MasculineCurves

art or voyeurism?

This image photographed with my iPhone 4 and edited using Adobe's Photoshop Touch iPad app.

Street photography... is it art or voyeurism? discuss in comments...

Back on the 365

I'm hell bent on not doing one of those cliche blogger New Year posts where I refelect on my biggest accomplishments and greatest disappointments of 2011. Though I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge my regret over the fact that I didn't keep up with my iPhoneography project SpinCycle365 last year. I only made it about 210 days before I abandoned the project due to the perceived notion that I had too much going on to be bothered (otherwise known as laziness). Anyways, I'm going to give it another shot for 2011. Above is my first urban landscape of the new year taken on the first day of the year. Check out SpinCycle365 to see what I found in my garage on the second day of the year. It absolutely creeped me out and prompted an erratic call to the landlord.

Tales of the City...

A few of the more interesting people who crossed my path during last week's San Fran trip. What might their stories be?

Spotted in San Francisco

 Hey guys... just returned from my San Francisco trip yesterday and brought back a few snapshots I thought you'd enjoy. Although this was primarily a business trip I did get to spend a day doing some iPhone street photography. I snapped about 700 images from the trip and obviously it will take me a while to get through them all. Look for more to come in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Last summer....

A rediscovered iPhone shot from my Chicago trip last summer (edited with the Instagram and qbro photo apps).

San Francisco Triptych

I've posted these shots from my last San Francisco trip before, but here they are revisited with the Instagram app (my new found iPhone addiction in case you haven't noticed). I'll be heading out to San Francisco next month and I can't wait to hit the streets with my camera...or my iPhone.

Street photography poll... here's what you said!

Well, it’s the end of January and of course I’ve got the mid-winter blues and achin’ for Spring to bring another street photography season. A while back I posted a poll and asked you, the readers of this blog, your opinion on being the unsuspecting object of a street photographer’s affection. The question: How would you react if you were surfing the web and happened upon a photo blog (like this one) and saw a picture of yourself that was taken in a public place unbeknownst to you?

A total of 109 readers responded to the poll and here’s what they said:

It's good to know that the majority of you would be flattered, and quite a few would be so elated to the point of spreading the word your new found fame. However, I can understand the perspective of those who would be less than happy about the possible exploitation of their image. I think the ethics of street photography is something all of us who practice the art are most conscious to uphold. By the way, in the United States anything that occurs within public view is perfectly legal to photograph. There is no expectation of privacy if it happens in public, right? So if you're doing something in a public place that you know you shouldn't and don't want it to get recorded.... then don't do it!

Oh yes, the ethics of street photography. Are there any? I'll be writing more about this topic soon. Meanwhile, street photographer Eric Kim recently posted an interesting blog on this very topic. Read it here.

"Hot" on JPG

 
I'm humbly flattered that the folks at jpgmag.com have officially deemed two of my street portrait images as "hot." Interestingly, both of these images were shot in my favorite street photography city, San Francisco. 

about a man...

Speaking of Oakland (see previous post) I shot this frame a couple years ago in Oakland. It was shot from the hip with my Nikon D80. I was in a crowd on a main downtown street and since I didn’t have the view finder up to my eye I wasn’t sure what I was capturing. I’m intrigued by this image because it seems to make a social commentary on growing up a black man in America.  There’s a lot of action going on here by the participants in the frame. A young black woman far in the background. A father, a mother, a baby stroller and a young boy in the mid-ground. Also in the mid-ground is a hip-hopster stepping off the curb. And the subject of the photo, a father and his toddler son on a bicycle, emphasizes the role of fatherhood in black America. To me, the scene feels like an urban twist on a “Norman Rockwell” painting. See a larger version of this image on my jpgmag page.

A San Francisco treat!

Wassup fellas?! So I've just returned from my west coast trip, and while not an official stop on the American Boy Tour,I did manage to cram a wee bit of street photography into my schedule. I'm working feverishly on my photo album from this trip, so hopefully I'll have it posted a little later this evening (be sure to check back later). Though I brought my DSLR with me, it was pouring rain in San Francisco the day I was there. Since I didn't want to risk damaging my $1200 camera I shot everything with my iPhone (including the image above). I'm sort of fascinated with the concept of iPhoneography as an art form, so this was an unexpected but welcomed experiment.

What would you do?

Okay, so I'm curious. What would you do if you were surfing the web and happened upon a photo blog (like this one) and saw a picture of yourself that was taken unbeknownst to you? The scenario in the image is obvious. You were walking down the street and someone with a camera took your picture. Would you be flattered that the person behind the lens thought you were intriguing enough to photograph? Or would you be offended that the image was taken without your permission? Regardless of how you feel about it, you might be surprised to learn that no laws were broken. It's an art form known as street photography which is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions, and other settings (wikipedia definition here).

So, like I said, I'm curious, what would you do? Take my street photography poll located in the upper right column on this page (or click here).

iPhoneography

Rally's at E. 55th and Woodland, iPhone 3Gs (Camera Bag app, Holga filter)

My BlackBerry finally kicked the bucket last week, with no loss of love on my behalf. As I’ve mentioned before here on the blog, I’ve long been envious of my blogging colleagues who post their cool iPhone pics on their web spaces (particularly Matthew Rettenmund’s “Guydar” feature). So with the BlackBerry in the grave I ended my seven year relationship with T-Mobile and headed off to Best Buy and signed a two-year contractual  obligation to AT&T. All that just so I could join in the iPhone fun.

Sure, I could have stayed with T-Mobile (and I will miss them) and opted for the MyTouch Google phone. Afterall, according to all the online reviews I’ve been reading, the Google phone is a fair opponent of the Apple gadget. In some cases, reviewers rated the MyTouch over the iPhone. But, you know what? In the end it’s simply not as cool.

In high school I had a science teacher , Mr. Cascioli, who was a gadget geek. This was in the early 1990s, a time when the PC was just becoming a household item (yes, I wrote most of my English papers on a word processor – remember those?). I remember sitting in class when Mr. Cascioli announced that there would come a day when the computer would be our main source of entertainment. He told us we’d watch t.v., listen to music, shop, and even video conference all on the computer. Well, this was all sort of a little far-fetched for all of us.  ‘That eccentric Mr. C,’ I thought. Never did I imagine that all this would come true. Not only did it come true, but now I do all this on a device that fits in my pocket. After three days of owning an iPhone I can truly say that Apple has left no stone unturned. I couldn’t be more happy with the iPhone (or, as I like to call it, my “iBrain”).

Best of all I get to practice the art of iPhoneography. Of course, the camera phone as a street photography tool is not new to me (recall my BlackBerry series). But there’s something about the way the iPhone takes pictures that is very artsy to me. I liken it to the old Polaroid Instamatic. Just like shaking a Polaroid picture, the camera app on the iPhone is loads of fun and produces a pop-art image that can’t be replicated by any other camera phone.

So, with no further ado, I’m introducing a new category here on the blog, iPhoneography, which will replace my BlackBerry series. Oh, and if you’re wondering, I discovered (ironically via a Google search) that iPhoneography is, indeed, a real term to describe the art of iPhone photography.

Two Guys Walking, Shaker Square (CameraBag app, Holga filter) 

 
West Side Market (CameraBag app, Magazine filter) 

West Side Market (CameraBag app, Colorcross filter)

West Side Market Cafe (CameraBag app, Holga filter) 

Father of Two (CameraBag app, Mono filter)  

Hand Held

 

Night Conversation on Milwaukee Avenue...

Da boyz in da hood...

The Cleveland Street Photographer

Today is the perfect day for good ‘ole pavement pounding street photography in the CLE. Skies are overcast (see my “photography tip” at the end of this post for why this is important), and the weather is a cool 68 degrees with no humidity.

Yesterday I experimented a bit with the car driving street photography technique, but today is all about immersing myself in the environment. Despite being my hometown, Cleveland is quite the challenging city for the street photographer. Unlike a larger city, such as a Chicago or San Francisco, foot traffic here is light, making it difficult to go unnoticed. And in contrast to larger cities where people carry cameras on them all the time, people in Cleveland are suspect when they see the black box strapped to my neck. It’s like they see me coming and run the other way. I think they must think I’m some sort of law enforcement officer or a private eye attempting to catch them in the act of being up to no good…LOL… but really my objectives are quite innocent. Simply capture life in the environment of the street. Now, you may be thinking this is somewhat voyeuristic. And perhaps it does teeter between the lines of voyeurism and journalism. That’s why there are some common rules that most street photographers adhere to when they’re out there. It’s about balancing morals and the right to use reality to tell a story. I’ll be covering these rules in an upcoming post, so be sure to check back for that.

But for now, I am heading off to the transit station to buy my day pass. I’ll be bussing, walking and training it all over Cleveland today all in the name of the art of street photography. Follow me on twitter as I’ll be tweeting any interesting events that occur along the way.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Most people think that outdoor photography is best on a bright sunny day. More sun, more light. Seems to make sense, right? Actually, overcast weather works much better especially when you are photographing people. Direct sunlight is harsh and can cause challenges by casting unflattering shadows on your subject’s face (particularly under the eyes). Overcast skies create an effect similar to a soft box studio light by casting an evenly diffused light.

object in the rear view mirror...

I was a bit bored this afternoon so I thought I'd go out and try a street photography technique I read about on another photographer's blog years ago. His tip was to shoot from your car instead of going out on foot. I really like how this shot came out. But I must confess, I flipped the image horizontally in Photoshop so the letters on the street signs wouldn't read backwords. See a larger version of this shot on my jpgmag.com profile.

emcee

The Tourist

 

San Francisco - August 2008

Asian Appreciation

 

San Francisco - August 2008