[gerald L.J.]A stranger a day 2008

[The Dry Box]

A personal challenge for the year 2008. Hope I can keep up.

18-06-08 "Tower"

[cheguthamrin]

Now thats a daring shot!

Just curious, what you mean by a stranger a day?
As in close up candid shot of his facial expressions?
Or 5m / 10m / 1 km away?

[The Dry Box]

Thx.

Simplily put, I am collecting pictures of strangers and will post a new stranger every day.

[andrewtansj]

this would be a really interesting theme man... looking forward to a lot of fun portraits...

[The Dry Box]

Thank you Andrew,

19-06-06 "Ladies"

More than one, to make up for lost time.

PS: I am still a newbie to photography, started only on feb this year and doing street shoot for just about a month. Will appreciate constructive criticism from the seasoned players here.
atm, working with lights is probably my weakest link... which is bad.

Appreciate
gerald

[feetless]

yo bro, ur photos r realli nice man. keep up the power work. haha,
today, went for my 1st official street shoot. i must say, itz really
not an easy task. ppl staring at u, hiding away frm u... but its really
fun and i enjoyed it! looking at ur pics now actualli inspires me more!

[Ah_K]

interesting...
do keep it up. I for one is lookin forward to your images

[g-khoo]

"A stranger a day"... now i like that concept.

If you keep your works and experiment over time im sure you could have a mini-exhibit.

[ahquan]

nice work mate.. you are one dare devil. i wouldn't attempt such a feat hee.. nice one

[The Dry Box]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It's something I am very passionate about.

Feetless: You might be interesting in reading Markus Hartel's blog and tutorials.

20-06-08 "Fragile"

[feetless]

hey bro thanks alot for the referance man. now i know why my subjects always turn out
blur. coz i uses auto focus,haha. should try the zonal focus soon. anyway, keep those
cool photos coming! and one thing i must say, damn you are real CLOSE to ur subject man!

[The Dry Box]

21-06-08 "Inhale"

I had decided to avoid posting certain photos on my HD since the subjects are getting less and less interesting everytime I look at them.
This is an old one, not exactly that old, think was last week. One of my favorite and my most popular.

[mrchua]

fantastic stuff dude...

[sprintist]

really nice concept. besides the link u showed us on your other thread, how did u go upclose and snap in front of them? did they feel weird?

just wan to know more, hope you can share your style

[The Dry Box]

Thx Eugene.

Originally Posted by sprintist really nice concept. besides the link u showed us on your other thread, how did u go upclose and snap in front of them? did they feel weird? just wan to know more, hope you can share your style

I simply walk to them and take their picture, but you can see from the photos, it's not exactly to a point where they are facing me. I am still rather shy, so I shot at angles but very close.
I don't think they felt anything, because everytime I took a shot, they just walk past. Maybe they don't care, but even if they do, I am mentally prepared to handle the situation.

I try to work as fast as I can, because the glass I am using is quite big for up close street(72mm diameter) while many of my contacts had switched to using a Sigma DP1 including Markus. I think if you act quickly, most people would not know their pictures getting taken.

Sound ridiculous but is working for me, and I hope will work for everyone with interest.

[entropy_h]

Like the concept. Very cool. Looking forward to seeing more strangers, and I like the processing you have done with your photos.

What would be interesting is if people on this forum could identify any of these strangers, and we could try and figure out how many degrees they are from you.

[mrchua]

what equipment are you using gerald?

[The Dry Box]

entropy_h: Thx.

mrchua: I am using a Nikon D40 and a Sigma 17-70mm.

PS: Not a lot of people run this setup. If you see somebody using this, it's probably me.

gerald

[sprintist]

well just wonder how wide do you actually go, looking at how your subjects are usually just off centre position, you must be almost shooting them straight on.

like the black man, the old man and ladies shot they all seem so centred. care to share how you hit and run? prefocus or autofocus on the spot etc?

[night86mare]

it's a nice concept and i commend you for it, especially for it being done in singapore.

i think basically if you pretend and act like you aren't shooting them, people generally won't take notice of you.. that's what i experienced overseas. i never dare to do it in singapore though. somehow i just choke and refuse to even raise the camera. like i was discussing with another friend the other day, it's possibly the mentality that this is where i'll be spending most of my life in, even if not exactly the truth during this period in time.. you go overseas, no one's going to remember you, you're just the silly tourist with the big cam.. here you do it often enough, at the same locations, then you might get into trouble. the chances of these are of course phenomenally low since nobody here is really going to bother with the silly guy with the big cam with too much time.. but still the fear is there, and i cannot overcome it.

respect.

by the way, suggest varying the setting a little - to me street photography is not just about being fearless and snapping people on the street, there should be statements made, there should be a line.. and while photos of strangers passing by are really courageous, i think after a while you might start asking yourself for something more, some variance. that's just me though, i could never stick to something for very long. all these are personal views so you are more than welcome to disagree.. just felt i had to say my piece. to me, besides the old masters, rui palha today, which i caught sight on T.O.P. a while back being mentioned in an article about flickr.. i think he does street photography wonderfully fine. someone's rant on a blog i read once mentioned that street photography is about the life around you, it can be anything, so long as people are involved, or in fact, living things. even a photograph of a cat which makes a statement about life around you today could be considered as street photography, he argued.. and it doesn't even necessarily have to be in your face, jump out of bushes style, if you get what i mean. cheers, and hope to see this thread updated constantly.