Color Street Photography

April 05, 2017 by Ming Hung in Street Photography, People

I generally prefer producing and seeing street photography in black and white. However, sometimes color works. I guess monochrome gives images that "classic" street photography look, but I do not think photographers should say this should be one way and that should be another, but to just concentrate on creating the best image they can. There are too many rules. Rules are great guidelines--especially for those learning photography--but each artist has the freedom to do a variety of things for any given shot.

As I approached this couple I fired off a shot as they were setting up for a selfie (or is it celfie?). I captioned this image the way I did because at a quick glance the man's profile reminded me of famed comedian Jerry Seinfeld. I liked this scene because of the blue of the sky and in the two glass buildings, and the muted colors of the other buildings and the couple's clothing.

I was fortunate that this woman walked by because I wasn't waiting for any particular shot. I saw her and I saw--I'm pretty sure subconsciously--the golden light from the restaurant and I tilted my camera that was hanging by my navel toward the woman. I am still a bit shy about shooting street photography with the camera up to my face. I fire from the hip over half the time. It's something I have to work on.

I noticed this man as I was waiting to cross the street. I hoped that when I got to him that he would still be preoccupied with whatever he was doing on his phone. He did not disappoint. And he was standing right in the middle of the sidewalk! What attracted my attention was his outfit. To many people a plaid pattern is loud or tacky. I would not say that this man's plaid jacket was particularly loud in that the colors are not vibrant, and so it meshed well with the drab, gray day.

Click on images to view on black.

Peaceful Protest

February 21, 2017 by Ming Hung in People, Street Photography

There were two anti-Trump protest rallies/marches this past weekend, February 19 & 20. The first was on the one month mark of Donald Trump's presidency and the second was dubbed "Not My President's Day," a play on the holiday. I originally thought about approaching these protest/street style shots in monochrome. However, people made all kinds of colorful signs, and the makeup of the diverse crowd was colorful as well so I shot it in color, with Fujifilm's classic chrome film simulation.

I do not have a zoom lens for my Fuji X-Pro2. I spent my time switching between three different prime lenses: the 23, 35, and 56mm lenses (35, 50 and 85mm full-frame, respectively). I was kind of slow with my lens changes, although I don't feel like I missed any shots. The difficulty I faced was that I would see framing for the lens that I did not have on the camera, lol. The next such event I go to I might just carry one prime with me, and that would help me to just look at framing scenes for only one focal length.

There was a band called the Sousaphones Against Hate. They played some Pink Floyd tunes and standards such as "The Imperial March" (Darth Vader's theme).

What I found myself doing was just taking picture after picture of signs, something I didn't want to end up doing the entire time, but I saw interesting signs every direction I turned. I just chose this one to share here randomly.

There were three pro-Trump supporters at the rally--that I noticed anyway. The interactions between them and the anti-Trump crowd made for more compelling images.

This red, white, and blue clad woman with the megaphone repeatedly chanted "Happy Trumpiversary! He is your president..."

It was great seeing young people engage like these two young men talking to the pro-Trump guy in the suit. There was some yelling from both sides, but this guy remained calm and talked rather than yelled. That's something we all need to remind ourselves to do. The boys asked him some questions, but I wasn't able to hear over other protesters who were trying to drown out the pro-Trumpers.

The woman in black was really trying to drown out the pro-Trump woman with the megaphone. She led various chants, and the anti-Trump crowd responded.

There was a group of Muslims who arrived together, perhaps bussed in for the event. I missed a shot when they arrived. One Muslim man was taking in the rest of the crowd--how diverse it was, how loudly they chanted, and how they were all there to support Muslims and each other. The man nodded and his eyes were welling up with tears. Seeing the emotion on his face touched me. That was the only shot that I regret not getting.

This was my favorite sign.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."

Click images to view on black.

Chinese New Year Parade

February 08, 2017 by Ming Hung in People, Culture

There are two lunar new year parades in Chicago. These images are from the "south side" Chinatown. I am a lazy photographer, lol. I went out only twenty minutes before the parade was to start so I did not have a good spot from which to shoot. I must confess. I have not been to this parade since I was a child. So when I started the editing process I knew I wanted to use some film presets for a "retro" look. Only problem is that digital grain doesn't look exactly like film emulsion, but hopefully the mood comes across in my images.

I actually got a good spot for the lighting of these strings of firecrackers. Switching to the Fuji mirrorless camera system has been great. I can use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to shoot shots like this. I just stuck my arm up in the air and looked at the screen. I never shot with live view when I was in the Canon SLR system. I like the people across the street covering their ears.

Most of the time I spent at this spot I had to look through a window such as this. I need to be a little taller!

I was shooting pictures of Chinese members of the American Foreign Legion parading by when this gentleman walked into the scene. I included the image because I like this character.

I like it when the guys swoop the dragons down toward children in the crowd. Some kids delight in it and some show apprehension like the little girl in pink below.

I will forever have the lion dance drum and gong beat in my head.

I don't have great images from the parade, but it was still hard to keep the number of images here to a limit. I don't want these photo essays to be very long, but I don't have a very good reason for that either. I'm still trying to figure out what this blog is supposed to be.

Click images to view on black.