Stealth mobile street shooting – lesson three (+ Zizek)
Today’s pic(k) isn’t very stealth, but it does fairly adequately describe the gray, wet day today in Slovenia’s capital.
I shot this young woman just a few bridges upstream from where Slovenian stand-up philosopher Slavoj Zizek succinctly points out where Central Europe ends and the Balkans begin. This woman obviously has no idea what awaits on the other side of the bridge.
More from my current stealth street shooting fascination is here.
Stealth mobile street shooting – lesson two (LJ pic of the Day)
I was inspired enough by my first lesson in stealth mobile street shooting last weekend to wander out for more these past few days. At top is a gentleman patiently waiting for something in the train station’s ticket office on Wednesday afternoon. I’ve been in that position myself on occasion and have found that a book helps.
While on the topic of trains, I wanted to pass along a few newsy links of interest from Slovenia Rail, but since the English language section of their site’s news section hasn’t been updated for more than two years, I won’t bother. I hope the guy in the picture isn’t waiting for it to be updated.
Stealth mobile street shooting – lesson one
One of my goals for 2012, I decided quite suddenly last Saturday morning, is to become more stealth. In the photography sense. To take to the streets and unleash my inner Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Frank with the hope that the output is a bit more bearable to look at than an update on Kim Kardashian. (It makes me mad that I even know who Kim Kardashian is.)
So without giving the latest goal on my 2012 list any more thought, I grabbed my phone, hunted down its earphones that had never been used, and headed to the streets.
I’ve had a phone with a camera for a little over a year now –yeah, I’m always a bit behind the times, I know- but I never used it much. Until this past weekend, I took less than a couple dozen photos with it over the past 13 months. My Nokia C5’s output isn’t great which is why I chose to ignore it: the biggest images I can get are 1944×2592 at about 1.5 MB, and the color quality and control leave way too much to be desired. And I almost always have either my DSLR or handycam with me. Everywhere.
But this time those stayed home. Stealth meant shoving shiny like-new earphones into my ears and finding a wall to lean on where I would pretend to listen to music and gradually transform into Senor Incognito. And it worked. It’s quite remarkable how people ignore people who wear earphones. It didn’t occur to me until then, but I’m exactly the same: I never wear earphones in public and always ignore those who do. In the fleeting moments when they are momentarily noticed, I generally look down on them in a scornful, loathsome sort of way they quite likely don’t all deserve. Maybe they’re actually stealth street snappers taking pictures of me.
Anyway, I had fun. The shutter release on the phone is a bit awkward, so I probably blew my cover a few times. That could and will be solved with a new phone, something I’m currently researching.
I decided on just two rules: that all the images be black & white and that the final crop will be square. Rules are meant to be broken but I will try to stick to this for the rest of the year and see what transpires.
The first target was a beggar, an easy one. There are so many around these days, and they’re multiplying. Especially on sunny weekends.
Vidblog #004.
Here’s a hodgepodge of pics shot in recent weeks during lots of quick strolls around town to keep my mind occupied with something other than cigarettes. I kind of liked the finished product. A breath of fresh air.
I smoked a lot for a long time. The only thing that was somewhat consistent in my life for the past 27 years was an ever-present cigarette. Previous attempts to quit were snuffed out when depression set in. I felt as though my best friend had died.
It’s a little different this time around. And while I’m still a bit rough around the edges, a new routine is slowly, steadily piercing through. Maybe I’ll get some time added for good behaviour.
1200+ photos shot in and through the Ljubljana fog from 15-20-Nov-2011. Many of them in and around Tivoli Park.
| m u s i c |
Tarmac by et_
freemusicarchive.org/music/et_/
CC/ Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
Ljubljana Graffiti Tour
I’ve been collecting shots of graffiti and murals around town since late April and quite honestly, I’ve had enough – it’s time to move on. It’s also cluttering my hard drive so it was time for a quick purge (with a good beat).
Some of it’s good, some of it’s awful, some of it’s simply juvenile and sophomoric tagging and some of it’s little more than vandalism. But some is pretty amazing, too. Most of the better murals here are from the sprawling Metelkovo complex, a former Yugoslav army barracks which for much of the past two decades has been home to several studios, music venues and the Celica hostel. Later this month the Museum of Contemporary Art, also at Metelkovo, will open its doors.
Everywhere I visit, I’m always drawn to graffiti. I’m generally a fan. But do I sound like a grumpy old man if I say there’s too much here now and that it’s getting a bit out of hand? You decide.
Ljubljana, Slovenia, spring/summer/fall 2011.
Music: no meaning no remastered (eminent fury rmx) by Monty Arnold
Creative Commons Noncommercial Sampling Plus license
LJ Pic of the Day (Creative Commons stock update)
This was taken back in mid-August, looking north towards the main railroad station and Ljubljana’s Bezigrad neighborhood. It was nice to see that the Pyramid-like apartment complex is actually inhabited.
It’s also one of 1,215 images in my flickr stream that are now available for use with a Creative Commons Attribution/Noncommercial/No Derivative license. I’m in the process of tagging almost all the rest there –currently they number 2,663– with the same CC license, only asking that they be credited as specified in each caption.
As alluded to in a post last spring, I’ve been toying with the CC idea for some time now. And as I find myself using more CC-licensed work by others, making these available to anyone who’d like to use them in non-commercial projects basically became a no-brainer.
For the most part, the photos are grouped in sets geographically, with about 20 countries and nearly 40 bigger cities currently listed. That’s one place to start looking. I’m fairly anal about tagging, so if your mind works in a way remotely similar to mine, you can also hunt around on the tags page.
I’m not sure if I’ll stick with CC forever, but I don’t see that changing in the near future.
Anyone have any CC experiences they’d like to share? Good or bad? I’d love to hear ‘em!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Ljubljana 0226, a photo by pirano on Flickr.
Five Minutes to Midnight
This is a detail from Slovenia’s offering to the United Buddy Bears exhibit that was on display on the Ku’damm in Berlin from 26 June through 3 October.
Said Berlin-based Slovenian artist Marjan Kekec-Ogradni who painted the bear:
Our unique globe is composed by the four elements air, water, fire and earth. The increasing exploitation of our nature and the growing number of wars is an immense threat for our planet. If we want the earth to continue to be worth living on, we have to act quickly, as it’s already five to twelve. Representing this apocalypse is Death on the front of my bear.
Man can work against this apocalypse using his heart and his courage. The first commandment should be practising tolerance in dealing with our environment and our fellow human beings. A global human line under the flag of tolerance could be a first and important step towards the common preservation of our planet.
A few more pics of Ogradni and his bear are here. Ogradni’s website is here.
LJ Pic of the Day
This was taken about two weeks ago in the central Prešeren Square. They were playing the Theme from the Godfather on two of my favorite instruments.
I had an accordion forced upon me at an early age – I wanted to play the guitar and saxophone when I was seven but my parents insisted I be a good little Slovenia boy and bought me an old squeeze box instead. The passion was never really there so I reached my accordion peak in the fourth grade. I’m holding out hope that my sax peak has yet to be reached.
LJ Pic of the Day
No, she wasn’t a ghost.
LJ Pic of the Day
Taken this afternoon on Kolodvorska Cesta. Yes, people do still use them.
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