At the end of last year I discovered Photochallenge.org. This is a small group of photographers who set forth a weekly challenge to other professional and amateur photographers. What I was drawn to with this weekly assignment is that is pushes you to try new techniques and get out and take pictures on a weekly basis. I'm taking part again this year and will also do a quick blog post about each of them. The rules of the challenge do require that these are new pictures, not from your back catalogue. With my busy work schedule, I may not be able to get out each week and do this, so I will likely add a few of my older photos on the blog--taking the opportunity to look at the plethora of pictures I've taken and actually do some processing and weeding.
Photochallenge.org Week 13: Black & White Street Photography
This week's challenge was to try out street photography. Strangely this does not mean taking pictures of a street or curb! The idea here is to take photo's of everyday life going on around you. Most classic street photography is done on-the-sly without the subjects knowing they are on film--getting more candid and less posed shots. This one was a tough challenge for me to do. I'm naturally very shy (and Minnesotan) and taking pictures of unsuspecting people threw me off a bit--while doing so is not illegal here in the USA, it is still potentially invading someone's personal space. The other issue I had was that I live out in a pretty rural town where street scenes during the day are pretty quiet. Add on the rain and even snow most of the week and I struggled. I'll be heading downtown soon and will make up for it. In the mean time--here are a couple of older shots.
1) Rainy alley: I went back into my older photos and looked for some pics that would fit the bill. I found this one from our trip to Belgium a few years back that I took with my iPhone. Rain was dripping on us and my friends Chris and Hassan were walking ahead of us, followed by my rain-drenched wife off to the left. I don't think they noticed me falling back to take photos, so this was very much unposed.
2) Ghent: This one was taken from a tour boat on the canal. While the subject is really the amazing architecture along the street and canal, the folks sitting along the side of the canal relaxing during the day were a happy bonus to the shot. Rain came out and drenched us about 5 minutes after I took this photo.
3) Sunset in Bruges: This one was also from my iPhone on our first trip to Bruges, Belgium. My group had walked ahead of me and I was struck by the long shadows they were leaving on the shiny cobblestones.
2) Ghent: This one was taken from a tour boat on the canal. While the subject is really the amazing architecture along the street and canal, the folks sitting along the side of the canal relaxing during the day were a happy bonus to the shot. Rain came out and drenched us about 5 minutes after I took this photo.
3) Sunset in Bruges: This one was also from my iPhone on our first trip to Bruges, Belgium. My group had walked ahead of me and I was struck by the long shadows they were leaving on the shiny cobblestones.
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