Downtown

Here's my Downtownn image. This is one of those luncheonettes, authentic in its mid 20th century sensibility, it has a small counter, a few booths and tables. I think the ice cream might be homemade.



This boy, and presumably his dad, have an authentic look of... perhaps that is where the conversation might begin?

Enjoy,
Eric
www.pixelleadership.com

A few from Chicago (home of the NFC champion Bears), Saturday, January 20, 2007. A quite cold (20's F), and windy day.

The Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower across the Michigan Ave. Bridge.


Afternoon shopping at Crate & Barrel on Michigan Avenue:


Bubblehead mother and daughter stopping for a swing:

Hi Ken,

Thanks for playing with me! It was cold here in NY on Saturday and Sunday when I went looking for my photos. The streets were relatively quiet. It was frustrating! So I ended up, like you, inside to warm up. I shot 85 frames in my 3-4 hours of hunting and threw out 82. I'm keeping high standards for myself This was clearly the strongest.

I like landscapes and take many of them. But in my view I can't consider them "street images". To me street photography, while not always having to be made literally all on the street, is how we engage in public ways.

I used the word authentic without planning anything big on the subject but it got me thinking about the difference between authenticity and artifice. Culture is full of artifice. American street photography, of the Robert Frank sort, is my thing. I'm no photo history scholar but doesn't what call street photography descend from NY and Paris street photography of the 30's and even earlier, think Abbot, and Atget even earlier? But Frank et al. were interested in the intersection of authenticity and artifice. Artifice in the sense of "cars, girls, and cameras", which, sexy as it is, is manufactured culture if you get my meaning. This was a concern of the beat poets, too, active at the same time.

This is from the wikipedia definition

"Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. This genre of photography is present in contemporary times and is usually done as black and white photographs. Street photography tends to be ironic and distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. Examples include, a stolen kiss on a street corner, a man jumping a puddle, a woman lost in her thoughts in a diner, or a shopping trolley glowing in the last rays of sun. In the 20th century, street photographers have provided an exemplary and detailed record of children's street culture in Europe and North America."

I wonder who wrote it. By and large it's a nice summary, but the part about irony doesn't always stand. Best street photography is not ironic. It can be better. Irony, like sarcasm risks banality. Too clever. I want something realer.

I like your image of the buildings. They are snowy white, majestic and clean. Like the Rockies in their majesty. People feel important when they go to work there, I bet! I would, especially if I was wearing a fancy suit. I also especially like the interior image, in this case the contrasting colors of the cool outdoor and indoor light.

Let's do it again? You game?

Cheers!
Eric

Ah well,

I thought there were more here, but must be some other threads. It was pretty grotty here in UK last weekend, but this is, for some reason, one of my favourite street photos.




It was taken in Sardinia a few years ago, with a Nikon e5700 (bridge camera) However, I am unable to get the colours as good as they should be for web. wrt. The wiki definition, I guess I should have got a bit closer, but there was three of them, and I was just a tourist, not speaking the language...

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Ray,

This is a noble image. I can see why you like it. The distance doesn't bother me so much. Assuming it can blow up to 11x14 with sharp detail it does what I would want a street document to do. That is put me there. The color is a problem but maybe not. The image is largely monochromatic anyway. Convert the image to BW for fun. I think it might be even better. Does that camera have a RAW file?

Are those inverted U shapes on roadside bike racks? We're trying to them installed here on car-crazy long island.

Cheers!
Eric

Hi Eric,

They may be bike racks, or at least stands, but as the pavement (sidewalk - I guess in usa terms) is level with the road, I think they are primarily to prevent the cars driving or parking too close to the buildings.

I have the raw image (nef) but I have never been able to get it into something that is as good as it could be. The sky is pretty blown out, it was a very bright day, but it is difficult to get these three guys to stand out from the background. I guess I could apply some severe blurring of the surrounding area, but I do not think I can crop too much more away. I could post the raw, to let folk play with it, if anyone would be interested.

I have never mastered cs2, in particular to getting images suitable for the web. I tend to save as a tif, then load into irfan view to resize/resample, so the colour management is lost. iirc, the raw image size is 5.7Mp, and they will normally print out to 10 by 8's OK.

The e5700 was not too bad, except the controls were designed by satan, and the latency was terrible. iirc, it saved images to cf at something like 5 shots per fortnight.

Anyway, here's the raw file http://www.yertiz.com/images/dscn0010.nef - edit it as you wish. Thanks

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Eric,

The only other image I have that shows the 'bike stands', I've put here http://www.yertiz.com/images/dscn0008.jpg (linking aggresively to another thread - 'keywords? who needs keywords?')

Best wishes,

Ray

Ray, the .nef image appears as code!

The second image http://www.yertiz.com/images/dscn0008.jpg is impressive. Could you post an 800 pixel wide version?

Asher

Hi Asher,

I think you may need the Nikon nef software for that particular camera/image. You have to download it, then open it, unless your browser is pretty fancy. Maybe I try it as a tif - but that will be more MB. I will see if I can get the other one down to size, without wrecking it. I feel a bit uncomfortable, since these do not comply with last saturday's photos, nor really with the sort of cleancut downtown images here - for some reason I thought there were more street scenes here.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Asher,

Yertiz, 800 wide, as requested.






Best wishes,

Ray

Ref the file appearing as code.
I use IE 7 the file appeared as code but I have a work around.
Right click, save target as, select “all files” then set the extension to “.nef” viola now you got a raw file to work with..
I hope this helps.

Hi Ray,

Here is a bw/sepia version of your image. This image took me about 45 enjoyable minutes to beat into shape.


BTW when I opened the raw file in ACR the colors appeared fine. They needed some adjustment for my taste but overall it was not bad at all, not that murky brown like posted here.

I like the Yetiz image, also.

Cheers!
Eric
www.pixelleadership.com

Hi Ray

Just a couple of minutes in PS3, WB on the holster (was a little cold), some highlight recovery and fill light, and some saturation, and voilá:



Jörgen

Hi Jorgen and Eric,

Thanks for spending time on the photos, it confirms that I ought to do better. I have cs2, but set up for printing. I try the 'save to web', or whatever, and it usually says the image is too large, so I save it as a tiff, then open in Irfan view to shrink to size and jpeg it. Irfan view is not colour aware, it seems to work fine on most files, unless I've passed them through photoshop. I don't particularly want to alter my cs2 settings. The colour adjustment in irfan view is not very gradual. Well, that's my excuse.

Interesting re the wbal - I tried the white of the no entry sign, it came out pinkish, I couldn't remember if the scooter/motorbike was white or silver, and couldn't see anything else. Odd how other folk see things that you don't.

Thanks again,

Best wishes,

Ray