22 Jul hit the streets {29/52}

Warning – photo heavy post ahead. I took SO many photos this past Saturday, it took me forever to weed through them all. I hate when that happens, but I couldn’t help myself – I love street photography.

I’m not going to lie though, it does take a bit of chutzpah to go out and photograph random strangers. It’s certainly not a hobby for everybody. I find though, that the majority of people who find my lens aimed in their direction are perfectly fine with it. Some will even stop and strike a pose and have a chat with you. Others, like myself, are just plain old camera shy and you need to recognize that and keep walking. I’ve met some great people with my camera. The issues then, for the most part, lie with us. Me. But I find that each time I go out and photograph strangers for this purpose, it gets a little easier.

A little kindness, a friendly smile and a whole lot of manners and common sense is all it takes. Golden rule? Do not offend or do anything even remotely offensive and you’re all good. Kinda like your basic life lessons.

This gentleman was a real character. And when I got home, I noticed that he had shown up in a lot of my other photos too. hmmmm … who’s stalking who? heh. I took both of these shots (and a lot of the following ones as well) ‘from the hip’ so I’m not even sure if he realized I was taking his photo. Regardless, he gave me a cheeky grin when I walked on by.

A little detour down the side street to the Farmer’s Market where this lovely lady had a great deal on those sunflowers. I really hope she’s there again next weekend so I can go and buy a few bundles. I love me some pretty sunflowers.

I absolutely loved the way these two fellows were mirroring the wood carving beside them. Totally engrossed in their conversation, they didn’t spare me a glance, even when I stepped in front of them for a different perspective.

A lot of weekend bench sitting going on. This lady seems to be doing a little “sight seeing” (I did too…sshhhh)

and I just love this shot, even though it’s not overly technically correct and could have used a little better focusing on my part. She was selling chocolate bars and it was HOT outside. Cute little thing. Reminded me of The Little Match Girl, though I’m sure she’s not suffering such dire straits :)

I love this one too, mostly because I used one of the tips I read last week, about waiting for your subject to walk into the frame. I saw this guy and his friends go into the store so I leaned up against the building, camera to face like a weirdo, focused on the door frame and waited for them to come back out.
Bonus points for him looking at me.
Extra bonus points for not being flipped off :)

No people in this photo (pity!), just a wickedly cool stairwell. And a possible future photoshoot location.

And this sweet girl was the highlight of my day. Seriously, how cool is she? And she could SING! Amazing voice on her. I tossed a five in her guitar case and she was happy to smile for my camera. I have quite a few of her and really should go back and give her a few prints. She was awesome.

And that’s about it. Well, all that I’m sharing right now. There are still a few to go through and weed out that you may see pop up in my flickr stream at some point, but these were my favorites from the day. I also spent some time working on some new lightroom black and white presets for these photos, specifically trying to reach that street journalism kind of look. They’re still a work in progress that I may or may not share in the future. We shall see.

Hope you enjoyed my little walk about town! I honestly had such a great time and could have spent the entire day doing what I do. I promise, it does get easier if you stick with it :)

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