Sunday afternoon overthinking

[scarlettina]

Overthinking, as usual.

Spent the morning with my friend BC in Ballard: We had a tasty brunch at Vera's and then strolled through the Sunday Market.

Generally speaking, I'm not a terribly shy person. But somehow, if I have my camera with me, I get shy pretty damn quick and I'm not sure why. It might have to do with the fact that I've spent so much time by myself. It might have to do with my often having used my camera as a sort of filter in situations I think are cool but in which I'm uncertain how to interact. Take a look at some of my Flickr sets--I rarely take pictures of people unless they're people I know. Having BC with me for moral support (though I'm not certain he understood that to be part of his role this morning), I managed to unclamp my otherwise usually loose lips, talk to folks and take some pictures of stuff I don't usually shoot: people. There are only a few, though. The doggies were out in the market today--Seattle does love its dogs--and a couple of them had wonderful character. I think the doggie shots are my favorites. Here's the set, including a couple of shots of my friend of years, BC.

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I like taking pictures of people...but only if they don't notice the camera. Therein for me is the problem, to get far away enough you have to break out the longer lenses... and a big fonkin' lens just gets you noticed quicker.

I like honest pictures, can't do poses. We hates them.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Check out Beat Streuli:

http://www.beatstreuli.com/

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Those portraits are wonderful; really great snapshots of life on the move. Something struck me, though, as I was looking at pictures from all over the world: No one looks happy or relaxed. Everyone looks serious, determined, preoccupied--but no one looks like they're just enjoying themselves. It's actually a little disturbing. I often find that commonalities bind people together. These pictures seem to suggest that we're bound together by the things that pull us apart: worry, tension, isolation, being elsewhere instead of being present. Certainly photography can capture this better than any other medium in terms of immediacy. At the same time, these images show a world that is not necessarily a hospitable place to live.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

A lot of the earlier photography in those sets seems to use quite a bit of color saturation and overexposure...not a bad thing necessarily (I prefer the look myself) ... the later sets seem to capture the "human in the wild" idea that I prefer, however, the distance of the subject loses intimacy with the viewer (IMHO).

But overall, thank you, I always like being exposed to new photographers. There's a Russian photographer (she's an indie and an amateur) whose photography (again, IMO) is really quite promising: ruprixru is her LJ name, her website is

(http://ruprix.ru/)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Only one of the shots I included in my batch was posed, and it's just because the woman had such a great smile and attitude. I'm pretty satisfied with all of them. Did you have a moment to look at the gallery?

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I did... I hope you didn't think I was referring to your photoset...I was just voicing my .02c.

I like the doggie pics best. The little brown collie-mix (?) is adorable. I'll take 5.

[herself_nyc]

Lovely pictures, all. And that brown dog is a beauty.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I totally crushed out on the brown dog. She was so sweet and came to me as if she knew me and we were old friends. I didn't want to let her go. She was darling.

And thanks!

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

This YouTube documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bve1QAve6JU&feature=channel_page) made me think of you today. It's about a photographer who has held a fascination with the Deep Down Dirty South^tm for years now. I like to describe his projects as 'photojourneys.' His photography, while often posed, still tells a story. He talks also about how he has learned to be 'more brave' with his photography by getting lost in a large crowd with his camera.

---that whole channel (The Journeymanpictures Channel, has 3500+ documentaries, most of which are simply poignant and brilliant).