What I Did on My Vacation—Part 6

All the photographs this week will be shots of people at the Spearfish art festival. Most of them were taken while the students from Steve’s guitar classes set-up for their performance.

The technical aspects of these photographs are not really very interesting. All were taken hand-holding my Nikon D3 using my Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6. Post processing was limited to what I could do in Lightroom (Camera RAW for those not using Lightroom).

A few members of Bay Area Photo Club have asked me what I look for when doing street photography. The simple answer is something that is interesting. Interesting can be the person’s general facial features, their expression or what they are doing. But, the bottom line is the subject must have something in which I am interested in. Secondly, I look for subjects that I can isolate, so that what drew me to the subject can readily be seen in the image. As to equipment, I tend to use either my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR or my Nikon 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 VR. I prefer the 70-200, because it is extremely sharpe and I really like the bokeh it achieves at f/2.8. But, the 70-300 is an excellent lens and is the lens I usually take on trips because it is compact and much lighter than the 70-200. With these lenses I am able to keep my distance and not disturb what is going-on.

As to the “ask” or “don’t ask question” regarding street photography. I usually ask. I always asked when it comes to minors. However, the asking sometimes is after the fact. If the person objects to a photograph that I have taken, I erase it while they are watching and thank them for their time. Many people have heard me say this, many times, “the vast majority of people will agree to having their photograph taken if you ask them nicely.”

In Texas, we have signs that say: “Don’t Mess with Texas.” A sign above this boy might read: “Don’t Mess with My Popcorn.” What drew me to this young man was two things: the position of the hands, one on the straw ready for a little liquid refreshment, and the other in the popcorn bag; and that look which is the reason for the photo’s title. I took properly ten shots of this guy and his hands never moved and he never blinked. When I showed the photos to his dad (golf shirt backdrop), I got: “That’s my boy. Could I get a copy?”

Who needs fancy toys with batteries? This young man not only entertained himself, but also me. He would take the bottle in his mouth and then flip it into the air and count the number of revolutions it would did before he caught it near the ground—the record was 8. Just for the record: he did not catch it every time, but it was ok for him to put it back into his mouth because it never exceeded the “five second rule.”

Enjoy.