I’m slowly running down the 100 strangers queue I’ve had building up in Lightroom for some time now. This photograph was actually taken a few weeks ago, so I’ve forgotten much of the backstory involved. I’m not sure there was much anyway. I do like the fine detail in his skin and leather jacket though, gotta love medium format film! The other good news is that because I’m running out of characters, I need to go back out into the streets and shoot some more. I’ll try to get away from Nicollet Mall for the next batch. It’s just so easy to find interesting people there. Also, for the people who dislike my color shots (not that it really matters what you think about my choice of film), never fear, for I will be shooting black and white almost certainly for the next roll since I have quite the stockpile leftover from my trip to the Sand Dunes. That’s kind of the thing that bothers me about some commenters—-they comment on utterly subjective things like whether I shoot in color or black and white! I really do appreciate insightful comments about the technical aspects of my portraits, e.g., what is in- and out-of-focus, the composition, the lighting, but I can’t stand thoughtless, inane banter such as, “I don’t like your color portraits.” Well, sorry, they (my color portraits, that is) don’t like you!
This picture is the twenty-third in my 100 strangers project, to learn more and see the rest of A Brand New Minneapolis, click here.
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
This is off of my third roll shot on the ‘Mami. The first roll was nice, but boring. The second was exciting, but over-exposed (I’m thinking it was a combination of warming the developer next to the oven by accident and over-compensating my center-weighted meter), and now the third turned out better, only with a slight rolling malfunction (need to make sure the counter is all the way over before I load, otherwise the first 2 shots are on paper!). I also added a red filter into the mix to try and keep a nice depth of field using 400 film. I like this shot, but the others are too contrasty. I suppose red filters are useful when you have really dramatic skies and a light foreground, but if I’m shooting a bright background with a darker foreground, the foreground just gets murky. I don’t like murky, but I do like shooting Tri-x close to wide-open, so a 3-stop ND filter is on its way! I think I can also probably get away with shooting Tri-x at 1-stop over (ISO 200). The film should be able to handle the slight over-exposure and with portraits, that’s not a bad thing, right? The other big piece of news is that I’m about ready to start my project of street portraits around Minneapolis. Stay tuned as I work up the courage/skill….
P.S. These are sleds awaiting users at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington, near by childhood home. Problem with this winter is that it’s been too cold to be comfortable, too warm to keep much snow, and too undecided to get us nice ice on the lakes. I suspect that these sleds have not been used too much in 2012!
