Commercial Street in Provincetown

bdcolen · December 22, 2009

I asked Nancy Fulton, a gifted water colorist whom I meet through Facebook, if I could share this image she posted on her Facebook page, and luckily for us, she said I could. Shot with an iPhone during the recent blizzard on Cape Code, this is definitely a street photo, complete with a 1940s look.:

Nikonic1 · December 22, 2009

Reminds me of home. Old homes, snow, overhead powerlines.....excellent.

rutt · December 22, 2009

This is a beautiful cell phone shot, beautiful even if it where a large format shot. I wish I could order that artist's eye attachment from Amazon! Just add to any camera, and you get results like this: it doesn't matter what it was shot with!

thoth · December 24, 2009

rutt wrote:

This is a beautiful cell phone shot, beautiful even if it where a large format shot. I wish I could order that artist's eye attachment from Amazon! Just add to any camera, and you get results like this: it doesn't matter what it was shot with!

Hmmmmm, I don't think I get this one. I want to trust you guys on it so I've been coming back periodically. I do see a nice image -- in the center. But I do feel a little lost in the 'wideness' of the shot. To me it should be cropped to about 50% leaving the boys and the long street.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Chaoslillith · December 24, 2009

Soon DLSRs will be upstaged by Iphones...really awesome shot!!

The wideness of the shot is what makes it a good shot, it shows the expanse of the snow, of the place and gives you the feeling of walking through all the cold and all the old bldgs.

If it were cropped to just the people and the street it would lose a lot of character. The bldgs add a lot to the shot. The people are not the centerpiece of the shot.

Richard · December 24, 2009

This is indeed a lovely capture, but I couldn't help thinking that it would be even better if at least some of the frame had the sharpness of a good dSLR. Call me old-fashioned.

rutt · December 24, 2009

Yeah, this could be better, no question. I could work my post magic on it and it would be better. A better camera would make it better.

But without the artist's eye, it would be nothing, no matter what camera had been used or post technique applied. Give me the artist's eye and I'll make pictures that people look at. No equipment or post technique can do that.

bdcolen · December 24, 2009

thoth wrote:

Hmmmmm, I don't think I get this one. I want to trust you guys on it so I've been coming back periodically. I do see a nice image -- in the center. But I do feel a little lost in the 'wideness' of the shot. To me it should be cropped to about 50% leaving the boys and the long street.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Sorry, Travis, but you are indeed missing something - the details. There are details to observer from edge to edge. Sure, she could have just given us a narrow view down the street, but...I am drawn into this and am not just drawn into the street, but into an earlier age, when town and city streets were strung with telephone wires, and when snows like this turned plain vanilla to tutti frutti ... or something like that. Frankly, I see this as a painting - and wouldn't want to touch a thing. Sure, if it had been shot with a good DSLR it would be sharper, and the color balance would improve. But...I'll take it as we got it. And as Rutt notes, it's all about the photographer's eye (I'll bet if we posted this over on People someone would jump in and tell us that it should have been shot from the front, so that we could see the boys faces, and the photographer should have used fill flash to put a catch light in their eyes..

)

ivar · December 24, 2009

bdcolen wrote:

Sorry, Travis, but you are indeed missing something - the details. There are details to observer from edge to edge. Sure, she could have just given us a narrow view down the street, but...I am drawn into this and am not just drawn into the street, but into an earlier age, when town and city streets were strung with telephone wires, and when snows like this turned plain vanilla to tutti frutti ... or something like that.

I'm not really seeing this one either, I have to say. Sure, it's a nice street-shot but it doesn't have that bit extra for me

Maybe because where I'm from (telephone) wires are underground?

saurora · December 24, 2009

ivar wrote:

I'm not really seeing this one either, I have to say. Sure, it's a nice street-shot but it doesn't have that bit extra for me Maybe because where I'm from (telephone) wires are underground?

I think you nailed it Ivar!

If you never lived during the 40's (I'm sure you didn't) and you've never lived with telephone wires draped across the streets, then you can't take the journey back in time that this shot brings to some. It does have a very timelessness about it, because there are no modern cars or signs of anything to bring it into the 21st century. It definitely could have been taken in the 40's. Even the outdoor Christmas lights on the balcony are the old-fashioned large size, not the little mini LEDS we see now. A nice nostalgic scene.....for some of us.

Merry Christmas everyone.

pgaviria · December 24, 2009

I like how the snow covers the ground, hiding a distinction between street and sidewalk.

Commercial Street in Provincetown

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