Street Music

I am often fascinated by the work of photographers who specialize in street photography, especially the 'environmental portrait'. I am still struggling with a personal hesitancy about 'intruding' on persons on the street for that kind of photography.

That's why I go looking for situations where the vibe on the street is 'look at me!'. Here in KC those people are commonly street musicians.

The City Market is an entertaining and personally exciting place for me. On summer Saturday mornings there are the farmers with their fresh vegetables, organic meats, etc. There is the spice merchant, the commercial fruit & veggie vendors and the Mediterranean grocer (fresh pita bread !). You can have a freshly grilled Italian sausage or a marvelous walnut danish (yay Bloom Bakery !!). It is a festival environment.

This year the Market has attracted a great number of musicians. There were at least six different groups of performers there on Saturday. And it was an eclectic group.

Here are some images of various aspects of the performance. Enjoy !

Stylin'

Magic Fingers

Up Close

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 55-105mm, post with ACR/CS6

High Plains Sunset

We've just completed a short trip to our family home on the High Plains. It was partially a working trip, but we were able to spend mornings and evenings out with the camera.

Most of the evenings were nondescript because of heat-generated thunderstorms that clouded the western horizon. But Saturday evening the clouds formed later and further southwest.

This is about 60 minutes prior to scheduled sundown. The far bank of cloud made for a higher horizon and allowed for the warm light to paint the underside of the nearer clouds.

Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f/2.8, post in ACR 7.1 & CS6 / Color eFex 4

Union Station - Nighttime

Saturday night I was out shooting around Kansas City's Union Station. Built in 1914 it was Kansas City's transportation hub until the end of the rail era.

Abandoned in the 1980's it had seriouly eroded by the mid-1990's. An effort to restore the station to it's original glory was completed in 1999. Now is serves as a community gathering and entertainment venue for the region.



My eye was attracted to the edges and reflections of the exterior lights on the facade and seeing the ceiling detail through the windows.

This is not an HDR, but it is a composite image. The longer exposure is the primary base of the image with a shorter exposure of the portico 'painted' in to balance the exposure of the outer lights with the light from within the building.

Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. Processing in ACR 7.1 and CS6