Personal Project: Street Photography

Over the first semester of this year, we were allowed a lot more freedom than we had been in the past to take pictures as we wanted to. Our main focus for this semester was ‘photographic seeing’, which means living in the world as if through a viewfinder, always seeing the world as the elements of a photograph. Over the semester, this skill grew and developed, and hopefully will continue to do so in the future. The principle assignment we were given was our personal project, in which we could decide the theme and subject, and over the course of the semester, take photographs of our chosen thing.

I chose street photography as my personal project. I freely admit to the frustration and difficulty of street photography, particularly in making each shot unique and memorable in a place that cannot be contained or controlled. My chosen theme helped to develop my photographic seeing because, having gone to different markets several different times, I was forced to imagine ways of capturing individual moments of real street life. My photographic seeing developed because I began to change how I approached many different subjects.

I went on two photo shoots for my personal project during the semester, but because of a series of unforeseen catastrophes (aka, my film was incorrectly developed), I was limited on the amount I was able to print. In the end, I had four photographs in total. The first photograph is from Chinatown.

The next three photographs were taken in Imbi Market, but they were very difficult to print because it was very dark inside.

Street Photography Mini Project

This shoot was the second time that I had gone to Chinatown to take pictures. Even though the area was generally unchanged, the experience was quite different. For one reason, there were a lot more people, particularly tourists, which made it harder to get clear shots of the stalls. Another thing that was different was the camera that I used. This time I used the waist-level finder. 

Though it doesn’t sound that much different, it took a while to get used to. A problem I noticed was matching up what I wanted to take as a photo to what the camera saw. The angle took some getting used to be because people walking in front of me would block the lens or get in the way. When you have a camera with a regular viewfinder, then people know you are taking a photo, but when it is with a waist-level, people don’t realize what is happening. The degree of anonymity is quite nice at times, because the subjects are caught unawares. On the other hand, it is annoying when people walk in front of your shot because they don’t know what you are doing.

The first photograph had a really light bottom third, so I had to to some considerable burning. In addition to burning the bottom, I also burned the top left corner. 

The second photograph was actually quite easy to print because I only had to up the contrast. There weren’t any parts that were far too bright or far too dark, so I didn’t need to do any burning or use the lollypop.

I think that that the fourth photograph is interesting because of the angle. I like how it is noticeably taken from lower that usual, and his lounging position thus becomes more pronounced.

For the fifth photograph had to have a high contrast, and because it was underneath a ceiling, it was quite dark. I had to lollipop the faces of the two people, particularly the woman.

Microphotography

For the first time we had a microphotography project as an assignment, which basically consisted of us walking all over the school with a spray bottle taking close up shots of newly-wet flowers and leaves. The camera body we used was the same as we have always used, but the lens was a special micro lens. Because of the lens’s specific depth of field, it was almost impossible to get a photo without selective focusing, which was really different than before. It was really interesting to see how the focusing was so different in microphotography than in other lenses, like wide angle.

The most interesting part of microphotography was seeing how the focus turned out in the final product. In some cases, I had meant to get more than one leaf or petal in focus, but only one turned out in detail, such as the following picture. The selective focus in this picture is of the leaf on the left side. When printing this picture, I had to burn the edges, especially the bottom, significantly so that they didn’t distract. Though I usually prefer not to have borders, I used them in this print because it brought out the leaves really well.

In the following image I burned the top of the print, testing several different times, making sure that it didn’t bring attention away from the flowers. The problem with burning the top was that the top right corner would get increasingly dark and distracting, so I had to make sure it stayed even. I brought up the contrast on this image because it helped to make the petals as well as the bee stand out and differentiate.

The last print I did was my favorite because of the flower itself, as well as the angle. Instead of being above the flower, I took it from the side, which made the selective focus was more obvious and interesting. The biggest challenge with printing this image was the contrast. Originally a pretty grey picture, I had to turn up the contrast a lot, making the magenta well over 100, so that the petals and the detail on them really stood out.

Photoshop Fun

Photoshop is used everywhere in the world of photography, whether its obvious or not. In some ways, we don’t even notice how a model’s skin is clearer than normal, or the green in a tree is more vivid than it should be. In other cases, photoshop is used ways to create an obvious effect.  Two examples of this that can be fun to make are panoramas and making multiple people appear in the same picture. 

Panoramas are made in photoshop by taking several pictures of surroundings that overlap slightly and are then stitched together automatically. These are my examples:

The panorama above is the view of Kuala Lumpur from my balcony of my apartment.

The panorama below is of the library at school.

Several copies of the same person/object can be made to appear on one picture using photoshop. Take several pictures, keeping the camera in the exact same place using a tripod, and move the person/object around in each picture. Then select the person from each photo and paste it into one to make them in duplicates.

The man in my picture above is my dad (and only a few of his vast collection of hawaiian shirts).

The pictures above and below have my cats in them. Foolishly, I didn't realize exactly how difficult it is to get them to keep still.

Chinatown: A Picture Story

A picture story is what the job description of a photographer consists of. Whether we realize it or not, each of us has a unique and individual vision and interpretation of the world, and photographers are only distinguishable from the masses because they are lucky enough to be able to show others what they see through their photographs. While others in my class showed their stories of idyllic islands in Indonesia, I chose to stay here in the city and visit our local Chinatown.

What I expected was not what I saw. The Chinatown I was expecting to see was one that was kept in a state of New Year celebrations all year long, paper dragons being constantly paraded down an alley strewn with confetti and stalls weighted down with firecrackers and incense. 

The reality was vastly different, and yet here and there in the hidden corners lingered elements of my former ideal. Chinatown was a single alley that was lined with basically three types of stalls: food, tourist products, and flowers. Hanging from windows were the remnants left over from Chinese New Year, golden goats painted on signs and doors, lanterns connecting lampposts and red streamers stuck in the wheels of old bicycles.

Despite this distinct lack of anything remotely resembling old clichés, there was something there that is missing from those spotless Hollywood sets, and it was the tangible feel and sounds of vibrant life that filled the smiles, eyes, and daily lives of the local storekeepers. Upon walking into the street, I knew that I needed to do my best to capture that life.

This photo is my favorite of the five that I printed. I think that it shows his work and the culture that it belongs to. He is cooking chestnuts, an old practice in the middle of the street and scent could be smelled from pretty far away. I caught him unawares with this photo, but after seeing me there, he smiled and laughed.

This man is selling cheap fruits that have come from outside the city. When I took this picture, a man (who looked like he hadn’t showered in days) came up and bought several bunches of bananas before stuffing them into is messenger bag.

This man had a line leading from his stall far down the street. Apparently his drink was popular.

These two women were extremely nice. They were selling peacock feathers (my mom bought ten) and seemed almost impossibly excited to sell them to us. I thought that the feathers were uniquely patterned, even surrounded by flower stalls as they were. I also took this photo for its display of the ethnic diversity that occurs even in a cultural center such as Chinatown.

I believe that anything that makes you stop and look twice (or several times) deserves a picture. I can honestly say I looked several times at this man standing on his head, mostly because it was something I hadn't really seen before, and haven't seen since. He stood out from everything else, and yet somehow fit right in to this crazy place.

Portrait Photography

Our latest assignment was to take two different types of portraits: environmental portraits and portrait eyes. This was my favorite photo assignment because it had more of a human element than the last ones. I thought that it would be awkward to take portraits of people, and it was at first. Once I told them that their portrait was for a class assignment, they were more willing to have their photo taken, though they often insisted on arranging themselves. When looking through my contact sheet, I found that the best pictures were the ones where the subject did not take a while to arrange themselves, but rather just smiled and behaved naturally.

There were two types of portraits that I was taking: environmental portraits and portrait eyes. The assignment called for two good photos of each kind. The difference between a portrait and a snapshot is that the subject is usually aware of the photographer in a portrait, and that they have a connection. In a snapshot, the subject or subjects might not be aware of the photographer.

Portrait Eyes: For a photo to qualify as portrait eyes, the subject must be making eye contact with the photographer and be looking into the camera. I personally preferred these to the environmental portraits because their faces tended to portray more emotion and allowed for more detail in their faces, especially their eyes.

For both of my portrait eyes photographs I had to burn the background because they were too light and so that they wouldn’t be too distracting and take away from the subjects. I chose both of these pictures because you can see a lot of detail in their faces and in their eyes and expressions as well as the clarity of the photographs themselves.

Environmental Portraits: Environmental portraits are when the background or environment of the subject is important to the photo. In portrait eyes, the background can be blurred or indistinct, so that it doesn’t really add to the photo at all. The environment in environmental portraits adds to the understanding, character, or story of the photograph.

For the first environmental, I used cyan to bring out the shadows around the subjects and then burned the bottom right corner. What I like about this picture is the contrast between the color of their shirts and hair, but the balance of their pose and the pots in their hands.

The second environmental portrait is one of my favorites because he was really excited to have is picture taken. The bottom part of the photo was burned because it was too white and distracting.

Composition Photographs

For this assignment there was a specific focus on four aspects of composition: natural framing, balance, leading lines, and texture. Though there are multiple definitions for each of these aspects, these are the four we used.


Natural Framing: when something in the picture frames the subject so as to focus the person who is looking at it. This photograph is of two guards that were sitting on a motorbike under a tree while on break.

Balance: having more than one subject of equal importance in the photograph. For this composition aspect, I originally used a photo of my dad holding a cat, but the cat was out of focus. I chose another photo for the assignment, but I took the first print home and gave it to my dad for his birthday.

Leading Lines: a picture with lines, either naturally or created, that lead to the subject. This photograph is of a guard outside of my apartment. I took it because I saw how the sidewalk, the line of trees, and the wall all lead to him.

Texture: either it is a photograph of a pattern, or the picture has no main subject. This photograph is of a banyan tree in the park. I liked the look of the trunk so I took a picture.

I took a camera home for the first time to do this project ad went out to KLCC to take most of the pictures. I think the biggest problem was getting pictures of people who would stay still and that it was really bright outside. To help with that, I used the lollipop tool when I was printing to let certain parts of the pictures have more exposure time than others so that the really bright areas could be more clear without the darker areas being to dark. I used this technique specifically on my natural framing photo because while the trees are in shadow, the building wall in the background is very light, so just let the center have a much longer exposure than the rest. It also came in handy during my leading lines picture because a lot of the photo is in bright light.