It's been a great weekend to be alive and to be a photographer. At least for me, here in Austin. Belinda and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary, I watched Ben run well in a 5K race. I shot a wonderful job on Saturday evening for a long time and very appreciative client. Belinda, the dog and I had a long walk this morning and breakfast all together at Trianon Coffee House.
Then I headed downtown to see what the Austin Art Festival was all about. I expected to be underwhelmed but I went away feeling really positive about the art I saw and really happy to live in a town that lives its art. The city blocked off several major streets and a bridge for the art festival and artists from all over the U.S. were there.
I strolled around with a camera and made candid images of people that I found interesting. I think the gentleman in the image above was one of the artists who had a tent in the show. He was taking a break in a section set aside for food and refreshments. He was engaged in conversation with a friend but he looked up at me. I raised my eyebrows and my camera. He gave me a small nod and went back to his conversation. I shot ten very quick frames (not hard to do with an a77 on continuous high), smiled and walked away. When I looked at the images later this afternoon I was very please with all ten in the series. This one seems to catch him just as he's about to speak. And I like that.
I made the image with a Sony a77 camera and a 55 to 200mm Sony DLT zoom lens. I tend to keep the aperture of most of my lenses near wide open and shoot in aperture priority. The aperture was f5.6 at 1/800th of a second. ISO 400. I like the contrast the man's hat makes with the bright area behind him and I love the tilt of his head.
I used the camera's black and white function, which I think is pretty darn good, but it always needs just a bit more contrast and a bit more black. Reminds me of Tri-X, if I go ahead and add in a little grain.
Very nice. I should use my 40-150mm kit lens more often, which is equally good. Of course I could only take about 3 photos in the time you took 10... ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh, and congrats to both Belinda and you...
ReplyDeleteGlad you had better luck than I did this weekend. I was wandering around downtown on Saturday hoping to take advantage of the overcast day and only managed to shoot two frames before some guy's terrier took a bite out of my leg as I walked past him on the sidewalk. Had to head home early to get cleaned up (and get a tetanus shot).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your Anniversary! Great Set of Street Shots! I think that more than likely, these wonderful portraits are getting some photographers to take a second look at the Sony A77, including myself! It looks like you had just a Perfect Weekend for Images & Life!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great three days. And today the sun is shining, the temperature is cool, the air is dry and the post processing is going like greased bearings on teflon. All in all, not bad.
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