Street Photography ... Sort Of

[jbtaylor]

Attended the Artscape festival last Saturday in Baltimore, Maryland. A link is provided below.
http://www.artscape.org/

Having a few hours to kill on a summer Saturday along with an invitation from my young neighbor to see her photography exhibit, I set off for quite an adventure.

Folks of all shapes, ages, and sizes covered the 5 block area rife with exhibits, interactive sites, and of course plenty of chances for food and drink. I had not considered myself as old (51) but seeing these folks so full of life made me feel old. Even senior citizens seemed younger than I.

The following shots trace my steps through the festival and were captured with the a700 and the ZA 85mm 1.4.

Soundnest- This area was walled off by colorful curtains. Inside were all forms of percussion devices and other means of expression. The idea is to make noise, draw things and to feel good about it. They did.

[jbtaylor]

Part 2- Walking the Streets

Losing Your Head


Losing Your Pants


And Why...


Losing The Heat

[jbtaylor]

Soundnest Abstracts







Speaking of Not Real

[sury]

I love the second and third in the first set. The bottle seems to be soft focused for me. Similarly the abstracts seem to soft
focused. Is that by design? As for the message for pantless campaign, I am fully with you. How one dresses is not an automatic
invitation to cross lines. Very often in a male dominated society like India, and often here in US I hear people talk about some one
had it coming because of the way they dressed and/or talked.

With best regards,
Sury

[jbtaylor]

Thanks for commenting Sury. The bottle was shot at f2.0. I was walking the line between sharpness and the beautiful background that the lens gets at that f stop. I forgot that I was shooting with the a700 and not the a900 which the wife took on a trip that same weekend. So yes, it is softer than I prefer. As for the abstracts, I increased aperture to f4.0 but the wind was blowing and 200 was probably too slow even though I wanted some blurriness. I was just hoping to capture some magic.
I encountered a small group of people entering the street that appeared under dressed. There were 4 females and 2 males. Not wanting to offend but wanting to capture something interesting, I shot from the waist. After walking behind them for 100 yards, I peeled off. It was a few minutes later that one of those ladies handed me the piece of paper that I later photographed. I initially refused the paper before I recognized who was giving it to me. Interesting times.

[jbtaylor]

Before getting to the festival, I managed to get some walkabout shots of doors, gates, and windows.

My Birthday


Inviting


Keep Out


CD

[sury]

Thanks JB for the explanation. The third one in BW is my favorite. The second one
does not seem to have much contrast to make it interesting. Perhaps the color version?
Well, we have to like the first one, since it is your b'day, right?
Chained desire in black and white certainly seems to sum up the 50 shades of grey....

Sury

[jbtaylor]

After reviewing the photos, I have the feeling that there is a focusing issue with the a700. As for the barbed wire, it was my favorite as well. The Chained Desire image should have been better. In all, I think I failed for the day but I am motivated to pick up the camera again and dive back into the pool.
Thanks Sury.
JT