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Pure Street Photography in El Salvador

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
My favorite street camera and lens are my Olympus E-M10 with 14-42 kit lens attached. Nothing like it’s small size and light weight for walking through streets in Central America - grabbing pics of people, as well as capture the incredible textures and walls.

Well shortly after arriving in El Salvador 3 weeks ago, my 14-42 kit lens went on the fritz. This happened to me a couple of years ago with the same type of lens. This one was a replacement. Apparently there is a shortcoming with this kit lens that appears to have to do with a ribbon wire inside the lens eventually breaking or shorting after thousands of shots - and probably accelerated by my heavy use and abuse in brutal conditions of heat dust and grime. At any rate - the result was the same - the tele end of the lens produces an error on a black screen, while the wide angles can’t be trusted for focusing accuracy. I was bummed.

So I’ve been shooting with my longer focal length lenses up until today.

Wider focal lengths are a necessity for me, and so I had no choice but to take my big E-M1 pro camera body - with huge and heavy 11-22 (22-44mm equiv) four thirds lens. The E-M1 is required with this lens in order to make use of the four thirds lenses. What a beast. I’m just not used it such a size and weight and such an obvious camera in my hands to everyone looking at me. It was weird that even though the cameras are the same brand and basic design - I was totally out of my comfort zone handling this setup. I didn’t like it, but will learn to adapt to it, at least until I return to Canada for a visit in February, and should be able to pick up another kit lens then.

I’ll post a few of my street pics this morning, using the Olympus E-M1 w/11-22mm f2.8-3.5 (a beauty of a lens BTW)




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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
My wife Anne is often with me and keeps people sidetracked while I am photographing. Here she noticed nice pineapples imported from Costa Rica (the sweetest and nicest in our opinion) and chatted with the fruit seller Sonja as she was deciding.


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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well Robert,

My immediate reaction, even before reading the text, (which I will, as always, do twice ?,
Is this standout photograph, one that fortune brings once a year to a busy photographer:-



F1A4824F-8416-453B-8EA5-D13085133012.jpg


This is one those rare images that can really begin to speak for itself! Kudos

I am impressed and moved to the nth!

It’s also an enticing illustration of the kind of ”Portal” photograph that Cem Usakligil, when fully active here would share!

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Well Robert,

My immediate reaction, even before reading the text, (which I will, as always, do twice ?,
Is this standout photograph, one that fortune brings once a year to a busy photographer:-



F1A4824F-8416-453B-8EA5-D13085133012.jpg


This is one those rare images that can really begin to speak for itself! Kudos

I am impressed and moved to the nth!

It’s also an enticing illustration of the kind of ”Portal” photograph that Cem Usakligil, when fully active here would share!

Asher

I appreciate your feedback Asher. Thank you
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well Robert, how subtle do you think the Fuji GFX is with the 32-64 f4.0!!

825 gm, light for MF, but size is really intrusive in any setting:

147.5mm (W) x 94.2mm (H) x 91.4mm (D) / 5.81in. (W) x 3.71in. (H) x 3.60in. (D)
(Minimum Depth : 41.6mm / 1.64in.)

With the lens, that really turns heads and disturbs whatever was in progress!

I might very well get the Olympus for more innocuous street work and for the pleasure of reaching birds without breaking my back!

What street lens would you choose today and why?

Asher
 

Andy brown

Well-known member
Wow Robert, this is an absolutely smoking set!
You keep growing into your already formidable technique.
Street photography as a genre is my favourite cup of tea but your version of it is quite stunning.
 

Andy brown

Well-known member
16856CC6-19FF-4922-ABE3-9EAB5521D615.jpg




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Love this.
I’m a sucker for a face, the one with its left eye peering through the wheel of the singer is an absolute classic
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
All three have perfect color, focus and balance of luminosity. In fact, one could imagine either

1. tedious work in bringing out shadows, pulling back highlights, an S-curve and local selections, especially the doorway in #1, the sky in the windows in # 2 and the sky in #3.

2. A fabulous all-in-one processing program that does these things in “one click” image enhancement magic!












The first, the shoe repair fellow, is amazing for its haphazard disorder typical of crammed street stalls where both repairs and sales occur. The untidiness of the lady behind the sewing machine and the figure just invading the frame on the right shows how such busy street and alleys intimately support its populations and tourists. In this picture the splashes of red gradients on the walls, ensures that the place is noticed and recognized: Fabulous!!

The last is unbelievable in the good luck to get everything at optimum brightness, or I want to know that one-click program.

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
For the most part, it is almost “one click” in that I have created (Saved) several looks in Snapseed (Google product) on my iPad. These looks are made up of many steps that can be applied to any image. Once a Look is applied, I can recall all editing steps and tweak the settings or use a mask to selectively apply a setting. And of course some dodging, burning or other tweaking can be applied on top of the applied steps. It is all non-destructive unless Exported as a jpg. I virtually never go into Lightroom or Photoshop anymore, unless I am selling a print and need ultimate control.


This screen capture shows the different steps that made up the Look for the 3’rd shot. It does not show the actual settings in each step. The top step shows the open menu available to delete, adjust, or mask areas related to each setting.


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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for sharing your splendid secret, Robert! I know the Lord likes you, but really you are batting way above average in good fortune, day after day!



I must admit I don't use Lightroom either. I am wedded to Photoshop and Capture One.
But you could have all these "Looks" in LR, or not?


I have never used Snapseed but from your work, it's damn impressive that you can pull in the sky independently.


Does it have the word "Sky" or just "Brights"?


You also use Affinity. Do they have a lightweight version for your iPad. IOW, what is so special about Snapseed that the major Editing Programs seem to lack?



Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing your splendid secret, Robert! I know the Lord likes you, but really you are batting way above average in good fortune, day after day!



I must admit I don't use Lightroom either. I am wedded to Photoshop and Capture One.
But you could have all these "Looks" in LR, or not?


I have never used Snapseed but from your work, it's damn impressive that you can pull in the sky independently.


Does it have the word "Sky" or just "Brights"?


You also use Affinity. Do they have a lightweight version for your iPad. IOW, what is so special about Snapseed that the major Editing Programs seem to lack?



Asher

I have Affinity on my iPad. The odd time I want to composite or do complex things that require Photoshop, I will open Affinity Photo on my iPad. But there is simply nothing simpler than using Snapseed. There is no setting Sky or Brights. All the normal stuff in the main Tune Image tool - Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Ambient, Highlights, Shadows, Warmth. And then a boatload of other tools as well. Finger swipe up or down selects the setting, and a finger swipe left or right increases or decreases the amount of the effect. Nothing that Lightroom can’t do, just very fast and effortless for me in Snapseed - especially being 95% my work goes online. Even though I don’t shoot in raw, Snapseed even handles processing raw files.

Snapseed was developed by the Nik company. Google took over and don’t appear to be continuing development on it - but it is pretty complete as is.

I do use Lightroom on my MacBook and like it for organizing and cataloguing all of my images. I used to use Lightroom for the same effects that I apply now. All the stuff I did in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. But times and technology have changed. It’s just that I am mostly on my iPad or iPhone and am out about town or traveling. I love being able to wirelessly transfer images I have just shot, from my camera to whatever portable device I have - on the spot - later in a coffee shop - or even at home on my lazy boy - processing them and getting them online immediately. So much fun.


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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
So how much RAM does you iPAD have? Do you use a wireless HD to store your files?

Asher

I don’t know how much RAM. It’s just an iPad Air. Likely 1 or 2 GB.

I don’t put all pics I have taken on my iPad. With the Olympus Share app, I get a preview of all pics on the card and only wirelessly transfer the few that I will be processing and putting online.

I use 4TB portable hard drives connected by USB3 to my MacBook for permanent storage. I use Lightroom to import all the files from my SD cards onto the drive, and organize them into the different categories. I used to do this every day so that I could pic the shots I wanted to post online and process them. But nowadays I don’t bother until the card is near full or I feel like formatting the card and starting fresh.

Airdrop is one of the greatest features Apple has created. I use Airdrop to quickly move any files on my iPad or iPhone, between any of my Apple devices (or to my wife’s iPad or anyone that I want to provide a copy to even if there is no WiFi). So when I want to save the processed files stored on my iPad, to my hard drives - I will periodically Airdrop the bunch of them onto my MacBook and import them into Lightroom and store them on the big hard drive with all my camera files.

I also use the Google Photos app to store everything on my iPad. All of these processed photos are automatically stored on Google Cloud and then deleted from my Photos folder - keeping my iPad with lots of space. The cool thing for me is that there are lower resolution images of everything I have ever stored there (currently back to 2003), available to look at or show people, when I am offline. Because I only store the files on my iPad and thus Google - that I have processed for use online - there is not a bunch of boring or useless shots or duplicates to rummage through. If I want to revisit everything, I head to my hard drives.


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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sounds so efficient.

I need to find a way to have pictures on apples Photo catalog removed from “All Photos” to just in the albums. That way I don’t accidentally show NSFW pictures in ordinary social settings!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Robert,

I’ll post a few of my street pics this morning, using the Olympus E-M1 w/11-22mm f2.8-3.5 (a beauty of a lens BTW)




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These are all wondrous, each in its own way. Perhaps my favorite is the first, with the wonderful color and the great street perspective. A plus is the wonderful rebar supplemental spokes on the tricycle's front tires.

Next best for me is the second, the mobile goat's milk farm. It has a terrific reality to it, with the subjects completely unaware of the photographer (not that such is of itself undesirable - it is just a property of this image).

And of course I noted the telephone number on the sign, under the new numbering plan introduced in 2006. I think the first two digits are somewhat analogous to the Area Code in the US and Canada.

And the E-M1 seems to be a wondrous machine.

All in all, lovely work.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Thank you Doug.

One subject - the goat - spotted me LOL.

As for the phone number - the same as it was in Guatemala - there are four numbers. This may have something to do with the international change you mention. Apparently in 2005 and 7 digit El Salvador numbers were expanded to 8 digits.

Additionally we have a country code. 503 in El Salvador and 502 in Guatemala and 505 in Nicaragua. So a typical complete phone number in El Salvador goes like this +503 2121 2828. There don’t appear to be area codes here. But maybe it was as you explained.


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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Just got back from a short stint around the city, with my little Olympus E-PL3 w/45mm f1.8 attached. I love the small form factor of this body. I just wish it had WiFi - but that isn’t available until the E-PL7 model.



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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I love this collection!

45mm 1.8 is really a sly intrusive 90 mm reaching into the darkness lens!

Very clever!

But do to still miss the wide end of your favorite street zoom?

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
I love this collection!

45mm 1.8 is really a sly intrusive 90 mm reaching into the darkness lens!

Very clever!

But do to still miss the wide end of your favorite street zoom?

Asher

Oh yes. As soon as I get back to Canada for a visit in February, I will hunting for a used one - probably more cost effective included with an older body.


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