Reason Singularity

Light on her Face

2010-04-12T16:04:00.000+02:00

Glass Music

2010-04-05T01:50:00.002+02:00

I try to avoid taking pictures of street performers. They are simply too easy: they can not complain and they do not usually move too much. It is much more interesting to go for the dynamic subjects. But this picture was different, I had come across the same guy in a different part of the city a few days before.

Trato de evitar sacarle fotos a los artistas callejeros. Son demasiado fáciles: no se pueden quejar y por lo general no se mueven demasiado. Resulta mucho más interesante ir a por los sujetos dinámicos. Pero esta imagen era distinta, me crucé con el mismo hombre en otra parte de la ciudad algunos días antes.

Paseo

2010-03-29T23:18:00.003+02:00

Minor consideration when thinking about HDR: make sure your processed image retains plenty of contrast or you will end up with a boring picture all made up of midtones.

Una pequeña consideración para cuando se está pensando en HDR: hay que asegurarse de que la imagen una vez procesada mantiene mucho contraste o el resultado será una aburrida imagen llena toda ella de tonos medios.

Pamela

2010-03-21T19:30:00.003+01:00

God bless girls that don't mind having their pictures taken.

Que Dios bendiga a las chicas a las que nos les importa que les saquen fotos.

Kids

2010-03-15T18:46:00.002+01:00

If you go out in the street hoping to capture some precise kind of snap you will surely come back home disappointed. Just walk around and see what you come across. You'll be surprised.

Si sales a la calle esperando sacar algún tipo de foto en concreto seguro que vuelves a casa decepcionado. Simplemente da una vuelta y estate atento a ver qué te encuentras. Te sorprenderás.

Watch That Throat

2010-03-14T12:50:00.003+01:00

At first I was quite strict with what I could and couldn't crop. I've become much more flexible after seing how much you can enhance a picture with an adequate crop.

Al principio era bastante estricto con los recortes. Me he vuelto mucho más flexible después de ver lo mucho que puedes mejorar una fotografía con un recorte adecuado.

Juan Bravo

2010-03-07T21:19:00.001+01:00

Seizing every opportunity.

Aprovechando todas las oportunidades.

Off Duty

2010-02-28T22:21:00.003+01:00

Simple composition and very little mid grey. Just what street photography needs.

Una composición simple y muy pocos grises medios. Todo lo que necesita la fotografía callejera.

Partially overcast

2010-02-21T21:02:00.003+01:00

Infinity converging parallel lines are a pretty strong compositional resort. I took the first snaps of this sight from an eye level point of view so the tiling grid did not converge that dramatically. After I kneeled down and placed the camera closer to the ground the result, as shown here, was much more interesting.

Las paralelas que convergen en el infinito son un recurso composicional bastante fuerte. Los primeros disparos que saqué de esta perspectiva fueron desde la altura de los ojos por lo que la cuadrícula de las baldosas del suelo no convergían de manera demasiado dramática. Después de arrodillarme y colocar la cámara más cerca del suelo el resultado, como se muestra arriba, fue mucho más interesante.

Four Towers

2010-02-04T13:22:00.004+01:00

Now I don't know if this picture would have been a good one without the pylon sticking in front of the leftmost tower, but I didn't have a second chance to take it as I was driving on the freeway with my right hand holding the camera.

Pues no sé si esta imagen hubiese sido buena sin la torre de alta tensión en medio de la torre de más a la izquierda, pero no tenía la posibilidad de volver a sacarla ya que estaba conduciendo por la autopista con mi mano derecha sujetando la cámara.

Gone Shopping

2010-02-02T23:36:00.006+01:00

The most important thing there is to know about street photography, if you are planning on giving it a try, is that it is very unrewarding. Not only do you have to overcome that mix of fear and embarrassment that shows up when you first start taking pictures of strangers on the street; but the percentage of usable shots you make is extremeley low. So get ready to shoot a lot if you want to get some results. To make things worse, this picture was shot with a compact camera, a Canon S90.

La idea más importante que hay que saber sobre fotografía callejera, si tienes intención de probarla, es que es muy ingrata. No sólo tienes que superar esa mezcla de miedo y vergüenza que aparece cuando empiezas a sacar fotografías de desconocidos en la calle; si no que además el porcentaje de fotos buenas es extremadamente bajo. Prepárate a disparar mucho si quieres obtener unos mínimos resultados. Por si fuera poco, esta foto fue sacada con una cámara compacta, una Canon S90.

Carbon & Silicon

2010-01-27T23:53:00.018+01:00

The most relevant characteristic of photography regarding composition is flattening. We create two-dimensional images out from the three-dimensional reality. Which means that our stereoscopic vision will surely mislead us when we are walking around trying to find a good framing.

La característica más relevante de la fototrafía de cara a la composición es el aplanamiento. Creamos imágenes a partir de la realidad tridimensional. Lo que significa que nuestra visión estereoscópica seguramente nos llevará a engaño cuanto estemos dando vueltas tratando de encontrar un buen encuadre.

Crested Saguaro

2010-01-26T23:33:00.002+01:00

When is less too little? It was quite overcast in Phoenix that day, not a common sight there, I guess. The good thing is that it gives this singular cactus a non-distracting background. The bad: the clouds acted like a huge softbox making it quite difficult not to overexpose them.
Maybe the composition was too minimalistic. I think that a few blotches of blue in the sky would have improved the compostition.

Condor

2010-01-25T16:38:00.002+01:00

The thing with the sky is that it is rarely static. The first snap of this monument showed some clouds, but I didn't got the framing right so after five seconds reviewing the shot I took another one. But then, the clouds were gone.
Fortunately the cloud depicted in this final shot was coming towards the bird so I just had to wait a couple of minutes. Photography is about either timing or patience. Or even better: both.

Recoletos

2010-01-22T13:41:00.004+01:00

Once we accept that; when dealing with photography; less is more, going greyscale is a sensible thing. All the possibly distracting colors are gone and the beholder only needs to focus on tone variations.
But when converting an image to monochrome sometimes the lack of color leaves behind a boring image made out of mid-greys. This is when shooting in raw comes in handy. Playing with the curves and sliders can achieve an interesting image in which dark is black and clear is white and not just some in-between grey. It is true though that you will lose some detail but then again that might even be a good thing, we are talking minimalism here.

Morning Ice

2010-01-21T11:32:00.002+01:00

The best camera is the one that is with you. Building the habit of always taking a camera with you can be very rewarding. Both to document possible scenarios for an eventual more serious shoot or just to grasp those fleeting images across which you only come once.

Light

2010-01-19T09:55:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I realized that the picture ratio of my PowerShot S90 is not 3:2 but 4:3. I had to go back into my flickr photostream and crop some of the latests uploads. Including last post's picture. I didn't notice this because, though I had activated 3:2 guidelines on it's screen, the raw file doesn't cut away any pixels.
Maybe there are some instances where a 4:3 aspect ratio might boost an image because of its composition, but since I am used to the old computer screen resolutions it just doesn't appeal to me as a photographical ratio. Besides, 3:2 is just a little more than a decimal point away from the golden ratio.

Urban Tree

2010-01-17T20:25:00.003+01:00

The subject of our photographies doesn't really matter. It might matter to us in the moment we release the shutter but not necessarily to those who see it afterwards. That's why composition is no substitute for subject.

Close to the Hospital

2010-01-15T16:04:00.003+01:00

One of the most frustrating things about photography is not having enough light for your shot, the main reason why I love my 50mm 1.4 lens.
But when you are carrying your tripod around you can come across a photo for which you might want less light. Like making the water appear smooth and reflect its surroundings as if it were still.
My next purchase will be a couple of neutral density filters so that I can reshoot this photo when I travel back to León.

Swashbuckling Alley

2010-01-14T22:12:00.003+01:00

It might not be the most interesting photo but it gets something right: contrast. There are those who think too much in HDR and multiple exposures, and sometimes a good landscape can benefit from it, but unless you have framed a great composition all you end up with is a boring featureless grey picture.

Winter seeds

2010-01-14T16:44:00.004+01:00

Photo opportunities are everywhere, all the time. It's just that we do not notice them.
Until some day we do. Like whith these little fruits on a tree just next to where I park my car at home, and after having snowed. Compact cameras are made for moments like this.

Sirena Varada

2010-01-13T11:11:00.000+01:00

Photography is a minimalist thing, and that is why using wide-angle lenses —or fisheyes in this case— is so hard.
You have to either get very close to your subject or choose a very big one. In this shot both things have bee done: the bridge on top helps by hiding a featureless and overexposed sky and the concrete sculpture is just some centimeters away from the camera.