Tony Rowlett

Besides poking fun at lousey service in fast food joints, no sarcasm

was intended.

Yep, malls must be one of the factors that contributes to the "street

photography is dying" notion. But it's the amount of street

photography done, not the opportunities or potential for it, that

leads some to feel that SP is dying. The same opportunities exist now

as they have for decades, but I am no living proof of this as I find

SP difficult and challenging. There is a good thread going on the SP

list server regarding "confrontations."

<p>

I take my camera to malls every so often and find that success is more

of a challenge than it is on the street. But even though it's more

difficult to shoot in malls because reduced ambient lighting forces

opening up more which hinders zone focusing, and slower shutter speeds

resulting in increased unsharpness, there are so many great

opportunities for excellent candid photography that I'm surprised

that mall photography (MP) isn't more prevalent. I long for a decent

shot of an argument over the difference of $.19 on some sale price, or

the suspicious expression of a store clerk stocking a 14 year old

suspected shop lifter in action.

<p>

Fast food restaurants are perhaps more challenging as you attempt to

capture the impatient expression of the lady with six young restless

kids behind you in line at a McDonald's. Time, however, seems not to

be a factor as it takes forever to get served anymore, except for a

McD's in Times Square once where they asked for our order before the

door closed, and by the time we reached the counter our food was

ready. There were so many people crammed into the place that you

would have to raise the camera above your head and shoot downwards --

great wide-angle opportunities. At some fast food chains you might be

able to capture the eyes rolling, the fingers tapping, and the

impatient *sigh* when you take longer than two seconds to decide what

you want from 493 different items (not counting the value meals)

illuminated in 12 point text on overhead menus.

<p>

I have not been overly successful photographing people in cars stuck

in traffic, but I have tried this numerous times. I find that cars,

period, are difficult to photograph and make interesting. I find that

a lot of my street photography has a car zooming by in the frame which

mostly detracts from the picture. This is difficult to avoid during

the day in some areas, even in Alaska. By the way, I think Alaska

must be sort of the same as Florida in that both seem very touristy,

surely a candid photographer's advantage. People often treat me as a

tourist when I'm out and about with my camera. The restauant people

often ask where I'm from and seem surprised that I'm just a local.

What a great artifact (don't know if I'm using that term correctly).

Being the computer person in the family, my mom has recently given

me the task of doing "something" in the way of preserving a hundred or

so old photographs of numerous generations of family. Some date into

the 19th century, and all are totally interesting (for me) to look at.

I've starting making B&W copy negs/prints. I love old photographs

like this. My mom even has some old "tintypes" which are even more

interesting. Neato. Thanks for posting that!

And I thought I was pretty close here when I took it. Wide lenses

sure force you to get close to something. I'll try for closer yet. I

did crouch low to take some near/far shots of flowers(near, about a

foot) that seemed to work pretty well.

Discussions about the new Konica Hexar RF are entirely welcome and appropriate here on this discussion board, mostly because it takes Leica M lenses, but also because it's a darned interesting camera!

<p>

You might want to check out an interesting review of the new Hexar at <a href="http://www.photoshot.com/articles/hexartest/hexartest.html">www.photoshot.com/articles/hexartest/hexartest.html</a>.

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/victoria00/sax.jpg" width=381 height=575><p>

Sax Player, Victoria, BC<p>

</center>

<p>

Wide angle lenses are difficult for me to use. I was only about 4-5 feet away from him when I took this with a 21mm. I think I should have gotten closer.

You're right, I was getting weird. :) I was thinking about my 250/4,

not the 80/1.4! Sorry about that.

I count at least 5. <p>

I'm gonna try this.<p>

Cool shot!

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/sylvash.jpg" width=563 height=708><br>

"Sylvia and Ashley"<br>

</center>

<p>

This is Mimi's sister Sylvia with Sylvia's daughter Ashley. It was taken by Mimi with her Konica Hexar. I'm very pleased with how the photographs have been turning out because of the creaminess/plasticity of the skin tones. Mimi makes her own prints, by the way! The fixed 35/2 lens on the camera really is a little gem. Kodak TMY 400.

I don't have anything more than the "touchy-feely" type of comments

to make toward it, but I do absolutely love my 80/1.4. The image

quality is excellent. I haven't done any comparisons (I'm not the

testing type, I guess) and I've never owned the 90/2-R. The couple of

characteristics that stand out with the 80 lux is that it makes the

camera a nicely "holdable" and balanced package if you know what I

mean, and it seems to focus close for its length. It may not actually

focus any closer than others, but for some reason I felt that it

could. But I get weird with Leica optics! I was able to get

seemingly very close to some flowers once. Sorry I can't give you

more objective data.

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/nycops.jpg" width=519 height=372><br>

"New York City Cops"<br>

</center>

<p>

This is a test post using Allan Engelhardt's new "preview" hack feature. It works flawlessly. I'm impressed. Good job, Allan!!

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/icecarver.jpg" width=489 height=705><br>

"Ice Carver"<br>

Anchorage, Alaska

</center><p>

Artists from all over the world visit frigid Anchorage to participate in an annaul ice carving competition. Some of the work is spectacular, especially at night when the carvings are illuminated by colored lights. Many of the ice carvings are so intricately detailed they resemble large versions of glass figurines -- the kind you see in those fancy shops in malls. The ice is typically difficult to photograph because metering is never straightforward and the backgrounds are usually cluttered with random street elements. Here, I think the man was slightly underexposed on account of the bright ice. I tried to compensate during printing, but I almost washed out the upraised arm of the carving.

Over zealous inlaws wanting to show me too much too fast. A lot of my

shots turned out blurry!

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/france98/manstreet.jpg" width=705 height=485><br>

"Man on Street in Normandy"<br>

Normandy, France

</center>

Another image taken from inside a moving car (bad) which I hated. I really wanted to get around more on foot, but with travel plans and constantly trying to make it from point A to point B, it was difficult. Shooting through a windshield lowered the contrast considerably, so I had to print at almost a grade 5. This people shot is along the same trend as recent posts, but there's something a bit different. He's walking away from us. I know what you're going to say, though. "GET OUT OF THE STUPID CAR!!"

This photograph has provoked me to clean off my monitor of

fingerprints. Beaituful. The high quality of the printing is what I

notice at first. Just excellent the way her hand, nose, and cleavage

are as bright as they need to be without being blown out and Darth's

fist is as dark as it needs to be without loss of detail. This one is

snappy and brilliant looking. I'm with the above poster in that it

looks like they're sticking out of a steel frame. Wish this image was

slightly bigger so more detail can be seen. Love these kinds of

parties.

I like the converging verticles resulting from pointing your wide lens

slightly upwards. This is a great idea but widely attempted; it's

just not as fresh anymore. I think you should really try to shoot

jump-skating (if that's what you call it) from a totally new

viewpoint. Get an angle that nobody has ever shot from before. I'm

not

sure I like such a strong tone to these without more contrast or a

brighter appearance overall. In the second shot I'd like to see the

skater more disconnected with his watchful buddies. One idea (and I

probably would be too awkward to actually try this) would be to get up

there next to his buddies and get them in the picture much closer to

the lens. Maybe with their faces VERY big in the lens looking on as

the skater is in flight.

Tom, it's really a cool shot that is worthy of a lot of attention.

Wish I took it!

<center>

<img src="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/minox/walking.jpg" width=339 height=495><br>

"Lady Walking"<br>

Anchorage, Alaska<br>

</center>

Angles and contrast and minimalist details were my goals in printing, but not the shooting. It was a Minox 8x11mm snap, OK? Full frame. Shot at an angle to the street, but turned in the easel to make street level and building lean. If it doesn't work, the frame cost me less than $.03 !

Once I took a photograph of a lady walking across the street but from

an angle. In the easel, I made the street look level which made the

building behind her appear to lean. I liked the effect, but not many

others did. I suppose it's because I'm weird. I'll post it as a new

thread entitled "Walking."

Thanks, Tom! This was printed using split-grade techniques. Left

sleeve being brightest and right below car being darkest.

J.R. Farrar said <i>"However the horizon or in this case the wall to

sidewalk being off balance throws the picture off a bit. Also I would

crop the left side a tad more as well."</i>

<p>

I know why you said that (I think) but it is precisely these types of

"defects" that make a photograph interesting, even unresolved, like

another shot of mine I called "Mailbox." (I should post it) If the

frame was

adjusted slightly from the left (cropping), as you suggested to

presumably better center the upper portions of the pipes, something

would be lost. Did you mean that the side walk isn't perfectly

level in that this was taken at a very slight angle to the wall? I

might agree with the unevenness were more pronounced. It hits me as

level, and when my concentration goes immediately to the more bold

elements, I don't think about it. I like angles quite a lot. For me,

that's why my shopping carts one works. I'll bet this would also work

with angles.

It loads for me, but there is a slight glitch in that I left out the

last quote after the URL of the image. Click on

<a href="http://www.alaska.net/~rowlett/images/leaning.jpg">this

Little Girl link</a> as an alternative.

Thanks for your response. This is mostly full frame, so I could maybe

crop some. I hate the car, but I actually think the woman in the

background contrasts well with the girl. I wish I could find her, but

she's probably 16 or 17 by now and long gone from the apartment bldg.

The color works great in this photograph. The backdrop is

excellent. There are numerous pairs of

ideas that make this photograph work very well. The red v. green; the

two pipes; the two eyes; the boy and the parking meter; walking v.

standing still. I like that he is looking into your viewfinder, too,

because it parallel's the two "eyes" on the wall. This shot is

straight on, and mine of the shopping carts is at an angle. I think

the angle works for mine and the straight on works for yours. It's

shots like these that make me like color photography.