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Hunting for beauty and balance, camera in hand
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35hunter 
Look at that, you playing with some street photography 🙂
Robert, thanks for noticing! I’m exploring a few areas around the town where my son does trampolining, while I wait for his class to finish.
The sun was getting low and making some pretty intense and appealing shadows. A trio of runners went by, their shadows were long and interesting. I thought about taking a shot but didn’t. Then 30 seconds later another three passed so I thought I’d seize the moment the second time. It’s about as close to street photography (at least with people in the frame) that I get.
That video interview of Sean Tucker was very inspiring, it’s nearly all about light and shadow, with people just as another element, not like the candid or portrait kind of street photography I’m uncomfortable with. Pretty sure he was a subconscious influence here. It was with my little Ricoh GRD III too!
There is certainly some Tuckerism in the picture. If you don’t listen too much to the purists, there are countless approaches to doing “street”. Always good to pick one that you feel comfortable with.
Yes that documentary really impressed me, and how when he was out walking there was hardly anyone about, he was looking at light and texture and shapes, he just happened to be in an urban setting.
I like it a lot.
This is very nice, very artistic…
It is also a good example to illustrate the way I view a lot of modern black and white photography… as not really photography.
I mean, nothing wrong with this – it’s a piece of art in my opinion.
But it reminds me of those filters/software that were a bit popular some years ago – where you uploaded a picture, and it would then allow you to see that picture as if it had been drawn with a pencil, or with water colors, or an oil painting, or a paper collage.
The current trend of super-high-contrast back and white images reminds me of that kind of art – which is now, I would argue, art – and no longer really photography.
Not that it really matters what it’s called 🙂
I hope you and yours are well.
Thanks Chris, very interesting thoughts.
The Ricoh GRD III I made this with, using its high contrast mono mode, gives probably the most abstract images of any camera I have. Other cameras with a high contrast mono mode like the Lumix LX3, FZ38 and XS1, and Pentax Q, increase contrast but don’t make it look almost like it’s becoming a charcoal sketch, in the way the GRD III does, in certain lighting. So I completely get what your saying and with some photos it comes out just too abstract for me, too much loss of detail.
I tend to think of all b/w photography as abstract actually. Ours eyes see in colour, so removing the colour is a pretty radical abstraction from reality. Yes you can have b/w images that still look very natural, but I still see them as abstract. I personally don’t like b/w photos that are hundreds of subtle shades of mid grey, with nothing that’s really black or white either end. Much prefer having blacks that are inky deep jet black and whites that are crisp are bright – even sometimes if that means they’re a bit blown out, as happens sometimes with the GRD III’s mono mode.
I remember those filters on early paint programs. They were called things like pencil sketch and watercolour. Some older digital cameras have them in their scene modes. And most of them were pretty hideous, ha ha, much like those over-processed HDR images with cartoon like colours and where everything looks like it’s turning to liquid.
I think this mode with the GRD III, plus it being super pocketable and a joy to use, make it such a great sketchbook camera. Yes, with the right settings, the lens and sensor can deliver fantastic images, but most of the time I just love making these snatched sketch type b/w photos, like the one above. Kind of the opposite of a DSLR, with manual focus lenses and aperture and taking minutes per photo getting everything just right. I love this too, but sometimes I just need the complete opposite to shake things up!
I like what you said about all B&W pictures being abstract in a way.
I like B&W when it has a nice contrast between well lit and darker areas, where the light is falling on the subject in a beautiful way. And there also needs to be textures.
Sometimes I look on prices on those older GR Digitals, they never seem to come down here in the US. They are certainly well regarded and well sought after.
Yeh the Ricohs hold their value. I think though that less honest sellers are advertising the older range (GRD, GRD II, GRD III, GRD IV) with the smaller sensor (all 1/1.7″ I think) and riding on the higher spec, and greater knowledge of the newer GR models, which all have the larger APS-C sensor, and inflating the prices, hoping to catch naive buyers out.
I would like to pick up one of the original GRDs, just because they were the original (digital, at least, they had a great film GR range previously) and simplest. It’s quite hard to even find them in searches as there are so many of the later GRs coming up. And many/most of them are so old they no longer work anyway, and even a working one might only last a matter of days!
Edit – they are out there, but a lot of money for something that’s a lesser version of what I already have, and as I said, might only last days…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124886810291
A truly lovely shot.
And the GRD III is one of the great small cameras ever made.
I owned one briefly and in my own pantheon of cool small and small-censored cameras, it is and was one of the best. My other two favorites were an older Lumix LX7 (a wonderful camera in its own right) – and one of the lovely small-sensored cameras which Fuji discontinued years ago, the X30. Of the three, the GRDiii wins the smallest-and-most-pocketable prize hands down – but all three are exceptional cameras. The little Fuji’s (the X30 was the last of the series which began with the X10 and continued with the X20) have one element I have come to value: a smallish but eminently usable EVF which allows accurate fine-focusing, when one is so inclined.
The light and shadow of this monochrome shot are very very cool.
Thanks Miguel, for your kind comments.
Yeh I love the GRD III. I have the LX7’s predecessor, the LX3, which is a pretty fantastic camera too, with that lens, and the dynamic mono mode…
Great frame, Dan! I love the backlighting.
Thanks, and glad you liked it, I couldn’t resist those long evening shadows.