The city 6
July 22nd, 2007
I took 334 pictures on Saturday. Here’s one of a tour bus.
I always take a lot of pictures. I know there are plenty of photographers who don’t take so many pictures. I imagine that they plan a lot and frame each picture carefully in the viewfinder, and walk all around their subject and make sure it’s perfect, and then they snap one picture. Meanwhile I’ve snapped 30 pictures and the subject has walked away.
I’m not saying those people aren’t good photographers. But I think for all their planning, their photo might not be any good, but one of my 30 is likely to be good.
By “good,” I mean bloggable. Actually the ratio is more like one per 100. That means out of my 334 I expect to find three or four that I’ll feel like putting on here. But since this is a meta-entry whose subject is taking pictures, and since I’ve already titled it “The City,” which is a name I use for grab-bag posts that have a lot of pictures, I might post more today. Please bear with me!
I went down around Parliament Hill. Here’s a big beaver. Don’t it make you proud to be Canadian?
There were hordes of people down there. I took a lot of pictures of crowds of strangers. As usual when taking pictures of crowds, many of them have someone in them who is looking right at the camera.
I like this picture quite a bit. I think it’s simple and well-composed, and the subject is attractive with an interesting expression.
I’m aware that the actual meaning of her expression might be something along the lines of “Don’t take my picture you bastard.” But I have no regrets. I’m just doing what I do, and I think if she ever saw this blog she wouldn’t be upset. She’d probably want a copy. Or if she really didn’t like it, I’d take it down. But as a non-professional outlaw street photographer, I don’t take names or get signed releases the way the pros have to do.
When you’re down at Parliament Hill, it’s hard to resist taking pictures of those big faces on the wall. The ones advertising the portrait gallery. Unfortunately the portrait gallery has been relegated to the role of political football - Harper likes to feint a pass out to Calgary, to please his cowpoke voter base - but the faces are still there.
Most of the photos I’ve taken of the big faces don’t really amount to much. There has to be somebody walking by. Here’s one that I think is ok.
This one has the usual guy looking at the camera. And a couple of pretty girls. How could you go wrong with that?
I’m not sure what principles are at work when you are taking pictures that include dramatic man-made things like the big faces. I know that for me, those are often the most appealing city pictures, like the one up above of the tour bus. Are the big man-made things just like natural phenomena, such as clouds and mountains, that anyone would want in their photos? Or am I using somebody else’s work?
I think it’s fair game. Here’s one that is just some posters in windows. I took it in the Market. I had nothing to do with creating the posters, so you might say I’m using somebody else’s work. But I think it’s a good picture. I like the colours and the confusing look you get when you photograph stuff in windows.
Someday they’ll take down the big faces, and then I’ll wish I’d taken more pictures of them. I might go down there today and take a few hundred more. ;)
When you get big crowds on Parliament Hill, you also get a lot of people with cameras. Being a meta kind of guy, I like to take pictures of people taking pictures.
I think it’s interesting how people hold their cameras out in front of their faces nowadays. They do it because they have cameras that don’t have proper viewfinders, just a screen on the back. I like the faces people make when they’re taking pictures.
The most interesting people I saw taking pictures were these Buddhist monks. At least that’s who I think they are. There were two men with cameras, and a little flock of women with big-billed hats. Here some of the women are advising one of the men on how to take a picture. I hope he gets it right this time!
The women. And their young, brightly-plumaged, non-billed friend. Maybe she is somebody’s daughter.
Sometimes you can isolate people in a crowd and get a good picture. I think this one, of one of the Buddhist men, is pretty good.
This one too. But even though this one shows the man’s face and has a pretty girl in it, I think the other one is better.
Updated later on: Not that it matters… but on second thought, I don’t think there were two Buddhist men. The man looking up at the wall, above, appears to be wearing a turban, and his clothes aren’t really the same as the other man’s, although they are almost the same colour. My mistake!
After that I stopped stalking the Buddhists and headed up where all the statues are. I like this one of some guy with a bird on his head. I didn’t catch his name; no doubt he is a famous ex-prime minister. He doesn’t look like he minds having a bird on his head.
Another picture I like from Saturday is this one of a woman on a bike. I like the colours.
On my way home I stopped at an outdoor patio for a refreshing beverage. And that’s the end of this long meta-post. Bye for now!
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Excellent post Robin! And excellent photographs too. You definitely have a street photographer’s eye.
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Zoom, thank you for saying so!
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Enjoyed the mullings on principles of who you shoot. A lot of good shots there to enjoy too.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
I just stumbled across this looking for something else and I love your people photography. ^^
All of the men in robes were Buddhist monks, and the women in robes, Buddhist nuns. The monk photographing the wall is wearing a hat, not a turban, and he too is a monk. The young woman is most probably a Buddhist lay person.