Street Photography

I have not done much street photography. I always felt a little self-conscious about shooting people without their permission. The big SLR makes people get a little weird too. So when I got a new my 70-200 mm lens, I was anxious to try it from a little distance. At the Palo Alto Famers Market, where my wife sells her ipies, I pulled it out. The early morning light was great. I got some shots I was very happy with.

Obviously, these were shot with the lens fairly wide open. In order at f4, f2.8 and f4.5. No extra light and no poses. I guess you would call it street photography. i feel like these shots captured the mood and moment of the morning.

Camera Descending a Staircase

I always liked Duchamp's painting "Nude Descending a Staircase". So when I was shooting photos of cameras and robots for Videre Design, I decided to pay homage with a little creation of my own. This stereo camera has its own set of legs, so i wanted to anthropomorphize it. I shot the camera at 8 different angles on a white background. The I deleted the background and layered the different angles on top of each other in photoshop. I blended them with different levels of opacity and even stretched and bended one with the free transform tool. It was a fun result.

I used a similar technique for a self portrait last year. I used 9 of 12 views shot. I did this one before I knew how to blend, merge and feather.

Death Valley In Color

I have done a whole series of these shots in black and white on my photo website, but wanted to get one in color. So I decided to put some of my new photoshop skills to the test.

This shot was taken in Death Valley about 1 hour before sunset. I used my Canon 5D Mk II with a 24-105 zoom at 105mm focal length. F/14 at 1/60 was the exposure. ISO 100. I was hoping for the side light and long shadow and got them. However, the sky on this shot was washed out and the mountains in the background were hazy.

In photoshop, I spotted the bushes and the footprints out of the dunes. Next I increased the overall contrast. Then I de-saturated the mountains to get rid of the blue haze and make them stand out more from the sky. I de-saturated the dunes removing color. I then sampled the dunes in the original background to get a more uniform color. And repainted them with it. Finally, I darkened the sky and added some magenta.

Smokie - People with Scars

Smokie was the subject of another of my “People with Scars” series portraits. I met Smokie walking down the street in San Francisco. He was sitting on the sidewalk panhandling while his prosthetic leg was prominently displayed. I walked past him the first time and then, doubled back to ask him to pose. I explained my project. He said he had lost his limb to an infection that was the result of intravenous drug injection. Later he told one of the people assisting me on the shoot he had lost it is a car accident. $20 and a blanket bought at Ross convinced him to pose. He showed up as agreed two days later at the studio. He was very cooperative and took off the limb. He waited patiently while I changed the lighting. He asked that I not use his real name on the internet.

I shot this using a Profoto 1200. Beauty dish from the right. Strobe from behind and left. Fill light from the left front.