Some street shots in Colombia
pgaviria
Registered Users Posts: 78 Big grins
I'm new to dgrin, and so is this forum, and I do some street photography. It's only fitting to post these pics I took just two weeks ago in Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Medellin, Colombia.
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Don
'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
My Blog | Q+ | Moderator, Lightroom Forums | My Amateur Smugmug Stuff | My Blurb book Rust and Whimsy. More Rust , FaceBook .
Thanks for sharing.
Yes, it wasn't a cop. It was one of those people that drive armored cars and he was getting off the car and I assume about to unload the truck. There was another one with a shotgun but I didn't get to take his pic because it was very crowded and they moved fast.
Hey Don! Thanks. What are carriage returns? I put some space in between but I don't think that's what you meant.
The woman on the subway (?) is a strong image; great face, sense of isolation, good use of the full frame; nice light;
The two street vendors are terrific - I really want to know what's going on between them. However, I would convert to black and white, and really goose the contrast. My eye is repeatedly drawn to that red tray, and I want to see the guys, not the tray;
The gunman? Wow! Nice catch! But...
The next one? Terrific expression. What is she afraid of? Who's following her? What's going on? This is really nice. I might crop to move her close to the right-hand edge of the frame, leaving all the space to the left...and bump the contrast!
The kiss? Nicely done. As is the final image.
A nice set indeed.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Much mo betta for viewing!
Don
'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
My Blog | Q+ | Moderator, Lightroom Forums | My Amateur Smugmug Stuff | My Blurb book Rust and Whimsy. More Rust , FaceBook .
I am taking notes on your suggestions and comments. I do have a lot more photos from this trip to Colombia in the same gallery, and I feel like they can only work as a group, otherwise a lot of them are like you said: just pictures I took on the street. When I took the photos I didn't have a clear idea of what my objective was, but after I was back from the trip it became more clear to me that my objective was for the most part to show my friends that have never been to Colombia what Colombia is like, or at least aspects of it that I feel an American could find interesting. I think also to narrow it down I would want to frame it to aspects of Colombia after the cartel wars in the 80's when I was still living there and before the free trade agreement with the US, which I think have been the two most influential cultural issues in Colombia in my lifetime.
I think you are right about the first two photos, and maybe even the third. I found them idiosyncratic at the time I took them and I think #2 is visually attractive but I am not sure how much they talk about Colombia, other than talking about how it reflects a more American culture of graffiti and car mods.
About the color to black and white part... that I am not sure how I feel about. I never make digital photos to black and white because I feel it's trying to imitate black and white film and if I want a photo to look like black and white film I shoot it in black and white film. HOWEVER, I do agree that the red tray is too strong of an element that shouldn't get that much attention, I will try desaturating the image without going black and white or maybe desaturating only the tray and see if it feels better. That one my be my favorite from that series and I would like to improve it.
You are welcome to look at the rest of the pictures in that series at www.pablogaviria.com, I am still taking down some and putting others up, so it's still a work in progress and very much needing feedback! Anyone who wants to help me, really, not just B.D.
I quite like the first three (as well as the rest). They do not fit into the BD's (traditional) definition of "street photography," but they certainly convey a sense of what it's like to be walking around in Colombia, and that's very much within the scope of this forum. I suspect BD and I are going to have more than a few disagreements about this as the forum develops. In #1, it is helpful if you know that "Muere" means die in Spanish, which makes the graffiti even more unsettling. I get a post-apocalyptic feeling from #2. Everything in the frame is defaced in one way or another...even the sky is obstructed by cables. Very strong image, IMO. Seems to me that rather than worry about whether a shot is really a "street" shot, we should be more concerned about whether it is a good shot.
As for the others, #5 made me smile. I can't decide whether it's two colleagues exchanging notes or two street vendors arguing over whose turf it is. #6 is also a strong image--you can tell that it's for real--but I agree with BD that a little more context would have improved the shot. The last shot is my favorite. Something about that half-buried tire is quite intriguing.
Nice series, Pablo. Looking forward to seeing more. And welcome to Dgrin
There is value with calling attention to it as it first draws the eye to the fact that there are two vendors "facing off". It is an interesting shot as you currently present it.