William Darhy’s Blog

Three women and a puddle - Meat packing

This picture was taken in the meat packing district back in September 2007. May be it’s not worth mentioning it was just taken after a rain shower.

I had spotted this large puddle and found it interesting because it was reflecting the building across the street, and also because the pavement was adding some interestingness, with the pronounced textures of the stones, as well as the multiple levels of reflections when wet. So I took the position, half crouched on the sidewalk in front of the puddle, and waited for interesting subjects to pass-by in front of my lens. I shot several pictures, some of them are in my Black and White photo gallery but this one is my favorite. I found it interesting for the subject of course, but as well with the way the picture reveals itself.

1. The eyes are attracted by the bright and contrasty elements : Here, first, the legs of course
2. Then immediately after, the second most contrasty, the dark skirts in the mirrored image, which help discover new elements such as the strange inscriptions surrounding the legs
3. And then, another bright element which is the image of the building in the puddle.
4. Strangely then, the eyes are stuck at the bottom of the picture, which is probably the most interesting part

For the little story about street photography, of course in such situations, where you are standing still, on a sidewalk, with your camera pointed in a direction, you quickly become a suspect, and it becomes difficult to have people intentionally crossing the line in front of your lens. However there are often people who cross it. Why is that? I have a theory, but Sigmund Freud would probably be better at that. So either they choose deliberately to cross the line, and think (wrongly) that your intent is not necessarily to shoot them, or, there are people who deliberately want to be photographed, even if pretending not to. I would really be interested to know how many people are part of the second population, and the psychological profile behind. And if these acts are truly conscientious or are a manifestation of their forgotten subconscious or …pure vanity. Well, let me think…probably better to get back to the picture.

So, it is a black and white picture, it is about reflections in a puddle (the one amateur photographer who never photographed reflections in a puddle throw me a stone!), women legs are probably one of the few recurring subject in art, and have been shot billions of times, there are some cobblestones, well… Ok, this is a classical picture. But still, always good to start with the old classics, isn’t it?

More Black and White pictures there : Black and White photo gallery

Woman waiting for the metro

This image was taken in the NY subway after a long wait this past summer 2007. Platforms are perticularly hot in this season, and I was trying to capture this heat feeling in the subway. This shot is very opportunistic, which is not surprising for a street shot. The woman just stepped in front of me when I was trying to shoot the train coming from the right in the station. I did not ask for anything, the opportunity came by itself.

I somehow really consider this pic as a portrait more than a regular candid or street shot. And even if the portrait is from “the back”, I find it very expressive and characteristic anyway. Now everybody will see something different in this picture. As far as I am concerned, I saw the strength of a culture, standing still. The character is not moving, but expecting. The flag, the country, the state is passing by, blurred, it is a moving target. This “back” is very strong, very powerful. this is the strength of a woman, this is the strength of an afro-american woman. The hair are very characteristic as well, and of course, there is a strong symbolic with the blurred american flag in the background. Just…blurred and passing by. People stay eventually…

As far as the technics are concerned, at start, back at home, I liked the picture, but found it was rather flat and lacking of intensity. This is really after post-processing that this picture revealed all its possibilities, by applying simply a semi-transparent layer with soft light blending mode. Progressively, using layers, I worked on the image

1. To “mute” colors and provide an overall color cast/mood
2. To emphasize texture and contrast in the skin/hair
3. I accentuated the motion blur as well…it was optional actually since it was already pretty much blurred.
4. Eventually I sharpened a bit

Here we are. This is really one of my first attempt to output something decent after post-processing in photoshop. After something like an hour or so, I really “developped” the picture. So the morality is : well, be indulgent with yourself when  reviewing your shots. Don’t trash everything. Don’t forget if you shoot “raw” that  the picture must be post processed, at least a few. If you like a picture, that is not top notch at start, try playing with some basic parameters like accentuating the contrast, or applying a B&W filter, or a basic curve, or… There is no real receipe, but it worth experimentating with all your shots you find “OK” at start, they might reveal a very decent shot later on. Also what I strongly suggest is to keep the pictures at least for a few days, and come back on them, on a different mood, with a different approach or idea. A lot of things are revealed this way!

Boy climbing a wall - West Village

The boy was climbing the wall but was feeling guilty in a certain manner, and he was glancing at his mother who had passed on the right just to make sure everything was alright. Who knows, she might have not seen what the boy was doing. I applied a B&W filter, which renders well on this picture on my opinion, and provides something out of time. Would this picture been shot 50 years ago, it would not make a big difference. It is like an intemporal scene which could have happened at any epoch. We might call this picture the intemporal innocence.

This photograph is a typical example of a street scene occurring in front of you and for which you are not prepared at all. The boy was running very fast, and suddenly grabbed the bars of this window. The cap was still on my lens, and I had no time to check the parameters or exposure. I just shot. Fortunately I was on a semi automatic program, but anyway, looking at the exif, the shutter speed was 1/15s ! I dare to say I was lucky on this one, it could have been worse, but eventually the picture was OK, and I would have felt very bad to miss it. Since then, when wandering in the street, I try to get ready for any situation. The compromise I found is to push the ISO to 400 and switch to a semi automated program when hanging around. The camera will do the rest. Or you can switch to a fully automated program as well. On this picture typically I would have totally missed the shot if I had been on manual mode and parameters out of whack for instance. The scene lasted may be 2 seconds…not much time to choose the correct exposure!

Also the morality is : Whatever your equipment is, whatever is the unsuspected scene happening in front of your eyes and for which you are not prepared, Press the Shutter! A photo, even so-so is better than NO photo!

African american woman with red dress - Harlem

This picture has been taken back in September 2007 on a rainy day. Well, it was a rainy day, and we had been wandering for a good shot all the afternoon long in Harlem, waiting most of the time the end of the multiple rain showers to output our gear.  Suddenly, when all hopes to get a beautiful picture had disappeared, a bright sun pointed its rays and shed it’s light on 125th avenue in Harlem. And it was the golden hour, when the sun is low and light gets some warmer tones. It lasted only half an hour, during which we shot frenetically people in front of this red wall.

First I tried to capture people passing by in front of the wall, then I chose to sneak a little bit. I was crouched down along the wall, when this marvelous red feary came from behind, offering her red and white back to my 18-200mm lens. My heart suddenly pounded very fast, and the shutter was pressed…3 or 4 times. Eventually at the end of the day, among the couple of hundreds pictures taken, this one only deserved a star to me. Well, it deserved a star for a lot of reasons :
1) because it is significantly caracteristic of this “capture the moment” described by Cartier-Bresson - one of these opportunistic exiting few moments captured all street photographer may feel at some point,
2) This picture is very representative of Harlem, with the bright, colourful african-style dresses and people, immerged in a totally modern urban background
3) The light at golden hour,
4) This was my first Street Photography session with a pro (and very talented) photographer friend (who said Fanikanawati in one word?)
So much I could say on it for so many reasons…I hope you will enjoy as well.