Ever since I tried shooting in black & white mode using my Ricoh GRD3, I’ve decided to start two galleries to house photos I take with it. One is for photos in square (1:1) format in black & white and the other is a black & white collection of street photography shots (called ‘Everyday people’). I’ve had few photos for the square format gallery but was only able to kick-off the ‘everyday people’ set yesterday when I was on the way for breakfast with my family in Chinatown.
Why did I choose to use the GRD3 for these? Well the white E-P1 is way too sexy and ain’t really suitable to hold it up right in front of people’s faces (without them staring) and the GRD3 is small and black … and that somehow gives it way less attention from others. I could hold the camera right up to my face (yeah … and the other people’s faces), take a shot or two and act like I wasn’t taking photos of them. Hahaha! It’s a thrill I loved years ago but somehow stopped taking street photos for some time already. The 28mm lens on the GRD3 ‘forces’ me to go real close to the action and brought back lots of fun. Those days, I used to hold a DSLR and wide lens right in front of people’s faces and that somehow put me into a lot of ‘risk’ … in case some get pissed and punch the hell outta me. *sweat*
Why don’t I just use a tele lens or a compact with zoom for street photography? Simple. I hate hiding in one corner to ‘steal’ shots. The thrill of going real close and able to walk away (safely) with some decent shots … is what I’m after.
Another reason for choosing the GRD3 for street photograph is that I live its black & white mode. Personally I love the black & white photos it produces straight out of the camera. All these photos just went though auto level in Photoshop, resized, slight sharpening and brightness adjustment for some. I hate spending time Photoshopping, so these are actually good enough for me. 😀
This guy doesn’t seem too happy with me pointing my camera right at his face!
Sorry if these 13 photos took too long to load. Hahaha. I’ve yet to create a dedicated section for these, so I can’t post them as a gallery (in thumbnails) because they will be reflecting all the other photos when I add them in future.
They look like they’re from a dslr!
@Joe : Thanks. Well with the technology now … sometimes it is pretty hard to differentiate between a DSLR photo or a compact already eh? Of course not for all kind of photos though.