Join the club

vintagemxr

I've never posted a photo in Street &PJ, I tend to shoot more motorcycles and car stuff, but I've been enjoying the photos here and B.D.'s comments so I thought I'd be work up my courage and post one of my favorite photos for your C&C.

"Join the club" - street musicians, Pismo Beach, CA

My own thoughts: The disembodied people in the upper left bother me but I lack the editing skills to make them go away. The highlights are a little gone on the faces and someday I'll figure that one out too or learn to get my in camera work more spot on.

Doug

Richard

vintagemxr wrote:

My own thoughts: The disembodied people in the upper left bother me but I lack the editing skills to make them go away. The highlights are a little gone on the faces and someday I'll figure that one out too or learn to get my in camera work more spot on.

Doug

The highlights are a little blown, but I wouldn't worry about that too much. As for the disembodied people, I don't think you want them to go away. Rather, you want more of them to give some context to the shot. Keep shooting.

vintagemxr

slight re-work
Thanks for the feedback, Richard. I think I was reaching for more contrast and went too far. I went back and re-did the conversion a little and recovered some of the detail in the highlights on the faces although the baby's blanket is kind of far gone even in the original. I think this is a small improvement.

Doug

rainbow

It's a nice capture. I like how they are together, but also in their own world. Having the baby there elevates the picture a level.

Keep shooting and posting in this forum.

vintagemxr

rainbow wrote:

It's a nice capture. I like how they are together, but also in their own world. Having the baby there elevates the picture a level.

Keep shooting and posting in this forum.

Thanks for the comment and encouragement. I'm trying be more mindful about getting "people shots" and not just the cars, bikes, and old junk that I've always tended towards shooting.

Doug

Patti

I like the feeling of taking the family 'on the road' in this. I wonder if the baby's presence helps up the $$.
Keep at it.

bdcolen

vintagemxr wrote:

I've never posted a photo in Street &PJ, I tend to shoot more motorcycles and car stuff, but I've been enjoying the photos here and B.D.'s comments so I thought I'd be work up my courage and post one of my favorite photos for your C&C.

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My own thoughts: The disembodied people in the upper left bother me but I lack the editing skills to make them go away. The highlights are a little gone on the faces and someday I'll figure that one out too or learn to get my in camera work more spot on.

Doug

Great scene, Doug - it's not your everyday street musician shot - by a long shot... Welcome!

As to your problem on the people in the upper left - and the distracting trash can behind the stroller - Those are problems that should have been dealt with in the viewfinder. This could have been much improved if you'd moved to the left, and moved in on the baby and the parent. It's still an interesting shot, but it could have been improved on the scene, so to speak. I won't get into the exposure issues, which others have commented on. But to reiterate, welcome! I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

vintagemxr

Thank you for the comment and suggestions, B.D. I confess to being very timid about photographing strangers on the street so in this case I took some photos aimed down the walkway and then swung the camera right a little to get the image I really wanted. I need to work on my people skills for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is feeling more comfortable about photographing people.

I took a couple of other shots of the musicians from the opposite side but the composition was poor --faces turned away -- and the exposure worse. In the second post of the photo I did manage to make the disembodied arm go away but didn't tackle the trash can yet.

I used to shoot with a Nikon p&s (CoolPix 9xx series and 8800) and got nice photos but have noticed since switching to the DSLR that lifting the camera freezes people and draws too much attention to me. I may go back to the more discrete, small Nikon for some situations because it's so easy to shoot from waist level, which no one expects these days. Too, I'm always torn between the natural shot and going up and asking for the photo and getting something that is maybe better composed but also more rigid.

Doug