Ken and Tammy Faye.
I've been enjoying using the Sigma fp camera a lot lately and I've been enjoying surreptitiously snapping images of strangers out on the street less and less lately. How to proceed? Well, I could just photograph all my favorite mannequins around Austin. I could work on melding the reflected scenes in the backgrounds with my "stars" and try for layered photographs. I could play with separately messing with foreground and background colors or, I could just have fun photographing everything. So I have been.
The images here were mostly shot with one of two lenses; the Sigma 24mm f3.5 lens and its companion, the 90mm f2.8 Sigma lens. I tried one yesterday afternoon and it's opposite this morning. I started shooting before midday today because we're back into a "temporary" heat wave. The temperatures topped out at 97° Fahrenheit today. That's 36.1 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world...
It's fun to see how much different these two focal lengths are. Especially noticeable in the differences in background detail and out of focus renderings of the backgrounds. In the second regard the 90mm wins, hands down.
I've been shooting with the Sigma fp for several reasons. I'm finding that not holding the camera up to my eye when composing means people pay a heck of a lot less attention to what I'm doing. Secondly, the Sigma fp is as small and uncomplicated looking as the simplest point-and-shoot camera so most people assume (happily) that I'm just a rank amateur out trying my luck with a new camera. The unadorned lenses and the small size of the lenses helps complete the subterfuge. And finally, the sensor and imaging pipeline are every bit as good as in my Leicas or any other full frame camera I might use.
As far as handling goes I find I can get used to just about anything. The small size and light weight are nice on a hot and sweaty day. And unlike my brand new Fuji GFX 50Sii camera the Sigma never gives me an overheating signal/indication on even the nastiest days. Win, win, win.
When it got too hot I said "goodbye" to the host of downtown and South Congress Ave. Mannequin talent and motored home for a late lunch with B. A nice, happy, mellow day so far. Even the post processing was fun.
Interesting trend in mannequin tech. We seem to be moving to a featureless face and a shiny white body as the archetype. I wonder how this will shift human fashion.... Might be painful.
At the toy store on 2nd Street. In preparation for Halloween.
It's not "just" the mannequins. It's also the poses and the reflections in the windows. 
I watched this mannequin in the window for about twenty minutes. Then he stopped messing
with his camera and actually moved. Had me fooled.
Expressive model on S. Congress Ave. At a store down the street from the Hermes shop.
I should go into the Hermes shop some time. I guess they sell little statues of the
god, Hermes. But I'm not really sure...
In this selection of images I am actively playing around with the differences between
subjects and backgrounds. In focus and out of focus. Warm or neutral and cool.
this pleased me because the window was partially veiled by flare on the glass.
It made the frame seem more ethereal to me. More mysterious.
I learned more and more about using a camera via the rear screen yesterday and today.
Worth knowing. I might even become proficient. I can hope.
(Hope is not a plan...)
6 comments:
I worry that your subjects are very, um, static.
Tammy and Ken - too much of a cliche. Remember, your audience IS international...
anonymous dude, Barbie and Ken, Tammy and Ken, these things are universal. If you live under a rock maybe you don't know these universal references because.....you live under a rock. Biggest selling movie in the world in 2023, all around the world? Barbie. Go see it. Get on board.
Love the playful nature of this set. I'm going to have to go check out how my "girls" are doing in the storefronts!
Whatever happened to the axiom that if you don't have something positive say, shut the f**k up. I'm VERY positive about that old bit of common good manners.
Eric
Our daughters, there are four of them, often refer to my wife and I as Barbie and Ken. We take it as a compliment. And we look fabulous. And we dance.
Your mannequin images sent me looking again at work by Eugene Atget, whose Wikipedia entry describes as a "flaneur," a word that I'd often read but couldn't actually define. It turns out that a flaneur is a: "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer." Wikipedia goes on to say that he is: Traditionally depicted as male, a flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life.
Wow, is that ever a perfect description of the post-commercial photographer known as Kirk Tuck!
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