Tag: photography

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Flickr a Day 96: ‘Stranger 2/100 – The Constant Gardener’

The second of three random street portraits comes from the photographer simply known as ταηjεεr. The image is among his contributions to the 100 Strangers Flickr Group, which we met yesterday. The project’s challenge: To become a better shooter and improve social skills. Subject storytelling is part of the process.

Self-titled “Stranger 2/100 – The Constant Gardener” refers to Mohammad Nurul Huq, who “works as a Site Caretaker for the historic Lalbagh Fort in Dhaka, Bangladesh”,  ταηjεεr explains. “What intrigued me most was how extremely proud he was for his work. His eyes lit up as he proudly announced that every taka he ever earned was absolutely honest”. The government employee is from Shariyatpur. 

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Flickr a Day 95: ‘Stranger 51/100 | Easter Parade in New York’

We celebrate the second major Christian holiday with the first of three random street portraits. Michael Tapp captured the photo for the 100 Strangers Flickr Group, which ethos states: “Take at least 100 photographs of 100 people you don’t know. Approach anyone or a group of people, ask for permission to both take a photo of them and to post it to this group. Get to know your stranger/s. Who are they? What is their life like?”

The 100 Strangers project challenges a photographer to “step out of your comfort zone and into a new level of portrait photography”. As I write, there are 10,500 group members. From my experience as a working journalist, approaching random people for comment, photo, or video is a learning process that’s difficulty increases as you age. Youth and appearance are assets that can put anyone at ease. 

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Flickr a Day 89: Dreamy

What Gabriela Camerotti chooses not to post on Flickr is more interesting than what she does. She treats her photostream like a literal pond or stream across which pics skip like stones. Today’s selection is good example. She presents more photos from the model shoot on her Tumblr. That one, and others, deserves your attention. Her work is best appreciated seeing each image in context of the others.

There is a youthful vivaciousness to her fashion photographs—dreamy, sensual, and surreal are all appropriate adjectives. Colors typically are soft, and she shies from heavy contrast and strong saturation except when deliberately producing specific mood, such as retro-look. 

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Luna Moths

On the afternoon of June 14, 2004, something quite remarkable happened in my Kensington, Md. backyard, about which I briefly posted on that day. My wife urgently called me from my basement office. Beautiful butterflies had taken up residence on my daughter’s snow sled, which she had dragged out and left for some inexplicable reason. I immediately recognized them as something better: Luna moths.

I was an amateur bug collector in my youth and teens (someday I should tell you about raising praying mantids). So interested, I came a hair’s width from majoring in entomology (e.g. study of insects) in college. I dissected a good number of animals during anatomy and physiology classes, but nothing grossed me out more than cutting open a cockroach. But I digress. 

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Flickr a Day 88: ‘High Hats & Goggles’

While compiling this series for the past 88 days, my appreciation for black-and-white photography increased immensely—particularly people. Belgian Fouquier shoots little else. “I am a firm believer”, he says, “in the Ted Grant quote: ‘When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!'” Mr. Grant is a renown Canadian photojournalist, living in Victoria, British Columbia.

Fouquier’s photostream is filled with screaming B&W street photography that demands close attention. Today’s selection, self-titled “High Hats & Goggles”, shot on July 27, 2012, is fine example.

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Flickr a Day 86: ‘Broken Glasses’

Among the best Angus Stewart photos are those this series cannot feature, because they are All Rights Reserved. “Double Dubious“, “Sneaky“, and “Three’s a Crowd” are examples. He shot today’s selection, self-titled “Broken Glasses”, on March 6, 2008, using the Leica D-LUX 3 compact. Vitals: f.4, ISO 100, 1/30 sec, 15.6mm.

More recently, Angus uses the Fujifilm X100S, although his newest, 2015 photo was shot with the Leica M rangefinder. That’s a big step up from the D-LUX seven years ago. He joined Flickr in April 2007. His hometown is Tumbleweed, Suffolk, United Kingdom, but Angus lives in London, where he works “with a range of performers including circus acrobats, clowns, burlesque, tumblers, this remains an ongoing personal project”.