dent Posted June 10, 2009 Share #1  Posted June 10, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Three weeks ago the M8 joined me during a short 15 minute dive through the crowds of Verona. All ten shots are zone focused (35/1.4 asph), shot from the hip or with the camera briefly risen to the eye. I just moved with the rhythm of the crowd and let the scenes develop in front of me. Big fun. The M8 rather loud/weird shutter noise was almost not noticable outside and drowned in the city´s background noise.  jochen elfgen - mindful photography- powered by SmugMug  Thanks for viewing. Sorry for the big logo still clogging the site. Just scroll down. I just created the site and I´m still fiddling with the configuration.  Jochen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 10, 2009 Posted June 10, 2009 Hi dent, Take a look here Classic street shots with M8. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
pmun Posted June 10, 2009 Share #2 Â Posted June 10, 2009 I think your portrait shots are much more compelling. The street shots give me a taste of the atmosphere, but do little more. Streets photos like this seem a bit aimless to me, and they certainly lack the presence of your portrait work, which I enjoyed. Â http://www.urbanpaths.net Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfspencer Posted June 10, 2009 Share #3 Â Posted June 10, 2009 I really like the shot of the dirt road. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_w Posted June 11, 2009 Share #4 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Jochen, I can't believe you got such crisp street shots with zone focusing -- what settings did you use? Â Also like the portraits, as others have said. Great portfolio. Â Thanks for posting. Â Robert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Realphotos Posted June 11, 2009 Share #5 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Not so keen on the recent street shots and its because I looked at your "portfolio" first and you have many many wonderful shots here. You really set the standard very high. These Portfolio shots are descriptive, sensitive, beautiful, special momentary glimpses,full of a travellers story. They really are very interesting. You can ponder on so many of them as their meaning comes to you. Your moment (that decisive point head/heart) of picture taking is really rare. Where as your more recent "street shots" strike me as much more light hearted whimisical experiment. Please take from this my intended big positive coment for your main work, no hard critisim meant for the recent ones. Â PS I am at the begining of building a site with SM so interested to see you have personalised it as you have. Only some random trial folders at the moment testing old analogue video digital uploads etc It takes time as you know. Neville Porter Photography Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dent Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share #6  Posted June 11, 2009 Thanks to all of You for Your detailed feedback! Sometimes it takes some weeks or months to find out what´s wrong with one´s own photos. And the hints of other photographers. You are right. "Light hearted experiment" is what it was and how I felt doing the shots. I think I´ll eventually remove them from the site. It´ll take me just one or to more looks at them :-)  Robert. I don´t know the settings. Since some weeks I carry the M8 with me all the time. I do not do many shots recently but for some lenses I know from the position of the rings if the lens is wide open, medium closed (for DOF) or focus is infinity or in the range of 3-5m. The rest is a good portion of luck.  Most of the other shots in the portfolio are composed more carefully. This takes a LOT more courage and self confidence while approaching the subjects (as You all know). As an amateur getting in this mood usually takes me some days of shooting. Now traveling with a family defineltly shifts the focus away from photography. Shots are taken on the go and quickly. Postprocessing is done 5am in the morning before I go to work. Still I would like to experiment more with these spontaneous street shots. Just to feel what´s in for me. I´ll keep You updated.  Jochen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dent Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share #7  Posted June 11, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Neville, I like the layout of Your site a lot. The logo looks very professional and tasteful and was lots of work I suppose. Especially Your Italy and New Zealand shots are awesome! The layout of my smugmug site is more or less straight out of the box. That why I choose this service. I do not know any html which would makes things easier. Photos are exportet from the slideshow function of LR which allows adding a simple frame and logo. Perhaps I´ll find some time working on the overall layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted June 11, 2009 Share #8 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Jochen, thank you very much for shaing. Like others, I browsed through your other work as well. You have a sensitive eye, that brings out the best in some subjects. It's great to see you experimenting with street photography, but I feel that you are not quite there yet. There is a slightly quirky edge to some of your work, and there are a couple of the street shots in which this comes out, but many are a bit - no pun intended - pedestrian. Â I think that there are two ways to practice street photography - go with the flow, and pass through the crowds seeking the shot, or station yourself and wait for the shot to come to you. The former is the harder - trying to nail a moving target while on the move yourself - and this seems to be what you have set out to do. I applaud your use of prefocusing, and suggest that you go the whole hog and use manual exposure as well - Sunny-16 (or Sunny-11) is well suited to this sort of approach and frees your mind for composition and timing. Â I know Verona - an interesting mix of ancient and modern - and it is a good city in which to work. Above all keep practising - your hit rate will increase with your confidence. Â Regards, Â Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanidel Posted June 11, 2009 Share #9 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Agree with most of the comments. Nice website and presentation, great portraits yet the streets shots do not have the same level. It is very easy to do street photography if one means walking around and taking shots of people. Where it gets harder is to create pictures that tell something interesting (apart from "I am crossing the street" or "two guys talking"), have sound composition (creativity gets a plus) and show pleasing aesthetics (though pleasing is subjective of course). When you get the three things in the same shot, you got a keeper, the rest IMO is mostly trash. I find it very difficult to get keepers. Bill nicely described the two approaches to street photography. The walking with the flow is the most difficult has there is no set parameter. While standing and let the shot come to you is easier as composition can be somewhat preset. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dent Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share #10  Posted June 11, 2009 Yanidel, thanks for the link to Your blog. I find some of Your photos really outstanding. They are good inspiration and strongly making their point within the discussion. Especially I like Your post processing with the nice cold/warm color balance play.  To all: I deeply enjoy the links to Your photo pages. Are there any more :-) ??? It´s a welcomed diversion from the often hard ware centered threads (no pun intended).  Jochen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted June 11, 2009 Share #11 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Hi, Â Some excellent work there, but I also agree with the comments above. Â To me street photography has to be something more than just simply a photograph of a random stranger in the street - there usually has to be some or story interesting situation to catch my attention. At least you mostly shoot from the front rather than showing us photos of peoples backs! Photo No7 is great! Â Have a look at the work on this site iN-PUBLiC | Photographers especially Matt Stuarts work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted June 11, 2009 Share #12  Posted June 11, 2009 Hi,  Have a look at the work on this site iN-PUBLiC | Photographers especially Matt Stuarts work.   Great link, James...I hadn't seen the site, or Stuart's work...excellent stuff. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndjambrose Posted June 11, 2009 Share #13 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Jochen, I can't believe you got such crisp street shots with zone focusing -- what settings did you use? Â Hmm. I wonder if Robert is being ironic? One of the things I noticed is that hardly any of these shots are in focus. One is in clear focus, two are nearly focused, I think. The rest are good examples of what happens when you're learning to zone focus. Â I've shot plenty like that too :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem7 Posted June 11, 2009 Share #14 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Jochen, Â The street shots are OK but MAN OH MAN your portfolio shots are AMAZING! Stick with that as you are VERY good. Your portrait and documentary work in your portfolio section is top notch. Â Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dent Posted June 11, 2009 Author Share #15  Posted June 11, 2009 Thanks, Steve for Your feedback which I deeply appreciate. And thanks again to all for the open critics. Your coments motivate to practice more! James, excellent link to "in-puplic". I did not know it and I´m always glad to find such treasure chests.  Jochen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografr Posted June 11, 2009 Share #16 Â Posted June 11, 2009 Agree with most of the comments. Nice website and presentation, great portraits yet the streets shots do not have the same level.It is very easy to do street photography if one means walking around and taking shots of people. Where it gets harder is to create pictures that tell something interesting (apart from "I am crossing the street" or "two guys talking"), have sound composition (creativity gets a plus) and show pleasing aesthetics (though pleasing is subjective of course). When you get the three things in the same shot, you got a keeper, the rest IMO is mostly trash. I find it very difficult to get keepers. Bill nicely described the two approaches to street photography. The walking with the flow is the most difficult has there is no set parameter. While standing and let the shot come to you is easier as composition can be somewhat preset. Â Well stated. I completely agree with these comments. Good street photography is considerably more than just walking down the street clicking your shutter. A person should be able to look at the photos and know immediately why they were taken. There needs to be some compelling reason that comes through visually.This can take the form of someone's body language, expression, or simply the juxtaposition of someone against a background that creates some interest. In general, photographs that show no more than someone just walking down the sidewalk are intrinsically boring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DES Posted June 11, 2009 Share #17 Â Posted June 11, 2009 I agree with the main theme of comments. Your considered work is superb,I loved it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
underground Posted June 12, 2009 Share #18 Â Posted June 12, 2009 # 29 gets my attention. Â You have a good eye my friend. I like your work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulus Posted May 4, 2012 Share #19 Â Posted May 4, 2012 As a already said. Your photos are very inspiring to me. Very good work and sometimes funny too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ming Rider Posted May 5, 2012 Share #20 Â Posted May 5, 2012 I'm not too keen on the Firefighter shots. I feel the genre has been done to death since everyone seems intent on creating their own 9/11 classics. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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