Cell phones

rutt

I love taking candids of people talking on their cell phones. It's like shooting fish in a barrel! They are so distracted that they only rarely catch you doing it. They often are just in a different world altogether.

I'll bet I'm not the only one with lots of cell phone shots. Join in and share yours!

All of these were shot 24 October 2004 at The Head of the Charles Regatta.

pathfinder

rutt wrote:

I love taking candids of people talking on their cell phones. It's like shooting fish in a barrel! They are so distracted that they only rarely catch you doing it. They often are just in a different world altogether.

I'll bet I'm not the only one with lots of cell phone shots. Join in and share yours!

All of these were shot 24 October 2004 at The Head of the Charles Regatta.

Fish in a barrel indeed.

Or like Greg Brown says in his song "Half the people you see these days are talking on a cell phone, Drivin' off the road and bumping into doors!"

ian408

Apparently, the guy on the left in the last shot didn't save on car
insurance

I am amazed by how people are drawn into their calls. So much so that
they're oblivious to anything else.

Interesting topic and great shots.

Ian

ginger_55

I love to take photos of people on cell phones, but they always know I am doing it, usually anyway, and they stare at me. So this is an example of how different we are as people, as people photographers, lol, (don't know if our photography says more about us or more about our subjects). You are so close to your subjects. This took me about an hour to find, I knew it was on smugmug somewhere, knew it was the night of the blue moon, hah, that didn't mean I could find it. I have others, but this is my favorite (I know you can't see the phone, maybe it is just because I know it is there), so I put it on smugmug along with the other photos I liked from that night.

These guys, they were guys, plural, they had been doing some water sport, windsailing or something, they were putting their gear up, getting ready to leave. I just like the idea, think it is funny people on the beach are using cell phones, though why that would be I don't know. I mean I don't know why it would be any different on the beach than anywhere else.

But what is so different about us as photographers is how close we dare get to the people. I don't have a single cell phone photo where I am as close to the people as you are in yours. I think that is interesting and funny. I don't know if that is a natural reticence (sp?) or if it is because I like to place people in their environment. I mean this photo would not mean as much to me if I didn't know he was at the beach, etc. I used to be a lot tighter in my shots. It took time for me to force myself to compose an environment with the people I photographed. I do remember Andy saying that I should have been closer to the guy on the phone. I thought that was funny, too. Spent years learning to show the whole picture (we do have different lenses, I didn't have to be close in order to be tight), now I am supposed to learn to do it the way I first did it, or something............??? I like this photo a lot, every element.

I really enjoyed your photo (s), I love the cell phone era, and I love to show it myself, so it is interesting that there is someone else who also is obsessed with these strange people stuck to their phones (I am one of them, and I can't hear so it is a speaker phone, now that is disruptive)

I like the guy in the chair in this beach photo, also. Poor guy, he was very solitary, obviously just wanted to sit in silence at the beach and Bill and I show up with our three dogs, my loud voice, etc. I was on some kind of natural high at being where I was, and I didn't shut up for a couple of hours. I was quiet when the moon finally showed up about 10 PM. There were clouds the moon had to get over. By then it was a quieter us with our dogs, and the man had moved a bit, just us on the beach for the Blue Moon, was a beautiful evening, don't know where everyone else was. Probably off doing something, having made plans with their cells.

g

Andy

good topic, rutt and, very nice shots indeed.

here are a few of mine:

this guy at least has a phone in his hand




who is this guy? (most excellent shot by my good friend harry behret)

ginger_55

Where is Harry, I used to enjoy his posts? I have been meaning to ask.

ginger

damonff

Love the first one...

LBG

Blackberry...
My wife wont get off her damn black berry. These are two of hundreds (a small exageration) I have of her on that thing.

cmr164

3 (or more) cellphones in a row...

Harryb

been busy

ginger_55 wrote:

Where is Harry, I used to enjoy his posts? I have been meaning to ask.

ginger

Hi Ginger,

Thanks for thinking of me. I've been rather busy these last couple of months. I've been working on my new home and dealing with a few hurricanes. Then the current election has reawakened the political animal in me and I've been very busy working full time for a certain candidate.

Once the election is over I have two photo jobs waiting for me. Once I get those done I'm taking part in a wildlife and photography conference in my area and at the end of November I'm taking a photoworkshop with Ron Reznick.

I should be back on the internet as a more active participant in December. Never though retirement could be this busy.

Harry

ginger_55

Harryb wrote:

Hi Ginger,

Thanks for thinking of me. I've been rather busy these last couple of months. I've been working on my new home and dealing with a few hurricanes. Then the current election has reawakened the political animal in me and I've been very busy working full time for a certain candidate.

Once the election is over I have two photo jobs waiting for me. Once I get those done I'm taking part in a wildlife and photography conference in my area and at the end of November I'm taking a photoworkshop with Ron Reznick.

I should be back on the internet as a more active participant in December. Never though retirement could be this busy.

Harry

YOu are in Florida, hehe. Happy election day. I just run over here to a gym type room, find "my" table, hope to stand in a short line. I mean if the gym place is empty that is a bad sign.

Then I vote. Everyone else in the state, town, whatever, they all cancel my vote and stomp on it. I live in SC, one could figure that one out. We don't even need to vote...............except for some local issues. And if they are passed they will just be held up in court, then overturned.

Then I watch TV. Peter Jennings was kind of funny last time: a news man, famous anchor, tired and speechless, literally. CNN is my home port now, but I like to see these other guys. A new era is coming.........won't have this type of thing, 6:30 news guys, soon.

I don't even get any work other than the free baptisms I do, I am busier than my working husband.

Think about it, if we don't work, our work never ends. :roll That is true, and I just coined it myself, expect royalties if "used" often.

And the other thing is, you and I like our toys, time saving devices , now if you have the money to buy too many........... well, something has to go.

I hope to hear from you in December. Sounds like a full schedule, am extremely envious of any workshop type things you are doing. I still remember the two I went to in the seventies. Great thing going to "camp" is.

Toys and new things to do, sometimes with their toys. Ideas are exchanged.

Enjoy, glad you are still living. Really! I didn't think that I was that old, 65 next month, but I my friends must have lived destructive lives.

And there is one I am looking for now. No way to find him, just his e-mail address, and we were very close. When the e-mail started bouncing back to me, well, I wish I had a different contact. He goes from the Carolinas to Yellowstone, Aspen, places like that this time of year.

Well, you are OK, still kicking up your heels, too busy to stop. Smile.

Thanks for the OK sign,
later,
December is a date,
ginger

danman

Oxford, UK today
Canon 20d, 70-200 f2.8