looked about right, then applying some USM local contrast enhancement before resizing and finally applying the Tri-X setting from Exposure2 (with reduced grain effect and contrast). I'm sure there is an easier way to get the same result (aside from actually shooting film) ...
 
Hi Mikko,
nice series. As a genuine parisian myself (from inside the peripherique ring road...outside it's the jungle, really) I'd say that the people you pictured eating "all the time" are tourists more than anything else... It is not very french or parisian to eat in the street (at least it's my education and my children's as well), nor is it very clean with all the cars'fumes!
I hope you enjoyed your time in Paris, because to my eyes Paris has turned in the last 15 years into a city where tourists are no longer so nicely treated, it looks to me that too many people live from tourism exploitation and that is crap. It's over exploitation I suppose. Or too many tourists packed up. You want to avoid the touristic places.
Nevertheless, with all his flaws and issues, Paris is still my preferred city in the world :)
And you will always be all welcome, guys !
 
I won't say which ones I like more, suffice to say it made me wish I had the opportunity to (a) go back to Paris and (b) have a Leica M-9 and assorted lenses to take loads of images there! An enjoyable collection of disparate images.
 
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