Political Protest - long post

Angelo

On Tuesday, January 31st, there were anti-Bush protests held in major cities all over the U.S. to coincide with the President's SOTU address.

The Los Angeles crowd, estimated at 4000, marched through the streets of Hollywood and culminated in a rally in front of the CNN building.

Out to stretch and exercise my PJ muscles I shot about 200 pictures. I wasn't happy with any of them. It was after sundown, varied light sources, shooting at 1250 ISO with flash. I've been fussing with images all week until I finally decided to try BW conversions and I think I may have salvaged a few decent shots. I'd like your opinion. Thanks.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. Pastor praying.

7. Rabbi praying

8.

10.

11.


Thanks for looking. I apologize for the long list of images.

Anson

Angelo
I am certainly not the one to offer photographic advice in this form,
though on a personal level, I deeply appreciate the sharing of these photos!
...as each and every one of them deliver a very powerfull and critical message!

Regards,

ChrisJ

Hi Angelo,

Definitely difficult conditions to shoot in. I like #1 and #4 the best. #1 could probably have a bit more "pop" to it. I love the look the lady in #4 is giving you. She looks really PO'ed!

I can feel the mood of the protest. Though I wish a couple of the faces were sharper (2 and 11). The ISO noise does distract a bit from the images to me, but some people like that. I think #8 might have more impact with a different perspective, and without the Jack-in-the-Box sign!

Good job, though! I've never really done photojournalism work....

JamesJWeg

Well, You did something right in a journalistic way, even though I think that the protestors are full of it, I keep coming back to look again.

James.

ginger_55

Angelo, I like those photos a lot. When they are not toned I like them. I think you did what you could and black and white suits them.

I have not heard a word about protesters here in the Carolinas, not a word!

Rutt has his planned parenthood clinics and you have protestors, I have the same as always..............oyster roasts (I cannot eat an oyster), but they are cool, there are other cool things, but no protesting. No photojournalism. Murders here and there, but they seem to be fairly private affairs.

I am jealous! And I cannot believe that I have not heard of protesting, if it is all over the country!!

We are a red state (I am tired, Red is Republican isn't it?). Very conservative state! Between many different groups who would be conservative, we have them all, I think.

Anyway, I like your PJ coverage!

ginger

Awais Yaqub

Nice shots hopefuly i will attend a protest next Friday and will share photos : always love to see and share Protests

gus

Great shots angelo

...we had one here a little while back but i didnt take a camera.

Prezwoodz

Seems like a pretty large waste of money on their part though. I mean theres no way Bush is stepping down no matter how much everyone wants him to. They also wouldn't impeach Bush since they could have overturned his decision to go to war anyway and they didn't do that. Bush is a puppet to all those he put into office to suppport him.


Nice pictures though.

USAIR

Awesome set some very good shots under rough conditions
Love #4..one of my favorites

Thanks
Fred

Angelo

Anson wrote:

I am certainly not the one to offer photographic advice in this form,
though on a personal level, I deeply appreciate the sharing of these photos!
...as each and every one of them deliver a very powerfull and critical message!

Regards,

Thank you Anson. If that's true I consider the effort successful. I appreciate the comment.

Angelo

ChrisJ wrote:

Hi Angelo,

Definitely difficult conditions to shoot in. I like #1 and #4 the best. #1 could probably have a bit more "pop" to it. I love the look the lady in #4 is giving you. She looks really PO'ed!

I can feel the mood of the protest. Though I wish a couple of the faces were sharper (2 and 11). The ISO noise does distract a bit from the images to me, but some people like that. I think #8 might have more impact with a different perspective, and without the Jack-in-the-Box sign!

Good job, though! I've never really done photojournalism work....

Thanks Chris, I appreciate your input. I really screwed up on many of my images (and these are the best of the bunch, imagine that).

I have several versions of #8; I'll take your input and try to work a better image.

Angelo

JamesJWeg wrote:

Well, You did something right in a journalistic way, even though I think that the protestors are full of it, I keep coming back to look again.

James.

...and from a journalistic point I'll simply say thank you for looking and commenting. I appreciate your feedback.

Angelo

ginger_55 wrote:

Angelo, I like those photos a lot. When they are not toned I like them. I think you did what you could and black and white suits them.

I have not heard a word about protesters here in the Carolinas, not a word!

Rutt has his planned parenthood clinics and you have protestors, I have the same as always..............oyster roasts (I cannot eat an oyster), but they are cool, there are other cool things, but no protesting. No photojournalism. Murders here and there, but they seem to be fairly private affairs.

I am jealous! And I cannot believe that I have not heard of protesting, if it is all over the country!!

We are a red state (I am tired, Red is Republican isn't it?). Very conservative state! Between many different groups who would be conservative, we have them all, I think.

Anyway, I like your PJ coverage!

ginger

G - thanks for taking time to look and for your positive feedback. There is a growing chorus of protest in this country... you may find some info that suits your curiousity here: http://www.worldcantwait.net/

Angelo

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Nice shots hopefuly i will attend a protest next Friday and will share photos : always love to see and share Protests

Thank you Awais. We await your protest coverage. :

Andy

Ang, good PJ work. I too, prefer the straight BW vs. the toning. The first shot is "Weegee-esque" and would be a prize winner if the near subject was looking at the camera! Hoo-boy I like that shot.

4labs

Been waiting for these Angelo, stop working so hard. You didn't disappoint and thnxs for sharing.

Angelo

Humungus wrote:

Great shots angelo

...we had one here a little while back but i didnt take a camera.

??????????????

You are hereby banished from dGrin :whip


Thanks for the support Hummy!

Anson

Angelo
your photos proved yet again, the validity of that old axiom.. just as the following Jan 2006 map showcases...
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/02/06/opinion/20060206_IRAQ_GRAPHIC.html

web site source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Angelo

Prezwoodz wrote:

Seems like a pretty large waste of money on their part though. I mean theres no way Bush is stepping down no matter how much everyone wants him to. They also wouldn't impeach Bush since they could have overturned his decision to go to war anyway and they didn't do that. Bush is a puppet to all those he put into office to suppport him.


Nice pictures though.

Thanks Prez -

I won't open up a political debate here, this isn't the place but I will say I hope we never lose our ability to raise our voices in dissent of policies with which we disagree.

Harryb

Excellent series Angelo. Very good decision to go black and white on them. Looks like difficult lighting. What lens did you use and did you catch any flack from your subjects?

What you gotta do sometime is shoot a rally from the other side and see how it is shooting something you don't agree with. It might be interesting to see the results when you have some detachment.

Angelo

USAIR wrote:

Awesome set some very good shots under rough conditions
Love #4..one of my favorites

Thanks
Fred

Thank you Fred :

Angelo

Andy wrote:

Ang, good PJ work. I too, prefer the straight BW vs. the toning. The first shot is "Weegee-esque" and would be a prize winner if the near subject was looking at the camera! Hoo-boy I like that shot.

Thanks much Andy. I too am glad I decided to go BW and based on all this great feedback it seems I "done did good"

I'm flattered you'd invoke Weegee but I'm certain I don't deserve it. I too wish that girl was looking at me when I snapped. I'll look to see if I have another shot I inadvertently passed over.

(PS _ the "toning" is accidental. Something I've done incorrectly in post)

Angelo

4labs wrote:

Been waiting for these Angelo, stop working so hard. You didn't disappoint and thnxs for sharing.

Thanks Labby. You've offered great support and encouragement; My cup runneth over.

I'll stress less in future, promise.

Angelo

Harryb wrote:

Excellent series Angelo. Very good decision to go black and white on them. Looks like difficult lighting. What lens did you use and did you catch any flack from your subjects?

What you gotta do sometime is shoot a rally from the other side and see how it is shooting something you don't agree with. It might be interesting to see the results when you have some detachment.

Thank you very much Harry. I used the trusty Nikon 18-70 and taking a cue from Andy's tutorials I had it cranked at 18mm and resisted the urge to go tight as I usually tend to do.

Not a single person complained and most were very open to the slew of photogs in the crowd.

As far as shooting something I don't agree with, well, you know I'm a VERY agreeable person!!!! Heck, look at the crowd of grinners I hang with here in SoCal.

bfjr

Protest .... Smotest

Last good protest was when women were burning there bras in protest :wow :lol

Now your pictures on the other hand depict this protest well. B&W an excellent choice

mercphoto

I agree with the person who said though the protestors are full of it, the images you captured are really pretty good and depicting the emotion of the event. Maybe a few more wide-angle shots to get a sense of the size of the protest as well. I get a sense the protest was rather orderly. I don't see people yelling, for example. If this was how the overall event was then I think you did a good job.

rutt

Hey, Angelo, I love these. I wish I could have found this much good stuff to shoot for my Operation Rescue at Planned Parenthood shoot! Andy is right about straight B&W, but I'd like to see color even more. Weegee only had B&W, but you can bet he would have shot in color if he could have!

Angelo

bfjr wrote:

Protest .... Smotest

Last good protest was when women were burning there bras in protest :wow :lol

Now your pictures on the other hand depict this protest well. B&W an excellent choice

burning bras? are you pulling my leg???

ehughes

Excellent PJ shots Angleo, love the B&W..

rutt

Harryb wrote:

What you gotta do sometime is shoot a rally from the other side and see how it is shooting something you don't agree with. It might be interesting to see the results when you have some detachment.

Harry, this is a very wise comment. I've been working on just this and, believe me, it makes it very hard. Personally, I can tell you that I'm not very close to being able to do it.

System

Angelo wrote:

burning bras? are you pulling my leg???

Angelo!

just in case you're not pulling our leg (legs?)-

http://www.loosemoose52.com/page.php?id=1669

nice job on the pics-

if the pj's on this site aren't careful one of them will end up getting a pic posted big time-

thanks for sharing-

interesting how this post and the last pj post are about death-

george