FOTOMISH :: On the Streets at Large

By Travis Jensen Sep 12, 2014

Greetings. I come in peace and offer you this bevy of snaps as a token of friendship.

Where it’s going down: 37.7833° N, 122.4167° W.

All photos below, except two, were snapped with the trusty Ricoh GR (a.k.a. The Poor Man’s Leica), my go-to street rig. The camera is compact and discreet, so people don’t really freeze up or push the panic button when I pull it out and start firing off frames like a gremlin on acid. It also blasts with a helluva kick.

A good chunk of these photos – maybe 85% of them – were snagged using the Ricoh’s on-camera flash, where I either dragged the shutter for the semi-haunting, psychedelic look (see first photo below), or dialed back the flash exposure compensation significantly to avoid too much fill light, resulting in blown out faces and/or other highlight issues. As mentioned in my previous post, I plan to write a piece about using flash, both indoors and outdoors, as well as during the day and night. Like most, I prefer natural light over anything, but the flash can be a true savior in both low and harsh light settings.

FOCUSED ON TRUTHFUL OUTCOMES

::

Tenderloin, USA.

No Simpin’ in the Pimpin… Tenderloin, The Continent.

Down for Whatever. Civic Center, SF. It’s funny ’cause there were hella UFOs lurking around when I snagged this shot. In fact, I think that dude on the bike is actually one. And if you don’t know, UFO stands for Undercover Five-O.

My 5-year-old puts in more work on the street than most adult “street photographers” I know… And he’s not scared to troop 5 miles through The City either. Starting him off right in this craft… 6th and Market… These streets are a real life video game. No need for any video game setups on the home front. The last system I owned was the original Nintendo.