Now officially over the 1/2-way point of Year 2 in the Photo-a-Day project, I decided to head downcity at lunch for some street photography. This would be the first true street photography outing for the 100mm lens in that I wouldn't be at a specific event where the action is somewhat predictable. While walking down South Main Street, I spotted these two waitresses at a local restaurant moving a large statue of a cow into position in front of thee establishment. The timing was perfect. I've often seen the cow at that spot, but this is the first time I've ever seen them moving it there. It's apparently a lot lighter than it appears since the two girls had no difficulty carrying it.
For those with an interest in street photography, you'll notice that I've made a slight change to exposures after using this 100mm for several days now. There is an old photo-journalist's adage regarding how to get a great candid. They say, "just shoot f/8 and be there." That's what I had been doing in virtually all of my street shots. Well, I've now moved to a different setting: My ISO is now 640 (up from 200), and I'm shooting f/3.5. This is accomplishing a couple of things. For anything with a busy background, the f/3.5 allows the subject to spring to the foreground. It adds enough of a background blur without eliminating the setting. The ISO 640 is allowing a much faster shutter which has helped capture some very dynamic scenes. (The image stabilization in the lens helps as well.) Since this lens focuses extremely fast and it's extremely shot, it is rapidly becoming my "go to" lens for street photography.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, boost black, boost white, and contrast. A sepia photo filter was added in PSE.
