Tag Archives: street photography

Black and White, Cameras, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

Neighborhood Walkabout, Rainy Day

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This was the result of a rainy-day walkabout in my neighborhood.

Yet another style of Siamese stand-pipe – this time beaded with rain water. It will go into my collection of ordinary objects.

Siamese Standpipe, Rain
Siamese Standpipe, Rain

The flower vendor was sheltering from the rain under the awning of a Five Guys burger joint.

Roses, 5 Dollars
Roses, 5 Dollars

A whole family, waiting for something (there’s not a bus stop where they were standing – maybe they were waiting for someone else to come along in a car). The little boy was playing with his umbrella and the mom kept telling him to put it up or put it down, but stop swinging it around or he might poke someone with it.

Umbrella Family
Umbrella Family

While the kid didn’t hit the guy with the Starbucks cup, that’s exactly what the mom was talking about with the little boy.

Starbucks Man, in the Rain
Starbucks Man, in the Rain

A mom and her daughter out running an errand in the rain.

Mother, Daughter, Cyclist
Mother, Daughter, Cyclist

I liked how the columns of the fire station were reflected faintly in the rain-slick sidewalk.

Engine Company Number 11
Engine Company Number 11

This half-gate stands in front of a house under renovation. I think one of the construction workers thought I was strange for wanting to take a picture of this.

Half Gate, Vines
Half Gate, Vines
Black and White, Cameras, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

Neighborhood Wanderings – People

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I went out on one of my neighborhood walkabouts and found these scenes. I’m still not good with getting people’s faces in street photos because when I try for a portrait, it inevitably becomes non-candid because I take too long trying to compose and focus, they see me, and at best the moment is lost. So I do photos of people from behind. Maybe I’ll work on making it into a thing.

Shopping Couple, U Street
Shopping Couple, U Street
Man With Bags, 14th & U Street
Man With Bags, 14th & U Street

Scenes with activity in them, though, work better. I guess because I’m standing off at an angle to the action and people can pass through without being aware, so they get included from a variety of angles.

Dolcezza Gelateria
Dolcezza Gelateria
Crown Pawn
Crown Pawn

And sometimes they get included because they’re completely unaware of the camera’s presence, like the worker inside Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Ben's Panda
Ben’s Panda

All shots taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E on Ilford FP4+. The Ilford FP4+ is part of a large stash of it that I bought more than a few years ago when there was a scare that Ilford would go out of business. I bought a box of 100 rolls (B&H was running a special on the bulk lot). Well, Ilford stayed in business (thank heavens!), and my use of medium format waned for a while (I sold off my Hasselblad outfit to finance a large format camera), so the bulk lot sat in my basement, going past its expiry date. Now that I’ve found and fallen in love with the Rollei, I’m finally making a dent in that box. It’s a great compliment to the quality of Ilford that I can still use this film this many years past the expiration and I have yet to need to tweak the chemistry to compensate for the film’s aging.

Black and White, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

Street Scenes – 14th Street after work

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A couple quick snapshots from a street ramble after work.

Bicycle, Pedestrian, Gallery Window, Self-Portrait
Bicycle, Pedestrian, Gallery Window, Self-Portrait

I happened upon this scene on my walk home from work the other day. I’ve developed a thing for photographing bikes and other means of transport, thanks to seeing the bikeshare stations all over and watching people riding them. I like the multiple layers happening in the scene with the contents of the gallery merging with the scene behind. The bike is still the main emphasis, but you have the cars, the pedestrian, the interior volume of the gallery with art on the walls, and then the fractional self-portrait of me on the right side (mostly just camera bag in the reflection, but I’m still in the picture).

Hipster on his cellphone
Hipster on his cellphone
Man with boxes
Man with boxes

These two were just practice shots, really, trying to get better at people photography on the street. They’re part of the mood of 14th Street, though- emblematic of the energy of the place.

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Taking Photographs, Washington DC

First in a Series: People Who Ask About the Rolleiflex

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Truth be told, I’m a bit of an anxious street photographer: I’m not terribly good at asking total strangers to pose for me. So I’m getting started as an exercise by setting a new rule: if you see me out and ask me about my Rollei, you have to pose for me. We’ve already broken the ice by talking about the camera, so now we’re not total strangers anymore. This is the very first in that series. These two guys saw me out with the camera, and started asking about it. They even asked me to photograph them, which made it easier. The black guy was interesting; even though he was smoking, he asked if he should get rid of his cigarette for the photo. I told him to keep it.

Smoking Buddies, El Chucho
Smoking Buddies, El Chucho
Color, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

Another Neighborhood Walkabout

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Just four random shots from around the neighborhood. These first three are small local businesses managing to hang on in the face of growing gentrification.

EJ's Hair Designs
EJ’s Hair Designs

I don’t know what’s going on with EJ’s. Every time I walk past (which may be heavily influenced by when I’m going by – weekday evenings and/or weekends) it appears closed. I know the sign says “open” in the door, but you tell me what closed miniblinds means… I love the sign on the door (which is probably too small to read in the JPEG version of this shot): “We love children. However, insurance regulations do not allow children in the shop unless they are receiving services. Thank you, The Management”.

Claws N' Paws
Claws N’ Paws
Arthur's Grocery
Arthur’s Grocery

A sign of the times. General hipsterization plus the general trend of people being so absorbed by their mobile devices that they do stupid stuff like walk into traffic has inspired these signs spray-painted at the crosswalks of a number of intersections in the Upper 11th Trend Strip (don’t know what else to call it- North-East Columbia Heights Business District? NoECoHiBD? …that stretch of 11th where all the new restaurants have proliferated amidst old-time bodegas and coin laundries? How about just Hipster Velcro? (can’t call it a hipster magnet because that would imply something about hipsters that’s just not true. Velcro sounds about right because it sticks well to things like scruffy beards and ironic flannel). Of course, it NEEDS to be painted on the sidewalk, for it to stand a chance of registering with the phone-focused.

Look Both Ways (No Cell)
Look Both Ways (No Cell)
Black and White, Cameras, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

More Columbia Heights

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Here are the outside shots of Mad Momos Restaurant and Beer Deck.

This is the entrance, as viewed from under the awning. When they bought the building, the structure was partially renovated with the intent to turn it into a restaurant. They followed through and finished it out, leaving the awning frame up but not getting a canvas/vinyl cover. Instead, they are training a vining plant in barrels, which will take a couple years to fill in (visible in the second photo of the awning). I just liked the structure of the awning and thought it would be an interesting frame to contrast its geometric structure against the decoration of the building behind it.

Mad Momos Entrance
Mad Momos Entrance

I don’t recall if the paper cutout figure over the door ever had a head or not, but in any case, it’s a little girl holding an iPhone like a handgun.

Here is the facade of the building. In case you’re wondering, the paper figures plastered to the wall are Osama Bin Laden giving Honey Boo-Boo a piggy back ride, whilst she’s holding a molotov cocktail. Yeah, the guys have a quirky sense of humor.

Mad Momos
Mad Momos

Another view of the awning structure, dappled with sunlight filtered through the tree above.

Awning, Mad Momos
Awning, Mad Momos

Chrome chairs on the patio at Mad Momos:

Patio Chairs, Mad Momos
Patio Chairs, Mad Momos
Patio Chairs #2
Patio Chairs #2

The chairs were still stacked from having been stored the night before. I loved the repetition of the shapes of the chairs.

Handrail14thStreet

In contrast to the modern awning frame and handrail around the front patio, this 1910s/20s wrought iron hand rail frames the steps on the house next door to their building.

All these photos were taken on a Tuesday – the slowest day of the week, thus the absence of customers. I’m going back there tomorrow after work with some color film to take some night shots – the place gets packed!

Black and White, Cameras, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Silver Gelatin, Washington DC

Silver Gelatin Printing- a Personal Refresher, With Experimentation

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I’ve gotten back into doing a little sliver gelatin printing and enlarging since I’ve been shooting the Rolleiflex like a madman. I wanted to try something out with my printing, so I was doing split development of my prints with both warmtone and cooltone developer. The way it works is I have two developer trays, one for each kind of developer. I’m using the Ilford Warmtone and Ilford Cooltone (a now-discontinued product that I was given a case of some years ago). I want the shadows cool but the mids and highlights warm, so I start my development cycle with 30 seconds in the cooltone developer, then move to the warmtone developer for the remaining minute and a half. The below examples are printed on Ilford Warmtone paper (if you want a warmtone image, you have to use a warmtone paper – you can make a warm paper go cool with a cool developer, but you can’t warm up a coldtone paper short of sepia toning).

Window, Graffiti, 15thStreet
Window, Graffiti, 15thStreet

This is the warmest I can get in my highlights and mid tones using this process. The Ilford warmtone paper doesn’t seem to get very warm at all.

Here’s another in my series of Everyday Objects – the near-apocryphal payphone. In trying to find one, it actually took some looking! They’re not completely vanished from the landscape, but you actually have to go looking in somewhat rougher neighborhoods now to find one because anyone living above the poverty line these days has a cellphone, and nobody wants to carry around a pocketful of quarters AND dimes to make a call.

Everyday Objects - Payphone
Everyday Objects – Payphone

I was getting a little nervous about making enlargements as it has been forever and a day (at least five years) since I last made an enlargement. Turns out it’s a skill like riding a bike – once you learn, you never really forget.

Both shots were taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E, on Ilford HP5+, developed in Pyrocat HD. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but Pyrocat is my go-to developer, even for small and medium-format negatives to be enlarged (or scanned!). Pyro developers in general have great built-in contrast masking from the stain, so it is possible to retain detail in highlights in images that would require burning and dodging were they processed in another developer.

Black and White, Cameras, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Washington DC

Dupont Circle Evening, in Black & White

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Violinist, Dupont Circle
Violinist, Dupont Circle
Guitarist, Dupont Fountain
Guitarist, Dupont Fountain

The first two were shot on Kodak Tri-X, developed in Rodinal 1:25. I was actually kind of hoping to get sandpaper-y grain with that combination, but no such luck. It’s ok though, because it isn’t that far off the rest of the images, so the change in film and developer isn’t that noticeable. All the rest are on Ilford HP5+, developed in Pyrocat HD.

Dupont Pedestrians
Dupont Pedestrians
Three Bikes, Dupont
Three Bikes, Dupont
Dupont Metro Meditation
Dupont Metro Meditation
Dupont Musicians
Dupont Musicians
Dupont Metro Guitarist
Dupont Metro Guitarist

All photos taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E.

Black and White, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Photography, Taking Photographs, Washington DC

Panhandling Hobos, 17th Street

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Traveling To Montana
Traveling To Montana

I love all the ironic details of this image – the modern-day hippies panhandling with their massive shisha pipe and their puppy dog, in front of a bank and the Sysco truck (“People and Products You Can Count On”). It was serendipitous that they were posed in front of a bank and a food service truck is behind them when their sign says “broke and hungry”. A poignant clash of cultures. I wanted to get closer to fill the frame more with the hippies and their puppy, but I didn’t want to engage them especially on a negative level (I could see them reacting with anything from suspicion to hostility if they knew I was photographing them, since on a day-to-day basis I appear the very symbol of upper-middle-class conformity and public officialdom – it’s khakis or slacks and a dress shirt while at work). So I popped inside the Pret-A-Manger in front of them and took this from inside the window. I think the person sitting at the bar next to me was a little wierded out by having this guy with a Rollei walk up next to him and take a picture – I suspect he wasn’t entirely sure what kind of camera it was, if it was even a camera.