New Path

I went out and shot a bunch of street stuff yesterday and I am processing it in color which is a break from my normal black and white.  I wanted to try it as an experiment just to see if I liked it.  I’m torn because some of the images look really good in color but I know if I pushed some of  them to black and white they would take a so-so photo to something more interesting but it made me realize I’m taking so-so and just turning it black and white with the impression that it’s better.  It’s still, well, crap.  I need to get better.  While I am dithering about color and still processing them, I am going to share three images that just don’t look good in color. I walked a new path back from where I was coming from and these are three of the images that I got from taking a new path.

The building shot with the bent lamp is something I won’t pick apart.  I like the view and I drive past it every day going to work and I wanted to shoot it. I framed the lamp on purpose in the shot to give some perspective.  I didn’t realize it was bent like that when I took the shot and I think the bent lamp just gives the image that certain something.

I see this gentlemen on a different set of benches everyday when I leave the parking garage from my building. I was walking back towards the building when I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I got as close as I wanted without ruining his expression and snapped the image. I also have to be careful because my building is under heavy security because of government offices in the building and a bank. There are surveillance cameras everywhere as well. I have had someone complain to security before when I was shooting the garden. Luckily the security guards know me and my habits so they told the person complaining I was harmless.

I am annoyed at this picture. I like it well enough but I really wanted it better than what it came out. The guy had such character and I didn’t want to intrude on his world but in retrospect I should have just walked up and asked for the portrait. I’m hesitant to do that because I don’t have business cards yet so some strange person walking up and saying they are photographer may not cut it where as business cards give me some legitimacy.