My first brave tries at street photography. Last Saturday evening, the town held their annual Light Up The Park festivities where they turn on the park's Christmas lights for the first time each year. There were two distinct opportunities for street photog, and I took advantage of both. This is only the second time I've been brave enough to do that! Tonight I'll post one, and tomorrow I'll post the other.
The guy in this picture has been swinging like this for at least the last 10 years. When we first moved to town, we rented one of the condos across the street from this park and spent a lot of time there. Back then, this guy's hair was long, kinky, curly afro-style, and when he was swinging, it would fly back and forth the whole time. And he always swung this high. We would see him a couple times a week doing this. About 7 years ago, we decided we would stay in this town and therefore bought a house, on the other side of town sadly, so we don't spend as much time there as we used to. But here he was the other night, and I had my camera with me, so I turned to my left to the river and snapped a couple shots, then turned back towards him and quickly got a shot of him, then back to the river, then back to him. It was getting pretty dark, and this is under a bunch of pine trees, and my ISO was at 1000, and I had to turn the exposure up a couple stops in post-processing, so this is not technically a great shot. BUT! It's a street shot, and I was brave enough to take it!
Oh wow! This is very nicely executed Ashley! Bravo for summoning the courage to pull off the shot, your timing is excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the style from you!
@icamera Thank you! Definitely a compliment coming from you! Tomorrow's shot will be one I actually ASKED the guy (a different guy) if I could take his pic, and he said yes!
Great story! I always feel uncomfortable taking candid pictures of strangers. I have seen some great street photography on this site, and often feel inspired to go out and try it. I would like to go to the park and swinging every day. It would be fun, and maybe keep me feeling young. Great shot, Ashley
@shesnapped Look forward to it! In my opinion, asking takes even more bravery so I have to give you props for that. It's almost necessary to ask though if you want a good environmental portrait. On the other a lot of the spark that attracted you to them as a subject kinda (sometimes) seems to dissipate as they go into "pose mode" and (again sometimes) takes some effort to get back. For that reason I greatly admire one who goes through the effort to ask permission and gets a nice image...looking forward to it! :)
Great action shot! You captured him at just the perfect moment, and in focus too! If I'd dared to take this shot, it surely would've been blurry. Neat story you shared about this guy's apparent love of swinging.
sounds like there's a story connected with the fellow. Does he ever talk with people? I love the contrast of the relaxed mothers with his determined swinging face. Perfect timing
