i n • p u r s u i t

This is one of the few photos I actually sat and waited for. These ducks were hanging out, sometimes ducking their head underwater for who knows what. So I focused and waited, eye to the viewfinder, for something interesting to happen. This is much better than getting a photo of a duck butt. Canadian geese. I tried to make some noises to get them to look at me, but they were too busy.

took this photo of a couple getting portraits done

Street photography is making me be more friendly to the people I see while walking around. When I'm downtown, I smile at just about everyone I pass, just to see if they'll smile back. I was trying to take a photo of a bird up in a tree when a couple walked by and looked up in to the tree. I smiled and explained what I was doing. Normally, I might just smile and not say anything. Normally, I wouldn't be taking a photo of a bird using a film camera. Anyway, they said something back, I don't remember what. We started chatting about photography and film and film cameras. And, of course I took their photo! Then, the gentleman asked if he could take my picture with my camera. Sure! We all know I love getting my picture taken.

Monday morning, I got coffee with R. She's getting married in a few months. IN A CASTLE. Yes, a castle. Before we parted ways, I asked if I could take her photo. Or perhaps I told her that I was going to. Either way, she obliged because she's such a sweet friend.  I had my camera with me and 1/2 of a roll of film to finish off, so stayed downtown to take more photos. I saw this guy sitting on the rocks above the waterfall and knew I had to take his photo. I tried to somehow get a good shot without him realizing I was taking this photo, but couldn't. So, as I walked by, I just asked if I could take his picture. It was easier than I thought it would be! I wanted him to look out over the falls, just as he had been before I interrupted him. I tried to tell him to not look at me, but he couldn't hear me over the rushing waterfall. That was okay because I had found that 80% courage somewhere and managed to ask a complete stranger if I could take his pho...

I saw this red umbrella about a block away and knew I had to take a photo of it. I really popped on the dreary rainy street. So, I found the perfect spot, held my camera up to my eye, focused, and waited for her to walk through my viewfinder. I wish I had waited just a bit for her to be between the last two trees, but I'm still very happy with this photo. Shortly after red, I saw this other umbrella. I was walking behind her, so I tried to keep up, focus, and meter at the same time. No decent composition going on here though. {p.s. I'm taking a page out of my sister's book and moving my comments over to Disqus. So, if you don't see old comments from previous posts, don't worry! They are still there, just importing.}

I've been wanting to try my hand at street photography for a while. It's so intimidating, that I've been putting it off for quite some time. Now that I'm only working one day a week and haven't been getting any business, I decided that this was the perfect time to dive in. Or slowly tip-toe in. Either way... Last week, I dragged my dear friend Steven downtown for a photo walk. Me with my Minolta x-700, he with his Canon Rebel dSLR.  Eric Kim says that "street photography is 80% [courage] and 20% skill." I'm still working on that courage but I was determined to muster up the courage to take photos of strangers. I just started out by just taking photos of things that caught my eye. The first thing I saw that caught my eye was this red dress in the Clothing Warehouse display. Gorgeous. And she can't tell me to not take her picture. Then we walked past this construction. My first photo of strangers. Poorly metered, but...