Civic Pride -- Civic Shame (Bag Lady)

Civic Pride -- Civic Shame (Bag Lady) should probably be viewed

large, then viewed as a whole. It should speak for itself. Your

ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. (If you rate

harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior knowledge to help improve my

photography) Thanks! Enjoy! John

This is the third photo of a series. It was not planned to be a series; it just turned out to be one. Will there be a fourth? Does it stand up to the other two?

 

John

This is a wonderful moment. Congrats to you. I have a few of these also and can appreciate all that this means. Your title is perfect. The timing very nice. The only way I see to improve may be to ask the woman next time to face the camera. Good luck and keep shooting, you have a good eye and heart.

Lee, thanks for the comment.

 

Shooting this series of murals is almost impossible.

 

There is a traffic light, far to the left, and traffic backs up greatly, so moments when you actually can see the mural at all, unimpeded are most rare, and I seldom am in Oakland at all and can only stay a few minutes when I am there (health issues). I stop, park across the six lanes of arterial under a major freeway, sheltered from light, and thus side-lit, and wait for breaks in the traffic, and then hope for a pedestrian to place themselves in a place that completes a story.

 

Amazingly this person was about the sixth frame I was able to take, and I didn't really feel too well at all, but I think it told a real story, and the timing couldn't have done better.

 

What is really amazing is that just a moment before, there had been a car obscuring the view, and so I had to raise the camera, frame and focus and still catch the moment with the subject at the tip of the man's hand while getting in all the important 'pride' subjects -- all the while scanning the rest of the giant mural for likely subject/pedestrian photo opportunities. This is NOT a crop on any part except for a small crop, left, to trim a small mural portion that was extraneous and interfering and resulting only from the camera's aspect ratio (frame size) being inappropriate for the subject.

 

Thanks again.

 

John

Even more appreciation for your patience!!! This is a pro-fessional approach to photography. By the way where abouts in Oakland? I live in Emeryville/Berkeley area. But, usually haunt the San Francisco Murals.

'Quiet Blessing' is a wonderful shot -- I wish I had seen that, and your choice of a wide angle was beautiful, although I understand it was dictated by the necessity of getting all in one frame. It's an outstanding work!

 

It took some thought (and a good caption) to help appreciate it. (you may copy this comment and place it under the photo)

 

I see what you mean when you said you had 'several of those' or however you expressed it. Mural shooting can be so much fun, as well as using other backgrounds/backdrops, etc.

 

See my portrait of 'Bill Lear' taken in 1969 in Stead, Nevada using his name written large on an aircraft hangar/manufacturing/research facility building behind him -- one of my all-time favorite shots for composition -- and balance especially (it's in my Early B&W folder).

 

This is beneath what I think is the I-580 freeway at the E. tip of Lake Merritt in Oakland, but beware, I've almost used it up. Just one more shot to post.

 

I've found you have to shoot 'large' for this series of giant murals for these three (posted) photos and the fourth which I may post or retake when I get better.

 

Thanks for sharing (as they say after 'Show and Tell')

 

John

I also took an interesting 'stairway' with a 'ghost' figure, a wonderful 'duck', a landscape of seaside 'natural bridges' with a real mountainside to seaside actual highway bridge, among other things on this CF download, but it doesn't get any better than this, in my view.

 

This photo was a little 'flat' or 'compressed' on the histogram, so I used 'curves' to uncompress it a little and then brightness/contrast adjustment a little to bring it back more to what it looked like as I saw it, just better, otherwise it has not been sharpened or otherwise interfered with (only the slight left crop).

 

It's what I like about shooting 'street' or any other kind of photography -- something I seldom get an opportunity to do because I often shoot at night or indoors -- not to have to fiddle with the photograph, except just to slightly enhance it if I choose, but not to 'manipulate' it, to save it. I will 'manipulate' a photo that's otherwise excellent or captures a moment to 'save' it, but I find that objectionable and much prefer posting one like this, which I find personally the high point of my art/craft.

 

John

At first, I thought that this was just a picture of a mural. But now I see the lady at the bottom, very nice touch.

 

Cheers,

 

Eric R Thibodeau

Thanks for the comment.

 

And for this civic-minded, prideful mural, not just a lady, a woman, and not just any woman, a 'bag woman' which in my culture has a special significance.

 

She's homeless.

 

All her possessions are in those polyethylene black 'garbage' bags she carries over her shoulders.

 

She may be mentally defective, have made bad judgments, had a medical problem at one time, been fleeced out of her money or house by someone for trusting them too much, or just couldn't keep up with the pace of daily living.

 

But she lives on the streets.

 

She may live on a sidewalk, such as this, or in a basement or yard.

 

She may move from place to place, or from shelter to shelter, but her possesions are on her back.

 

She is the antithesis of the 'pride' the mural is depicting.

 

Hence the caption.

 

(Explanation for any foreign viewers who might not 'get it' because of cultural differences -- not everyone will know what a 'bag lady' is in America.)

 

John

That the rater who gave this a 4/5 didn't 'get' the photo at all, but rated it on a thumbnail . . . or takes supersharp macros . . . any takers?

 

John

The justapoxition of the two subjects works well, and is, IMHO, enhanced by the way the bag lady's colours blend into the Civic Pride mural so that your eye does not immediately make the difference, but leaves to your brain to do it.

It is true that one of the wonders of 'street photography' is that more often than not it requires 'brain power' to figure out what the photographer was trying to tell you than ordinary photography.

 

(The same for taking 'street photography', which may account for why it seems to be a little more rarified and has commensurately fewer 'fans'. For instance, I had to look a little at Lee McLaughlin's photo, 'Quiet Blessing' posted above in this comments column, before I 'got it' and then was in wonder of his amazing ability to 'see' the mural he used and his sleeping sidewalk subject.)

 

Thanks for your comment.

 

John

I just parked across the street, took out my camera, waited for breaks in the traffic and soon enough this wonderful photo opportunity appeared. With several murals, I hoped for other opportunities, and stayed a while longer, but nothing else appeared. It just seems that if the photo gods are going to smile, they often just smile right away -- as they did in my other two outings at this particular set of murals -- no day-long stakeouts were necessary, even though in those I did try waiting some considerable time after taking two very good shots to see if I could take better.

 

John

I second your observation. These days I always carry the camera in hand, prefocused, and if notice anything interesting shoot right away. The composition, the angle and the distance can be not perfect, but more often than not by the time I get to the best position the moment is gone.

Eugene,

You make two good arguments for 1. stopping down for 'depth of field, and 2. 'zoom lenses' both of which will help overcome the problems of having the moment slip by.

 

It helps to have a zoom lens with a large (say f 2.8) aperture, which may not always be available for you in your country and always very expensive, or a V.R. (vibration reduction) or similar named lens, also very expensive, just for those moments in case your shutter speed has to be very low, or you need a large aperture to capture that moment before it goes away.

 

If you recall, with depth of field, the area 1/3 in front of the subject and 2/3 behind it is in focus through the range of acceptable depth of field, so best to 'stop down' as much as you can if you're wandering and not taking 'portraits' and 'zooming in' say with an auto, tele lens.

 

Regards.

 

John

I'm reading some of the problems of a street photographer and find myself smiling .Yes all of the aboe and more .But when you do get is against all odds ,then it's wonderful ,as this one is.Best regards,Judy

If one were to read how 'hard' it is to be a 'street' photographer, one would never pick up a camera. It seems Herculean in difficulty, to pick up a camera, walk the streets (or drive as in this case, then park), stand, sit, walk or run, after recognizing a moment or an unfolding moment that one visualizes, then 'capture' that moment, or perhaps another that one does not expect as one is in one's vantage point.

 

Unexpected things present themselves on the 'street', and the 'street' photographer must have a camera ready, a ready mind, a fertile imagination, an ability to visualize and perhaps an encyclopedic knowledge of a variety of subjects to create those juxtapositions that so often abound, those ironies which can be so biting, and those searing commentaries and insights which abound -- if only one can 'see' them.

 

Then the 'street' photographer must be able to act, sometimes instantaneously, and other times after waiting for periods than can seem 'numbing'.

 

It is the 'street' photographer's job to 'see' the images as or even before they occur, whether just for simple composition, or perhaps more.

 

Those are the tasks . . . and it seems a tall order.

 

When you put it together, as I did from day one, it hardly seems so hard as all, just the 'way you take photographs'.

 

I'm more befuddled how to take those breathtaking landscapes that look Photoshopped to death (perhaps because I don't Photoshop my landscapes to death?)

 

Highest regards to a fellow 'street' photographer of immense talent.

 

John