jenna_g

Did someone say I was dead ;-) Nope I'm still here! Have not been around much because I have not had a chance to shoot much lately. May be moving next month and hopefully I can get busy with the camera again soon. Sucks not shooting!

This rocks! Lines, geometrics, shadows and that wonderful slice of red. Really good eyes to see this one.

Interesting perspective Brian. Thanks for the comment!

 

BTW I think I need to tweak this one a bit. Seems a bit oversharpened.

Todd: Yes it's nice when you see something and have it come out close to the way you actually saw it!

 

Thanks Todd, A.K., Santosh, Srujan, Elena, and Yvan.

 

 

Nice one Bobby. Glad to see you're back! What kind of event was this? I notice the name banners for Marilyn Monroe & Sandra Day O'Connor so I was kinda curious.

Thanks Pnina, Dimitris, Amar and Susan!

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Amar,

 

This man is I guess what you would call a Black Indian. In the 1800's some slaves that escaped were given refuge by Native Americans and became a part of their tribes. I can't recall the name of the tribe this man is a part of, but it's in Lousiana. I know he was very proud of his African ancestry as well as his Native American ancestry.

 

 

Ben, Elena, Doug, Knicki....thanks for the kind words.

 

The State Fairgrounds are only a few miles from my apartment so I was able to go a few times. After the first day I noticed the late afternoon sun was much better at the Midway section of the fairgrounds so I always came here about an hour before sunset. This wasn't shot into the sun, but I basically got the last few minutes of sunrays here.

 

Ben: Yes it's perfectly okay. I'm actually flattered that you linked this.

 

Thanks again all!

 

 

 

Yes you said it best....surreal! The colors are gorgeous and I love how the people are positioned almost in a sqaure, lines leading to one another. Would love to go here one day!

 

Nice work.

Hi Jeremy, I kind of blew this opportunity. Instead of taking a few more seconds to compose, I took a quick snap. It's a bit tight, and I could have avoided the trash bags behind her with a few steps.

Thanks Peter, Jeremy & Ben.

 

Ben: Yep I almost went B&W with this. It was a tough call!

Hey Jeremy!

 

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been very busy and a little less PN motivated lately.

 

K? Wow I'm flattered by that comparison! I was able to get three candid shots of the horse and girl before she noticed me. This was the least conventional as the other two included the horse's snout? Mouth? Whatever you call it! I liked the awed look in the girl's face. Anyway thanks for the comment.

 

 

Hi Vasilis,

 

I usually use the gradient map with my conversions after adjusting everything in color. This one also has more contrast than I normally use. Should have burned the bottom though.

Hi John,

 

There is no rhyme or reason to what I post on PN. Unfortunately the shot of the restaurant workers is too dark, so I probably won't post that one. The other shot I might.

 

As for pot? Personally I think it should be legal. I think alchohol is much more dangerous, and I don't think jailing pot smokers makes good use of our tax dollars. As long as your not endangering others (driving under the influence) then I'm all for more personal freedom. I have not smoked pot for many years and rarely drink, but I can personally say I felt more in control after a joint than three drinks. I've also known quite a few people who have died at the expense of a drunk driver as well as one person in high school who died of acute alchohol poisoning. He died the morning after playing drinking games all night. Drinking is socially acceptable, but smoking pot is still not. Perhaps the laws will one day change as I would suspect the majority of people from the Baby Boom generation on have tried marijuana at one point in their lives.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Jeremy,

 

I think what attracted me here was the guy's intensity. This was a couple of minutes before the game started and he was intensely focused whereas the other players (mainly children) were loose and having fun. It's like it wasn't a game to him.

 

Plus I don't have many night shots. Without a fast prime I'm usually limited to more abstract motion blur shots as I rarely use a flash and am not crazy about the noise with the really high ISO's on the D70. I had just enough light here to shoot 400 ISO at 50.

 

 

Thanks Mike, Bruno, Jeremy and Doug.

 

I saw this man walking with his daughter and snapped a couple of pictures and circled back to try to get in closer. The sun was setting and there were some pretty nice streaks of light, but I kind of got lucky here, I wish there had been more light on his daughter's face also, but since this was a candid I had to take what I could get. I loved the emotion of his face, it's what prompted me to follow him in the first place. I could feel the strong bond he had with his daughter.

 

Thanks again guys.

I really like the composition. The lines (steps) leading down to the water and the man in the foreground watching.

nice one!

Well John did he offer you any? Just a joke! Looks like you were close so I guess he didn't mind. I have a couple of pictures (none up) of people getting high, including a group of restaurant workers passing one around in the alley behind where they worked. They freaked when they saw me! When they found out I didn't work for a newspaper they didn't care.

Hi Marc,

 

Sorry for the slow reply. This was my first major photoshop expiriment. It's actually a composite of two photographs with a lot of burning, dodging, cloning, cross processing, etc. I wasn't really looking for detail here, was going for more of an abstract feel. I have a slightly different version, which I had printed on canvas. I must say it doesn't look much like a photograph, but people that saw it seemed to like it and I was encouraged to enter it into a show. I'm more interested in street/doc work, but I did submit this along with some street stuff. Ironically it did get in (along with a couple of my street shots) but they were not displayed together. It simply doesn't resemble any of my other work. Although I'm still unsure of this image (and this kind of manipulation) I will say it looks much better printed than on a computer.

 

How long did I work on this? About 3 hours. As I said it was mainly an expirement. I've done one more in a similar fashion (it's not on PN) but I prefer more straightforward S&D type work. Too bad most galleries are not as interested in S&D!

 

 

Hi Arond,

 

First off thanks for commenting on several of my photos. Interesting that they were all taken in 2004 when I was still new to street shooting. I'm not great at editing and pretty much leave everything up and it's kind of interesting looking back at images I took last year to see what holds up and what doesn't. Of the four you commented on, I think this one and 1000+ hold up the best. I think I could post-process 1000+ better, but I like the content. On this one I think I do prefer the original, warts and all. Early on I did a lot of cropping and I've kind of moved away from that. I guess I still like the starkness of this one.

 

As for the bowling pix? No alternatives. Probably had some potential, but right now it's in my reject pile.

 

Once again thanks for your comments.

 

 

Thanks Fabio and Jeremy.

 

This was the only time I asked for permission on this day at the fair. I moved him into nice light so I could get a bit of shadow. His buddy was on the left, hence the shadow on that side. I have one of the two men, but it didn't include the broom which I really liked. He was a nice man.

 

 

Hi Jeremy,

 

Yep when I saw this girl alone with all those empty chairs I thought it might make an interesting shot. Only had a second to compose (wanted it to be candid) and the balloon was whipping around in the wind. Glad it didn't cover her head!

 

 

Lol Bruno! It's not a pretty shirt, but this guy has no choice. It's his uniform. Poor guy!

Thanks Doug, Elena and Marco.

 

And yes Doug I agree! I kept watching these kids and had to sneak a photo even though their mother was a few feet away! They were cute kids.