Sometimes One Good Photo is Enough

Division Street Walker, Chicago, 2011

So... I've been out shooting a few times since may last post. I had a great photo shoot in Hudson, Wisconsin but came home to find that none of the photos turned out, and then I went out yesterday and shot along Division Street in Chicago for a few hours. Between those two shoots, I had taken a lot of photos - many of which I was excited about. Sadly though, I only came out with one good photo. Luckily, I really like the photo and it might just be enough from keeping me from being angry about the rest.

The lesson to all you budding photographers out there: KNOW YOUR CAMERA! And pay attention to it. As long as I've had my D300 and as well as I know it, I still made a major mistake two times in a row! I had inadvertently changed an ISO setting on my camera when I was shooting some concert photography (that will have to be another blog post) and never changed it back. The result was a lot of grainy photos that I wasn't at all pleased with.

However, sometimes it just takes one good photo to make it all better. This "Division Street Walker" is now one of my favorites and is also on my site at http://jwight.500px.com/ in my "quick takes" collection.

Mission Street Psychic

"Mission Street Psychic" San Francisco 2010

Another post and another photo from San Francisco; I had taken quite a few pictures during my trip there so the next several posts will probably feature photos from the city. I had spent a long morning in the Mission District of San Francisco taking pictures of the colorful murals, the sidewalk markets, and the churches when I came across this storefront psychic. I was setting up for the shot and noticed that the psychic (or someone who worked there) was sitting in the entry way. She saw me framing the shot and kept herself partly shaded by the building. I liked the mysteriousness of her just peaking out from the doorway and the harshness of the light combined with the strong geometrical elements of the gate, sign, and window. I wish I had a chance to talk to her and get some stories but this photo will have to serve as the story in itself...

Food and Weed

"Food and Weed" San Francisco 2010

Just like for most folks, the new year brought with it new resolutions for me. This is one of my resolutions - my first attempt at a photography blog. I thought it would be a nice complement to my website - a way to share pictures and stories that I normally wouldn't. We'll see... I've admittedly tried to blog before and failed miserably. My hope is that this will be a little more successful. I have no rules right now for what I post or when I post it - other than the obvious requirement of a photo. I'm looking at this blog as an opportunity to share photos that are uncharacteristic of my past work, experimental, trivial, or just easier to share in this format than on my website. (My website is cumbersome to update - I'm working on it though.)

I thought that this would be a good photo to start with because it really is uncharacteristic of my past photographs which are generally landscape or architectural in some way. I've thought about starting various portrait series at different points but this photo came as happenstance on a recent trip to San Fransisco. I am generally shy about shooting people - especially on the street - but these two were willing models and did not even need to pose! I rarely shoot photos so tightly in the frame (I usually like wide shots with a lot of negative space), but I think that it is inevitable for portrait work. I like the angle that the car makes in this photo, the skin tones, and the mood that is created by the different facial expressions that the two men display.