Often I lament living in a small city when I discuss shooting in my home town. I curse the lack of action when I’m free to go out and photograph. I curse the difference between my town and larger cities in regards to the amount of people on the street. The truth, I’ve come to realize, is that is some lazy thinking. Living in a small town just means I have to work harder. I have to be more creative. Do more research.
This is a photograph that has been shot with a Yashica Electro 35 CC and Agfa Vista 200 film, in Rethymno, Greece.
It is 09:40 and I find myself at the Chania International Airport getting ready to board a plane to Athens. This week, I will be there for work. I have lots of meetings and presentations I have to attend for my day job. I don’t know if I will have any time to shoot in the versatile, colourful streets of the Greek capital. I will try, but it is highly unlikely. I am travelling extra light this time, so I have only got my Ricoh GR with me. My Fujifilm X-Pro-1 is at home, waiting for me. The airport isn’t very busy but still it has annoying distractions that will not allow me to write. So, I have fired up my music device, which also happens to be my mobile phone and I am listening to “Blackstar”, David Bowie’s last album.
Shot with a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Fujinon XF18mm f/2 lens in Rethymno, Crete.
I made this photo on the same day I took “All in White” – the street photo I wrote about for my last Weekly Street Hunters pic. That particular day was a Saturday, and it was probably one of my most enjoyable and successful street photography sessions since the street hunt in Rome. In fact, this was probably my longest street hunt since Rome too! It was one of those days when everything came together and I was really really enjoying myself. Enough time had gone by since I first got my X-Pro1 for me to really feel at home with it, and I was like a thing possessed on the streets.
The week before Halloween, I was fortunate enough to finally take a small vacation with my girlfriend. The destination was New England. Specifically, Salem and Cape Cod. We were just going to “wing it”. Drive to these towns and explore. Provincetown, Massachusetts was the last stop on the road trip we loosely planned. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous. Skies were clear and the temperature hovered in the mid 50 degree F range. Relaxation and sightseeing was the main objective, but of course, I wanted to shoot as well.
This is a photograph that has been shot with a Yashica Electro 35 CC and Kodak Tri-X 400 film, in Rethymno, Greece.
It is 01:24 am and I am in Athens as I am writing this. I am listening to “Fly like an Eagle” by the Steve Miller band. Great tune. It has been a busy day and I am late for writing my Weekly Street Hunters Pic post due to the the fact that I have been in meetings for work from 11:00 am until 21:00 pm. After that I had dinner with my mates and saw a movie to unwind. I just got back home and I thought that I should go through my photographs and choose a Pic of the Week.
This photo was shot in Rethymno, Crete with a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and a Fujinon XF18mm f/2 lens.
I was particularly pleased with this street photo because it was one of those shots that was almost not a photo at all. On the day I made this photograph I had been out on a street hunt for several hours and I had been really enjoying myself taking photos. I hadn’t had the chance to shoot any pictures in the daylight for weeks, and I was really enjoying the fantastic winter sunlight in Rethymno, and lovely long shadows it was throwing as it pierced its way through gaps in buildings to create little pools of light here and there. I had my 18mm lens (27mm equivalent) set to a hyperfocal distance of 1.3m plus, and my exposure set manually for the sun’s highlights, so I didn’t have to worry about a thing on my X-Pro1 – I was snapping away like a maniac!
Whether we care to admit it or not, luck is an ingredient in street photography. When on the streets, walking about, we sometimes get lucky and a shot just falls into our laps. Instances like that remind me of the idiom, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.” If you’re out there, you’re bound to get lucky sooner or later and a decent scene will find its way through your lens. After that, it’s up to the photographer to shoot the photograph using composition, exposure, shutter speed and all the other righteous ingredients we use in crafting an image. However, the shot doesn’t always fall into our laps and we must try to “make” our own luck. And one of the ways I’ve done that is by simply not giving up on a subject. By not giving up on a shot.
This is a photograph that has been shot with a Sony NEX-6 and a SEL35F18 lens, in Rethymno, Greece.
This photo was taken more than a year ago in September 2014. I remember it was about the time when my eye was starting to see things in colour. I was in transition, moving from B&W to 100% colour.
The reason I shot this in colour was because of the two brightly coloured bins. The blue one is for recycling paper and plastic, while the yellow one is for recycling glass. Both those bins, side by side gave a certain look to the composition that I liked and for that reason the photo wasn’t converted to monochrome.
This photo was shot in Rome, Italy with a Fujifilm X-Pro1 and a Fujinon XF18mm f/2 lens.
If you’ve been following the streethunters.net website recently you’ll have seen that Spyros Papaspyropoulos and myself visited beautiful Rome recently for some street photography, and to record the Street Hunt #17 video which we released last week! The visit to Rome for street photography was my first time exploring the Eternal City, and I have to say I liked it very much! Rome is a very good city for street photos because it’s so packed with people, full of interesting and historic architecture, and the autumnal light in the city (when it’s not hidden by cloud) is just perfect!
The Little Italy neighborhood in Baltimore it’s smaller than similar Italian neighborhoods in New York and other bigger cities. It still has bunches of charm and character, though. It’s one of the city’s busiest restaurant districts, and with good reason… there’s a small bunch of excellent independent restaurants that offer delicious Italian cuisine. Even though it’s a very tightly-knit community, I’ve always found the people there warm and friendly. In the summer they show movies outdoors, projecting them on the outside wall of one of the restaurants. There’s also a public bocce court. And , Saint Leo’s church holds two festivals, the Feast of Saint Anthony, in June, and the Feast of Saint Gabriel, in August. During these festivals, a few of the streets are closed off, food, wine, beer and foods are sold, bands play and processions of the respective Saints march through the neighborhood.
