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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF IMAGES BY THE RUNNERS-UP

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We received hundreds of great “Street Photography” entries last month, which were very difficult to narrow down! We applaud our readers for the wonderful images they’re creating and wish we could spotlight even more of them. Congratulations to 1st Place winner Walter Quillinan, 2nd Place winner Brock Rhone, and 3rd Place winner Jeff Wiles. Also, please check out the Street Photography images taken by our talented runners-up, which appear in the accompanying gallery.

A Fly on the Wall
Public places provide excellent opportunities for shooting spontaneous images of strangers and street scenes. People who enjoy this type of photography have devised many ways to keep from tipping off their subjects. You can shoot from afar with a long lens (telephoto zoom lenses are great for framing a variety of street scenes). Or perhaps you can take a page out of the book of the master French street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who worked at fairly close range with a non-obtrusive compact rangefinder camera. He managed to photograph “the decisive moment” without calling attention to himself. With most of today’s small compact digital cameras, you can also take pictures in a very subtle manner. It’s a good idea to set your camera on automatic, or preset your aperture and shutter speed according to the conditions outdoors. This way, you won’t have to fiddle a lot with camera settings and you’ll have more time to capture fleeting moments.

With practice, you’ll learn to visualize the scene through the lens before you lift the camera to your eye for the final framing. Sometimes you can make your presence less obvious by shooting from a shadowy doorway or from behind the corner of a building. You can even approach some subjects, such as street performers. You’ll find that some subjects may not mind if you shoot their picture, as long as you promise (and follow through) with a print for them.

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High Dynamic Range Imaging

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDR is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in scenes ranging from bright sunlight to shadows.


1st Place: “Red’s Lobster Shack” © Walter Quillinan. Walter has won Extensis Portfolio 8.5 for this colorful scene of a popular streetside fish eatery, rendered in HDR technology. He says, “This photo was taken in Wiscasset, Maine. I had been planning on doing HDR on my vacation in Maine and this scene fit perfectly. I used a Canon EOS Rebel Xti with a Canon EF 70–200mm f/4L lens. The image was then processed in Dynamic Photo HDR to create the effect.”  

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Point of View

This photograph is a creative view of a chess game, whereby you don’t see much of the subjects in the image, although you know they’re there. With practice, you can learn to see visually, to recognize what psychological and emotional associations the visual elements in your image will evoke. Point of view and cropping are significant ways in which you can get your message across, and you can often create a more dramatic image by not showing the entire scene. Practice this by choosing the cropping that will underscore what’s important, and eliminate those elements that you can do without.


2nd Place: “Players” © Brock Rhone. Brock has won Corel’s Kai’s Power Tools Collection for his insightful view of a chess game. He says, "This was the last of a series of 14 shots of chess players on a downtown corner. The
sunlit hand with a cigarette and watch caught my eye.  I was brave enough by this point to get in close, and with black-and-white conversion and careful cropping in Lightroom, I attempted to get a pleasing composition of only the essentials."

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Right Place, Right Time, and Ready

Street portraiture is almost always done spontaneously. An observant photographer can snap an effective portrait almost anywhere, which can reveal a lot about the subject. In a situation like this, you can concentrate more on capturing fleeting expressions and the subject’s character than when you’re concerned with lighting and posing. With time, you can learn how to anticipate behavior and expression. You’ll also learn how to frame the image so that you get just what you want without a lot of extraneous distractions.


3rd Place: “Old Colony Tap” © Jeff Wiles. Jeff has won a Hoodman Hoodloupe Pro for his image of local “color” (in black and white)  at a quaint town’s brewery. Jeff says, “This is what street photography is all about. I captured ‘Old Colony’ while my wife and I recently visited Provincetown, Massachusetts, a one-of-a-kind destination known for—among other things—its local color. Street photography is a skill I’ve practiced for years. Although the near misses far outnumber the keepers, the satisfaction of catching this gent’s eyes and character makes it all worthwhile.”

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In addition to these prizes, all winners will also receive a copy of Railroads of Pennsylvania, Your Guide to Pennsylvania’s Historic Trains and Railway Sites by Brian Soloman (Voyageur Press).

Take our next Double Exposure Challenge! Look for details on “Photographing Fall” in this issue.

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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF IMAGES BY THE RUNNERS-UP

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Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to Lynne Eodice.