Like Daido

I don't really blow out the contrast in my pictures (I don't feel it's really conducive to the ones-and-zeroes "perfection" of digital cameras), but after watching Daido Moriyama's documentary Near Equal (or, Stray Dog of Tokyo) on YouTube I thought I'd have a go.

I tried it on this all-black clad lady set against a white background and I think it turned out pretty neat. This is also one of the first "let me try and shoot people from the hip like a stealthy street photographer and not look like a perv" shots I ever tried.

What I like about Moriyama's style is that he takes photos of pretty much anything, finding beauty and interest in subjects most people would ignore completely, and he did most of it with a simple Ricoh compact film camera. He also doesn't mind snapshots either. Some photographers don't like the word (I sometimes have that internal struggle of trying to justify snapping away like a maniac) but he revels in snapshots.

It also makes me wish I had a camera that wasn't so bulky and imposing, yet still feature-full. Something like a Fuji X20. The silver and black one is nice... yeah... yeah... yeah...



Here's a nice video by Tate Modern about Daido Moriyama, a bit like a concise version of the full Near Equal documentary. And it's brought up-to-date as he's now shooting in digital (but still with a simple compact camera).

Linerider

I pretty much shot from the hip, pointing the camera at the road and waiting for cyclists to ride past. I was also walking alongside the cycle lane, hence the shaky and off-kilter shot, but I much prefer an out-of-focus subject as it adds to the feeling of speed, as does the road markings and uneven road wear (which converted nicely into black and white).

Family affair

A candid shot of Vinny, my godson.

Over the weekend I was at a family celebration and, being the guy with a half-decent camera (i.e., non-smartphone, non-point & shoot) I automatically became the day's "official" photographer. That meant taking the typical posed and organised photos to document the event.

Most people there were savvy to candids; you point a camera at a person and as soon as they see you they usually change their whole persona. I saw my godson playing in the garden, looking through a glass door and, seeing how he wasn't concerned with my camera at that moment took the opportunity for a non-posed shot.

Just the right amount of stuff I like: candid style, reflections, interactions and of course a nice black & white conversion.

Self shot

Not a huge fan of the "selfie".

This is my version, all lines and shadows; my silhouette, some crazy paving, and of course pigeons. But that's London for you, pigeons everywhere.

We used to called them "MySpace angles", particularly the ones where you'd place the camera up high and shoot downwards. Of course nowadays Facebook has all but slaughtered MySpace to be the self-indulgent stage of the moment, and front-facing cameras on phones have increased self-shot portraits to no end. The selfie lives.



My favourite "selfie" of the moment. Thanks, internet!

It's the ridiculous phone and duckface that does it for me.

(via)

Tunnel vision

I took this because of the converging lines and vanishing point. The walls and ceiling were also painted gloss blue which contrasted nicely with the reflected yellowy-white light from the striplights and patches of daylight on the walls. It did, however lend itself much more to black and white, especially where the shadow is interrupted by those box windows. I like how the repeating lines are much more prominent, and the ladder-like shadow on the ground is bolder. It's no longer about contrasting colours and now about the composition of strong lines and repeating elements.

Bubbles

Taken outside Tate Modern.

This was the second time I'd seen the man with a giant bubble maker, which was literally loops of rope tied to the ends of a couple of wooden sticks. He would hold the sticks, dip the rope into a bucket of soap and let the wind blow into it. The first time I saw this I was captivated like a little kid. I'd taken a few photos but nothing really interesting other than documenting the event. I suppose I was too busy watching all the bubbles being made (it was a really windy day). This time I saw a toddler with his father who was lifting him up towards the bubbles so he could pop them. I was able to capture this nice diagonal as the toddler reached up for some bubbles which were just a bit too high for him :)

Below the surface

A picture of a duck floating on water is just a picture of a duck floating on water. While I have many "normal" animal pics I thought I'd try and capture the scene from a different perspective. I spotted this female Mallard sticking her butt in the air and initially thought that that would be it.

I walked to her and saw that she was ducking (no pun) her head under the water to reach the algae at the bottom of the pond. Fortunately it was a bright day, the sun had lowered and the water was clear enough to see straight through with minimal reflection. She was too busy dabbling to pay any attention to me, so I set my shutter to 1/1000, composed my frame, then waited for her next head dive.

It looks like she has two eyes on the side of her head, but you can thank the wonders of refraction for that little quirk.

Backside Tailslide

Taken at the wonderfully grimey Southbank Centre.

(30mm 1/1000, f4.2 ISO 400)

I don't know if backside tailslide is the correct name for this trick (the closest I've ever been to riding a skateboard was playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 on my computer) but this skater was performing something a lot like the videos I checked out online for comparison.

It was a sunny day and I was set at ISO 100, but for this shot I bumped it up because I was shooting into shadows and wanted a fast shutter speed. I chucked it into shutter priority and fired off a couple of quick shots.

He didn't land the trick after this particular attempt, but his stance mid-slide looked pretty neat.

Lunch break

Back to people-watching.

I spotted these builders tucking into a few bags of the old "Golden Arches" near the steps of the Albert Memorial and liked how their sitting positions almost mirrored the corner statue behind them. I suppose I could have waited for them to mirror the statue completely, but the man in the centre didn't have a shawl and the man in the lower right would never turn into an elephant.

Also note the 2 kids horseplaying around at the pedestal. I didn't even notice the suplex stance at the time.