Where Do You Need to Improve?

For me, it's in the area of night photography.  I love looking at relatively crisp night shots, with every detail visible.  My favorite night photographer is Marius Vieth.  I think his photos are absolutely amazing.  My night photos could definitely use some work.  I usually take photos in the day time.  When the sun goes down, my day is pretty much finished.  Recently, I've been having the desire to shoot new things, and since there is always something new to learn, I decided to try night photography again.

These pictures were taken with my Canon S110 point and shoot when I stepped out to go to the grocery store tonight.  Unless I'm taking photos of my family or friends, I always shoot in manual.  I used to shoot in aperture priority, but I just got into shooting in manual mode after a while.  I'm also challenging myself to not edit my photos in any way.  No dodge, no burn, no cropping, etc.  Not even straightening a crooked picture.  None of the little things that a lot of us don't really consider to be altering a photo, so these pictures are straight out of the camera, unedited.

1/40, f4, 5mm, ISO 1600

1/25, f4, 12mm, ISO 1600

I think the first picture isn't that bad.  It's relatively sharp, at least to my eye.  I like how the street lamps have that pointed star pattern.  I'd love to take my T4i out with a tripod and see what kind of shots I can really get, but in my neighborhood, when the sun goes down, best not carry anything that will trip you up or weigh you down, or to put it more plainly, don't carry anything around your neck that's worth more than your head.

The second picture is blurry, but not so blurry that the details of the picture are lost.  For night shots, I like them to either be complete devoid of people, or without only one or two people at the most.  I like to capture things the way that I see them.  Even though New York is referred to as "the city that never sleeps", unless you go to someplace like Times Square, you don't really see that many people at night.  The night time is usually a very isolated time, and I like to take pictures that capture the mood of darkness.  The loneliness, the isolation, and how even with all of that, the night can still be beautiful in it's own way.

What area of photography do you feel that you need to improve?  What methods do you use to better your photography?

Liquor Store Incident

A few days ago when I was out trying to get some good street shots, I walked down this one block that was partially closed off for construction.  There was a liquor store down this particular block and a guy just standing outside the store.  I was already weary because as I stated when I posted this on my Flickr page, I don't have anything against people who go to liquor stores.  However, when you hang out at the liquor store, and in the daytime no less, you've got some problems.

As soon as the guy spots me and my camera, he starts with the stupid remarks.  "Oh, yeah.  Paparazzi.  Paparazzi."  I ignore him and keep walking.  As I pass him, he says to my back "I love you.".  That does it.  Few things in this world piss me off more than douchebags who insist on "giving compliments" and flirting like sleazeballs.  I turn around and say "Excuse me?"  He says "What?  I was talking to her" pointing to a woman who just happened to walk by.  "Why would I talk to you?  You're ugly."  (Yeah, I'm heartbroken that some drunk loser thinks I'm ugly.)  I aim my camera at him, and he does the following gestures.  I made a collage, complete with a full on face shot of the douche.

In between flipping the bird, he kept saying "Put this on Facebook!  Put this on Facebook!".  Thank you.  I did.  My only regret is that I wasn't able to get a video.  The sidewalk was narrow on account of half of it being blocked off and I didn't want to be the jerk who was preventing people from being able to get by.

Graffiti Project

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am starting a graffiti project.  I've been working on it for almost a month and so far I have walked around Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Just from what I've seen so far, I have to say that I've found more interesting graffiti/street art in Brooklyn, but that's just a personal preference.  As someone who was born, and spent the first seventeen years of my life, in Brooklyn, it holds a special place in my heart.  Most of these pictures from Brooklyn were taken around the Williamsburg Bridge area.

Near Williamsburg Bridge.  Sometimes the things people write are just as interesting as the things they paint.

Taken in Brooklyn.  This is definitely one of the more colorful examples of street art that I've seen.

Taken on the Lower East Side 

It seems that I am drawn to colorful skeletons and apparently I am drawn to the work of this particular artist.  I noticed that the name by the skeleton was Bradley Theodore, and it sounded familiar to me, so when I got home I checked some of the photos in my "graffiti/street art" folder and I came across this photo:

 Funnily enough, it was in my last post.  His work is so eye catching.  I wonder when I'll happen to come across some of his art again?  When I was looking up the artist, I found that this is actually a mural near L'asso Pizzeria on Kenmare and Mott streets.  As a New Yorker, I am all about pizza, so I might have to drop in there next time I'm in the neighborhood.

Stuck in a Rut

As much as I love photography, there are times when I just get stuck in a rut.  I always seem to walk the same routes and it does get a bit tedious after a while.  Sometimes it just feels like you've photographed every thing there is to photograph.  There are a few different ways that I like to handle this problem.  One way is to just snap pictures of anything.  Lots of times, you'll think that you've gotten absolutely nothing of interest, and then when you get home and put the pictures on your computer, you'll see that you've come home with a few keepers. Some of my favorite shots were snapped when I either wasn't going for them, or when I was going for something completely different.  Take for instance, this shot:

The light was changing, so I had just changed my camera settings and was about to take a test shot when this father and daughter happened to walk in front of me.  As I was waiting for them to pass, I noticed that they were dressed alike, and I thought that they looked so cute walking down the street that I took a picture of them.

Another way that I combat the blues is to go out with a specific idea in mind.  At first, I thought this seemed to be kind of limiting.  I mean, how could you possibly get good shots if you were only shooting a specific subject, right?  Well, my very first time using this method helped me get some pretty good shots.  Walking around NYC, you see graffiti all over the place, but it is such a part of the landscape that you don't really notice it.  Every once in a while, you'll see something funny, but for the most part, you see it without really seeing it, if you know what I mean.  I decided to work on a graffiti project.  Here are some of the shots that I've gotten in the past few weeks.

If anyone knows exactly where this is, I'd love to know.  I was walking around Soho and then I wound up here.  I'm not the greatest at directions, and when I'm out walking and "zoning out" as I like to refer to it, I never notice street signs.  I had another picture without the woman walking in front of it, but I liked this one better.

This was taken in Soho near Mercer St.  I wanted a picture of the wall, but a group of tourists was there for almost five minutes, taking multiple shots (with only one person, a few people, different poses, etc.).  Then, the man with the jacket comes along and takes their picture, so I take a picture of all of them.

Taken while walking along the Lower East Side.

Another shot taken while walking along the Lower East Side