Mastering Street Photography

[Robert Watcher]

Being that I posted my Costa Rica travels on this forum, I thought that I would share some of my experience while shooting the people - for those who may be interested. I am focusing on one aspect only . . .

Mastering Street Photography

I'm not sure how many were able to or were interested in following my threads and web journal, Documenting the Adventures of the Travels Virgins Rob and Anne Watcher during the winter months of the last 2 years . . .

. . . during that time, I successfully was able to generate 1000's upon 1000's of stock images of our travels. Of course, this was nothing new or unique as there are 10's of thousands of websites dedicated to personal photography from trips people have made to such exotic locations and even to Costa Rica itself. Most images however - particularly the case with Costa Rica - are of beautiful vistas, vibrant foliage and wildlife, and captures of all of the popular attractions and tourism sites featured in the endless commercial books and websites selling vacationing in this beautiful area of the world.

Don't get me wrong - - - I have my share of those images also. But the truth is that birds, animals, landscape and scenic vistas and tourist locations hold little interest to me. I like looking at them, but my love when it comes to photography, is "CAPTURING THE PERSONALITIES AND EXPRESSIONS AND LIVES OF PEOPLE".

I particularly love it because while the same bird and scene can be captured in almost an identical way by any capable photographer and most locations have been photographed to death where it is virtually impossible to provide a new or original photographic perspective - - - that is not the case with people. Every image taken, is only a momentary slice of the persons life and expressions at that time. Another photographer taking a photo of the same person from a different angle or perspective or moment in time, will have a completely different image and story behind that image.

Hence I will dedicate this thread to the success that I had in capturing 1000's of captivating people images during my time in Costa Rica, where I had minimal equipment available and had no knowledge of the language of the people I came upon so that I was incapable of communicating with them verbally.

I will provide some of my methodology and technique that I have Mastered with my Street Photography. Hopefully it inspires you to make the best use of your photographic skills in capturing the essence of people - whether on the streets of in more controlled situations. I will post numbers with the images and please feel free to comment on any picture and ask questions if there is something you are curious about.

I hope you enjoy> > >

1 )

 

[Robert Watcher]

EQUIPMENT

I am a photographer who prefers light, compact and simple for my gear. One Camera - One Lens, for the most part. If the variety of scenarios that I come across and that I want to capture were not so broad a spectrum - - - and if I were only shooting one style at a time, I would be able to specialize even further by having the most compact camera with the single focal length, fastest and sharpest lens possible. As an example if I were only shooting from the hip on the street, I may use a small body that almost hides in my hands - with a small fixed focal length wide angle large aperture lens attached. Or if all of my photography were outdoors peeping in on my subjects without their knowledge, I would want a long reach lens.

However that is not the case for the projects I am doing and the interest in so many things that I have, and so I have to compromise. I am documenting all that is around me and seldom get the chance to return to the same location to find differing content - and when shooting I am generally on an agenda where I don't have the time to stop and analize and look for the best way to shoot something - along with the fact that all of our travel is by bus and walking and many times in what are considered dangerous areas where discretion is needed and so dangling 2 or 3 cameras with different specifications and lenses around my neck, is out of the question. In order to successfully capture everything that I see that interests me in the most versatile way . . .

. . . my preference and what I used, was a single small bodied digital slr with a single zoom lens attached that allowed for wide angle shooting as well as reaching in from longer distances. My ideal multipurpose lens was the Nikon 18-200 VR that I used for much of my shooting last year. That provided me with an effective 28mm to 300mm and with the Vibration Reduction I could successfully shoot at shutter speeds down to 1/20'th second and less.

2 ) Nikon D40 with 18-200 VR lens at 20mm (35mm equiv) setting

3 ) Nikon D40 with 18-200 VR lens at 200mm (300mm equiv) setting

Unfortunately for me this year, I did not have the versatility of my Nikon 18-200 lens being I had switched to Olympus gear for my professional work shortly after returning from Costa Rica last year. Olympus simply does not have such an extended focal range in their line up. However, all was not lost with my using Olympus. Firstly I benefited greatly from my 12-60mm standard lens which provides me with the 35mm equivalent of 24mm on the wide side, and an incredibly sharp even wide open at f2.8 Zuiko quality fast focusing lens. Fortunately the 120mm 35mm equiv on the long handled many situations, but was not near as nice as having up to 300mm to work with. For days when I knew that I would be using longer focal lengths, I replaced my 12-60 with my Olympus 70-300 for a 140mm to a 600mm equiv range for incredible reach with the Image Stabilized body feature. The other area where I benefited with my Olympus 4/3 cameras, was the extended Depth of Field that that format provides. For my wide angle street photography shot at f5.6 to f8, it was hard to miss focus.

4 ) Olympus E-510 with 12-60mm Zuiko at 12mm (24mm equiv) setting - f6.3 @ 1/640'th 400ISO

----

My standard camera settings are VIVID for maximum visual impact - sharpening cut back so that I can choose my own sharpening settings in Photoshop or Lightroom. Exposure is always either Program Mode letting the camera decide on the combination of shutter speed and aperture to use - or Aperture priority when I need control over the aperture - particularly with my long 70-300 lens. Focus is Auto Focus, generally with the AF in the middle unless I have time to set it to one of the side ones when there is no content in the middle of my frame.


----

 

[Robert Watcher]

While on our travels, I had a couple of DISTINCT DISADVANTAGES

Firstly, I am not an aggressive kind of guy and even in my professional work prefer to shoot from the sidelines in an attempt to not be noticed. I have had wedding brides comment to me after the wedding day, that they had friends or family ask if "they had a professional photographer at their wedding" as they didn't notice one.

Of course, I take that as a compliment being that I have captured and provided my client with an incredible number and variety of images with great natural and relaxed expressions - photographs that document their day fully and that they are proud of.

In actual fact, while I have no problem taking charge when needed at a wedding or with a portrait and am a natural performer when the "lights are on me and it is camera and action" - - - I do not like confronting people or even really conversing much with them, and am more or less afraid to approach strangers.

This became a real issue, when I was presented with photographic situations that took place right in front of me, where I felt awkward and was sometimes afraid to ask to take the shot or afraid to pull out my camera and point at what was going on. In one particular case, when Anne and I were in a rain storm on the streets of a remote town that we were a little uncomfortable being in - - - the rain was gushing from the store rooftops, being directed out into the middle of the street with a long trough. 2 men suddenly took their shirts off and started bathing in the middle of the street, laughing and singing and scrubbing down. The sun started to backlight them. We were in amongst the locals huddled under the store overhang trying to keep out of the rain and I really had issues as to how they would take it if I were to start shooting. That image or series would have been my "National Geographic" prizes - - - but they got away and are the one shot out of the 17,000 shots that I have taken in Costa Rica, that I wished I had the courage to take.

Secondly, as I mentioned - I do not speak Spanish and don't know anything about the language (although we were a little more educated and got along better this year). Being the areas we frequented were virtually 100% unilingual (Spanish), I relied on smiles and pointing my camera at people I came across, to "imply that I would like to take their picture if it was OK".


---

But I did have a Strong Suit - - - and that is my natural ability to get people to react favorably to me and look at me as non threatening. In my professional work, I am able to get my subjects to relax very quickly, almost forget that I have a camera or look through it to me, and provide me with relaxed and natural expressions. I personally know few of my clients and have this success - and so was confident (and hoped) that the Costa Rican strangers would react the same way.

5 )

----

 

[Robert Watcher]

Walking the Crowded and Noisy Streets of the capital city San Jose while walking to and from banks, eating establishments, museums, bus stations, etc - was a favourite opportunity that I took advantage of to "SHOOT FROM THE HIP" (kind of) and get some great photography of people on the move and carrying on their daily activities.


Even though I disguised what I was doing quite well, I would always be surprised at the end of the day when editing my images - how many people were aware that my camera was there and were looking directly in to it as they passed by.

6 )

 

[Robert Watcher]

I would hold my camera cupped about waist high, with my hand wrapped around the front of the body with my thumb on the shutter - - making it look like I was holding the lens and not in a shooting position. I did not just fire randomly, but was always looking for developing content in front of me AS I WAS MOVING ALONG, and then would direct my camera that way as they passed me or as I passed them. Particularly of interest to me were people with children, couples walking arm in arm, people sitting and talking on benches, etc.

7 ) Of just as much interest to me as the mother and little girl weaving back and forth when shooting this image, were the 2 sitting talking on the bench under the tree. I was aware of them when shooting and framed this one pretty good in camera, to include both parts of the composition - and have burned and dodged in processing, to highlight both

8 )

9 )

10 )

 

[Robert Watcher]

Sometimes when I wanted to shoot interesting content that was going on to the side of me while I was walking the boulevard, I would wrap my camera strap around my arm and just hang my camera to my side of me - with my finger on the trigger, lens aiming to the side shooting vertically. Because of the panning involved in this technique, there quite often was some movement - especially when the subject was moving also - - - but even then the effect worked.

11 ) I saw these animated fellows standing along retainer wall of the central park, and fired off about 3 shots as I walked by. All were interesting, but I like this one best.

12 ) What caught my interest with this man coming at me diagonally, were all of the "bums" lined up in the window behind him. I walked toward him on an angle so that I would be sure to include them in the frame. My camera was in the vertical hanging position, but swung a little more to the front resting on my thigh

12.1 )

12.2 )

 

[Robert Watcher]

MY FAVOURITE TIMES THOUGH WERE WHEN I ASKED FOR PERMISSION TO TAKE THEIR PICTURE

13 ) I passed by this fellow reading his paper and smoking in front of a Soda in the Market - and although I found his character (face etc) very interesting, I did not want to be obvious in shooting without asking, was a little afraid to approach him and disturb him. And so I passed him by. When Anne and I returned from getting our meat from the Meat Vendor, In noticed that he was still there and could not resist asking if I could take his picture. HE couldn't understand why I would want to, but obligued me. I showed him the shot on the back of the camera, and the woman cooking in the soda had to come over and take a peak too and give him a little "ribbing" in the process. I left with them both smilingand talking about it

14 ) I had noticed while walking along, that this man with his guitar, had walked up to some of the "elders" sitting on the benches in the street. I wasn't sure whether he was harassing them or if he was an aquaintance and either showing them his prize or trying to sell it to them. At any rate, I approached and asked if I could take a picture as they all looked on to him and to me. While I was shooting, I kind of think that he figured I'd buy his guitar from him - but I just thanked them and left graciously

 

[Robert Watcher]

COMPOSITION IS AS VITALLY IMPORTANT in street photography as it is in Professional Portrait Photography

I found that shooting from the hip and shooting quickly in scenarios that I had little control over, created a great challenge when it came to composition and framing. Even though I was moving when shooting for the most part, I still had to be consciously aware of what was in front of me and attempting to get the best framing by moving at a specific angle towards the subject or moving slightly one way or the other. Many of my images are cropped which allowed for fine tuning of the composition - - - but the elements to work with, still had to be there in the raw image to me to create the successful dynamics in the final image and print.

The same composition guidelines come in to play to make documentary images with impact and that people will want to look at and study. Many of my shots were taken with subjects offset to the sides of the frame and good diagonal lines and triangles of composition are evident when viewing many of my shots. Even though many times I was working with wide angle lenses and lots of Depth of Field and so backgrounds can be more confusing than you'd like them to be - - - the eye nevertheless always has to be drawn to a specific point in the picture for it to be enjoyable to look at. Of course there are always exceptions - - - and sometimes just having the picture or photographing the content is more important than whether it is technically or asthetically pleasing or not.

15 )

16 )

17 )

 

[Robert Watcher]

---

THE FLOOR IS OPEN TO QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS - IF YOU'D LIKE!

I will continue to post tidbits with supporting images.



--

 

[Robert Watcher]

Posed Street Shots - - - well in the sense that I asked to take the picture and then directed them or allowed them to carry on what they were doing. That method was common for me when Anne and I were documenting series of images of workers practicing their craft - - - however it worked well with people carrying on their daily lives also.

20 ) these locals playing dominos had no interest in breaking their concentration so that I could get a shot of them - but had no problem with me taking a picture of them. I preferred this type of shot anyway

21 ) As I walked along a street in a small town on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica early in the morning, these men were putting out their wares (furniture) onto the street for display. I hollered across the street "foto foto" and they agreed and went to the doorway, leaning on the wall and looked at me. I signaled to them to look at each other and to move more to the center of the doorway for this shot

22 ) This fellow nodded his head in agreement to take his picture, but would not look at me. I noticed his bicycle in behind as I was taking 3 or 4 shots of him - and framed it for an interesting composition

 

[Robert Watcher]

Several times I resorted to shooting through or out of the window of the moving vehicle I was riding in - to get my shot:

23 )

24 )

 

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks Robert for this large photoessay. I have just gone through the images so far and will return tomorrow to read the entire effort.

What makes street photography different from snapshots one might take in the street? What might make the work important. These are the questions on my mind as I'll start again after looking once more at the pictures. I'm not sure whether to read each picture in each post as a separate unit or look at all the pictures as part of one whole story or gestalt of the place.

Asher

 

[Robert Watcher]

FACES -

As a Portrait Photographer, the faces of my subjects hold a special appeal to me. I am able to get a sense of the person by examining the way their eyes, mouth, etc react when I am talking to them. That can also be portrayed in my photograph. No doubt, the EYES ARE THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL - but so is the WHOLE FACE as it can be so much more expressive than even the eyes.

I remember vividly the features that attracted me to my wife some 33 years ago. They were her stunning eyes, but equally impressive were her lips and smile. For those reasons, I have always featured head shots and even extremer closeup portraits in my work.

Just as there can be little to differentiate between a "SNAPSHOT" that does little to hold your attention, and a documentary "STREET SHOT" that draws your eye into picture and holds it - - - - that can be little that separates a MUG SHOT or PASSPORT SHOT that no one would be interested in having as their likeness, and a head and shoulders FACIAL STUDY that excudes personality and captivates the viewers attention causing them to examine the persons character more deeply.

I always have to take my share of straight on head and shoulders portraits - - - especially do I love it with children. For all of these shots, I generally was in an area with Overhead Light Control providing angular light that causes the eyes to come alive. I use the 60mm focal length (120mm in 35mm equivalent) of my Olympus 12-60mm f2.8/4 zoom, for these.

25 ) This man was standing under a large gazebo. I first took a full length shot to document what he was doing, then moved in tight for this shot

26 ) Now that is relaxed. You'd think that he was my buddy

27 ) While sitting at a bus shelter, this young girl saw that I was taking pictures of others who were sitting waiting for the bus - - - she got my attention and when I realized that she wanted a picture taken also and pointed my camera at her, I got this incredible expression

 

[Robert Watcher]

28 ) A secretary at a hotel offered this wonderful glimps into her gentle personality

29 ) In nice and tight on this businessman - taken in the doorway of his factory

30 ) A young man that I came across while driving around the mountainous countryside. I stopped to get a "vista" shot and he and another older gentleman came walking out to greet me. I took several shots of the 2 of them

 

[Robert Watcher]

31 ) This beautiful young child caught my attention. Only after I got home and edited the images, did I realize the mirroring of her beautiful eyes in the eyes of the character on her shirt. I enhanced these in PS to draw attention to both sets of big bright eyes

32 ) I don't know that this picture tells quite as much about this mans personality as it is just a very interesting character shot

33 ) A woman in a restaurant with her husband looking on as he walked by

 

[Robert Watcher]

34 ) A couple of buddys on the street. I got them to stand in a store doorway to protect a little from the harsh sunlight

35 ) This young girl was a street vendor selling her mothers wares along the Pacific coast. The picture was taken with her under a dark tent with her facing the opening

36 ) I absolutely loved this mans personality. Can you see why?

 

[Robert Watcher]

MY WORKFLOW ON LOCATION

I am a PC user at my home with a heavy duty Quad Core tower as my main Workstation.

Nevertheless, in the summer of 2007, I made the decision to purchase a Macbook as my laptop to take with me on jobs for downloading my images during a job. I also made use of it on a few commercial jobs I had where my Nikon D200 was tethered to it providing real time control and download from the desktop with each shot.

MY research led me to the conclusion that I would be totally satisfied with the plain jane basic White Macbook - and that there was little difference in processing power between that model and the much more expensive Macbook Pro. My son had just purchased a Macbook Pro - and except for the fact that he wanted to do some heavy duty gaming which would require a separate graphics card (as opposed to the macbook dedicated one) - - - there was in fact little if any difference with the applications that I would be using.

So I made the choice to go with the basic Macbook - and have never regretted it. My program of choice on the Macbook, is Lightroom (I have version 1.1). While Lightroom was very limiting when it came to it's manipulation abilities (I use Photoshop CS2 on my workstation), I found it to be superior when it came to organization of my files when importing - - - along with the quick display of thumnails compared to the extremely slow display in PS Bridge (it is designed for a different purpose). Another thing that pleased me about using Lightroom, is that my markers that I apply when editing - transfered in tact to my PC workstation.

So while on location - at the end of each day, I download my cards from the day to my Macbook. I have a very nice Verbatim 15 in 1 card reader where the USB connection is flexible and fits into the back of the reader. I like having the versatility of a card reader such as this, because I do have instruments that I use that use SD cards, my wife has an Olympus weatherproof P&S camera that takes XD cards, and a buddy of mine who sometimes travels to Toronto for a day with me uses a Sony camera with the Stick cards. All of my MiniDV video is captured on the Mac using the Firewire port and IMovie and saved to a 160 Portable self powered Hard Drive that I carry with me.

With Lightroom open, and the Verbatim Card Reader plugged into the side of the Macbook - I "Import Photos from Disk" and in the "Import Photos" Dialogue Box, I select "Copy Photos to a New Location and Import" - - - with the location being a dedicated folder that I have on my computer desktop. I use the original filename at this time and do not apply any Develop settings. What I do apply is my custom Meta Data which includes copyright info. That could be done later, but I just prefer to do it at Import on all files.

Once the files are downloaded to the computer, Lightroom has the folders perfectly organized by date in the left side panel - also showing me how many shots I took that day. Once everything is downloaded, I select "Loup View" so that there is only one image showing at a time (default is "Grid View"). Starting from the beginning, I go through each image and any that I will be keeping, I hit the number "6" to mark it with a Red Label (any color could be used, but I have always use red in Bridge and so find that familiar to me).

Once I have gone through all images and "Labeled" them, I can now enter the "Develop" module and by clicking on the "Red" square at the bottom beside the word "Filters", I am able to narrow the selection down the edited ones that I have previously chosen. Most of my images are cropped and so that is the first step that I proceed with. by clicking on the "Crop Overlay" button. For my documentary work, the first manipulation step that I do with most images is in the "presence" section where I slide the "Clarity" setting to the right most of the way - which defines the images and appears to sharpen them somewhat. For impactful colour, I may also move the Vibrance slider and only the odd time the Saturation slider to the right some. The next most commonly used tools are in the Tone Curve Section - where I adjust the Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows, to taste for each image. Lastly, I like to vignette many edges of images to draw attention and focus to the center, and so do that with the "Lens Vignetting" sliders.

Now that I have my editing and processing completed, it is time to output a usable file for my web display and printing on site. Using the "Export" dialogue box, I output to a "Final Images" folder within my downloads folder on my desktop. At this time I want the unique file names so that files with the same name don't get overwritten. With such an extended job as I have when say in Costa Rica, I use the date at the start of the file name to keep track of my files. The date is followed by the real file name. I save the files as a JPEG at 100% quality. The files are then ready for conversion for my websites and forums, or for printing on site when that is needed.

While there nothing quite like Porta on a PC to convert files for web use, the software tool that I have made good use of with my Macbook is called "ImageWell. While it doesn't have the nice sharpening features of Porta - it does allow bulk resizing and uploading via FTP right to the specific folders on my server (or desktop) where I want them for display. Once I get back home, on my PC workstation I open any files that I want the ultimate post processing quality from and do that in Photoshop. This allows for selective dodging and burning and exact sharpening and printing to a high standard when needed. I will have several of my images from Costa Rica on display this coming May 2009 at the Chapters book store in North London (Fanshaw Park Road) Ontario Canada, so have been working on some from this year already.

----

 

[Asher Kelman]

Rob,

Do you keep your original RAW files? Do you rename them too?

Asher

 

[Robert Watcher]

Rob,

Do you keep your original RAW files? Do you rename them too?

Asher

I don't rename the originals (I do end up keeping them though - just in case I ever go through them again in the future). Using Lightroom, all of the original files are kept nicely organized in folders with the date name such as:

Folder structure for storing original files on my dedicated (to my travel work) hardrive

> Costa Rica 2008
--------- > 2008-02-01
--------- > 2008-02-02
--------- > 2008-02-03
--------- > etc



-----

 

[Robert Watcher]

DISPLAY EXHIBIT

I have now started working on my display of a selection of People Photographs from Costa Rica - that will start on May 1'st, 2009 and run through the month on May at Chapters Book Store - North London Ontario location.

It used to be that many Chapters stores had a section for display of art, but there are few anymore - with the London North one being the only one in the cities around my location. I asked about exhibiting at this Chapters Store (Actually it's in the Starbucks Section) back in fall of 2006 and when they told me that the first available date was May 2009, I just about didn't commit thinking that it was just too far away.

I resisted that feeling though and signed up - and here I am just one month away. I just kind of forgot about it until last fall (2008) when I decided that I better pop in and make sure that they didn't lose my name in that length of time and that I was still on for May. They didn't and I was. Also at that time I figured that it may be a good thing to take advantage of the free display they offer and put my name in for a future date. The earliest was summer of 2011 and so I reserved that date as well.

After taking measurements of the Display Wall last Friday, I concluded that I would be displaying 12 images in total (3 prints on each of the 4, six foot sections). A practical print size I have determined, is the 13"x19" largest size print that I produce with my Epson printers. This will allow for a combination of 3 prints in horizontal and vertical orientation, having space in each 6' wide x 30" high section.

photo courtesy of softdistortion


I have started the print process, first with a few colour images that I will be contemplating using. Next I will print the Black and Whites on my Epson 2400 in black and white mode for perfect tonality. I have made the choice of Epson Premium Luster for the print finish. I am using one of my favoured ITOYA portfolios to store the prints in until I am done. I will probably print up 2 to 3 times the final number of 12 that I am after, and then lay them out all together to see what combinations work best.

 

[Robert Watcher]

This is a selection of the 13"x19" Colour Images that I have printed so far to use in the Display:

 

[Robert Watcher]

-------

 

[Robert Watcher]

The above 3 posts about the Display Exhibit were written on March 31'st 2009 and that is what I was anticipating at that time.

UPDATE -

Well Surprise of Surprises. Last Friday (April 3'rd 2009) I received a call from Starbucks, and it turned out that the artist for the month of April didn't show up. They wanted to know if I would take April - as well as May. I was stoked about that being that I have waited 2 1/2 years since booking my time (fall of 2006) to finally get to display in May of this year. . . .


. . . . however, I had nothing ready as I was going to begin printing and putting together the final display sometime during April, probably toward the end of the month. It is costly - and it is time consuming - - - to create framed prints for public display. I really didn't even have an idea of how I was going to display and frame the prints - sizes, content or anything. Other than starting to print a few 13"x19's to show on the forum, I hadn't given it any thought.

They wanted something up to fill the bare walls, and wanted it soon. I was concerned with losing the space for April to someone else if I did not accommodate them quickly - - -and so asked if it would work for them if I hung 3 or 4 prints that I have (on my living room walls) that afternoon, and then I would hustle on the final setup and get it installed as soon as possible.

It ended up that I had everything completed and took a friend with me early Tuesday morning for the hour drive to set up the display area with my prints. Being that I wasn't around to work on the display on Sunday, the monumental task was completed in 2 days - - - Saturday and Monday. I was exhausted, but so glad that it was completed and that I now had 2 months to display my work - being that the earliest that I was able to reserve last fall, to get back in - - - is the fall of 2011.

 

[Robert Watcher]

My frame size decision for the 13"x19" prints that I would be using, was 22"x30". Although initially I was determined to use 12 prints in this space, I resorted to 8 prints for more impact. The least expensive gallery black wood frame that I could find in 22x30 size was around $100.00 each with glass and backing. Metal frames were only marginally less money. With taxes, that part of the job would be around $900.00. I can cut my own mats and so would have to purchase 8 mat boards at around $15 each - which would increase my total cost by about another $100.00. The 8 13"x19" prints with final and waste prints and ink costs, would run close to another $100.00. Each trip to London took about $35.00 round trip, which ended up being over $100.00. I had to come up with a good hunk of change quickly to get my exhibit displayed.

Rather than go with frames, I used an old method that I employed when I had my Main Street Studio in the 90's, and just didn't want to put a pile of money into expensive frames for display purposes. It was elegant, stylized, and the attention was focused on my imagery - - - not a fancy frame. At that time I use masonite that I covered with paper using spray glue and then I would use various colours of paper as keylines under my print for sort of a matted look. The edges were covered with black masking tape, and 2 strips of 1x2 wood were covered with black tape also and glued on to the back of the mount to both separate the frame from the wall and provide an area for hooks to hang the print.

Going to the lumber yard, I found that my normal choice of think masonite, was not going to be suitable for what I wanted this time - and so I instead made a decision to use 1/2 inch MDF. It is smooth on the surface, has very smooth edges even when cut (to hold the tape) , and is quite inexpensive. One draw back is it's weight - - - but with the 1/2" thckness was not going to be much less in weight than a good quality wood frame with glass and mat. I had the lumber yard cut 1 1/2 sheets of MDF into the 8-22"x30" pieces that I required. I found perfectly sized 22"x30" heavy black art paper at an artists store in London - and purchased a couple of cans of spray glue to mount the paper as a backing and then to mount my prints on top. Instead of using 2 or 3 extra coloured sheets as Keylines, I went with a 1/2" wide white border on the photographic print. The wood was the cheap part at around $50.00 for MDF and a few strips of 1x2. Black masking tape set me back $30.00 for a roll of 2" for the edges of the frame, and a 3/4" roll for the 1x2 strips on the back. Screw eyes, wire and rubber stoppers consumed a few more dollars. All in all, I was probably around $200.00 to $250.00 for materials for my complete display. Although the price is deceiving, as the work involved is substantial and if time were taken into account, these would cost much more than having then framed. And good looking and professional it was.

I decided that I needed a bio page on the wall to let viewers know about me and how to get hold of me. Last Friday when taking the 3 or 4 prints from my living room down to put something on the wall, I quickly made up an 8 1/2 x11 piece and stuck it up. I soon realized that that size was just way to small and insignificant - - - and so when I returned with my completed display, I had a much larger one made from my 13"x19" paper.

Late on Monday night (night before going to hang the display), I decided that I needed to have a small descriptive plaque for each of my prints - - - just as they have in major art galleries. I wasn't sure whether Starbucks would allow me to stick them to the wall with my ATG glue gun (and I still don't know if they allow it - I didn't ask and just did it), but I went ahead and made them up anyway. That was a tough chore - coming up with titles to identify each image, and then finding compelling and descriptive words that would draw the viewer in to examining the related photo in more detail. I decided to use my 4"x6" Premium Glossy photo paper to print the words on, and then glue mounted them to foam core that I managed to pick up from a "Dollar Store" late Monday evening.

ALL in ALL - everything went well and was completed in a very timely fashion.

Here are a few shot of the Exhibit Area:

The wall:

Descriptive Plaques:

Bio Sheet:

The display with smaller 13"x19" prints on substantially sized mounts, is extremely visible even when walking in the front door:

HERE IS A LITTLE VIDEO OF ME SETTING UP THE DISPLAY - MY MINDSET, AND CHOICES AND CHANGES THAT I MADE ON THE FLY:

http://vimeo.com/4083447





-----

 

[Robert Watcher]

Once I had all of this completed, it then occurred to me that the next logical step is to get my but going with a newsletter to let all of my clients know that this display was available for viewing. Even if they didn't or couldn't get to see it, the newsletter would create a buzz and at the least, let some of my older customers and contacts know that I'm still around and active.

I had nothing to accomplish this - and soon realized that creating an HTML newsletter is the equivalent of writing a website (it is virtually exactly the same). So my task last night before going to bed, was to firstly, write from scratch a php script for myself that would send emails with headers to allow an HTML page to be sent and accepted, do with while updating a database with email addresses that I would be harvesting from my email contact list and entering into the Form front end of the script, and then design a functional html webpage that displayed decently in a broad range of email clients, and once I had the HTML page structure figure out what wording and graphics I would include. This was all accomplished between about 6:00PM and 12:00PM. Then before I went to sleep, I felt that I had to get a whole slew of Newsletter emails sent out as quickly as possible, because I was going to be busy today (Thursday) and would be taking off for the long weekend and so would not have a chance to do this again until next Tuesday. I fired off around 350 Newsletters before going to bed. Good thing that I got it all done last night too. I wasn't anticipating my buddy coming in at around 3:00PM today with the raw video footage of the setting up.Within a couple of hours, I had it edited and up on Vimeo. One thing is for sure - - - I AM GOING TO HAVE MYSELF A GOOD, FUN, AND RELAXING WEEKEND with this all behind me.

Here is the NEWSLETTER that I sent out last night:

http://robertwatcher.com/newsletter/april2009/

Now that I have the layout structure completed, and the script written to send the emails out, it should be much easier now to keep a campaign of Newsletters going to my customers and contacts at least a few times a year now - as opposed to NEVER up until now.

Thanks so much for following this thread. Hope there has been some value in it for some!


--

 

[Andrew Gould]

A wonderful collection of shots from your travels, Robert. Your street shots and portraits have a really vibrant look to them. Very interesting to read your thoughts and explanations, too. You've inspired me to get out in the streets again as soon as possible!

 

[Robert Watcher]

A wonderful collection of shots from your travels, Robert. Your street shots and portraits have a really vibrant look to them. Very interesting to read your thoughts and explanations, too. You've inspired me to get out in the streets again as soon as possible!

Well thank you so much.

-----

I received an email this morning, with a REPLY from one of my Newsletters that I sent out to my customers last week about my Exhibit:

Hi Rob,

We dropped by the Chapters on Saturday. It looks to me like the prints are
the right size. I was suprised how clear they were from the magazine area
(where you could first see them).

The subject matter really gives context to your style. I don't know why,
but the colors seem to have more authenticity. And the high-contrast black
and white has more human grit. I see that you capture it in your portraits
and weddings and it's really good. It's not about capturing personalities
(you always do that). It's about capturing what is real.

So I now have some feedback from both my forum thread and from those who are seeing the live display - - - kinda SWEEEEET.

Project "Street Photography" Accomplished!

-----

 

[fahim mohammed]

Robert

I read your photo essay a few tiles and each ti,e with renewed interest. I have gained quite a few pointers
to add to my meagre skills with street photography.

The pictures accompanying them were very well choosen and I can only imagine the display at Chapters.

Thank you very much for contributing so much for me to practice.

Best.