the darkerside to rants

Over the decades “Street Photography” has become a new “category” in photography. It is, essentially, a way to catch a candid moment. Well, that’s how I see it anyway, others perceive street photography as anything that happens outside, faces, moments etc.

I have been a bit “shy” shooting people in the past, mainly because I found it intrusive, though I have gotten a bit better lately.

The challenge, for me, lies doing this without being noticed, there is a “voyeuristic” aspect to it. The photo above is an attempt in this, I am not too happy with it out of a few reasons:

1. It’s not in Focus.
2. It’s too grainy for what I shot.

The first one stems from me trying to use a rangefinder, set to two metre distance and an aperture of f/8 in order to get the shot. I clearly should have set the focus a bit further out and thus have her fully in focus.

There is also some bluriness due to me walking as well and a rather low shutter speed of 1/125th. This I should change as well, rather a wider open aperture and shorter focussing distance.

The second “issue” stems from the development. It came from a test roll I shot on a new film and developed in a way, as I later found out, that wasn’t quite suitable, because of the development in the jobo drum system it turned overly contrasty.

Ah well, live and learn

There was a “neat” little story about the VPD intimidating a photographer for the Province to give up his camera. Didn’t take long for Jim Chu to try and… well, “explain” the situation.

My thoughts on this are …. well, rather direct:

I have to say I am a bit disappointed that the photographer caved. If the cop would have gone through with his threat and arrested him it wouldn’t have stuck and it would have made a much more powerful point about the abuse of policing powers.

But hey, let’s face it, if Jim Chu really would want to change the perception of the force I’d have a few ideas:

1. Take the cops out of their cars, when was the last time anyone here had a casual interaction with a cop? Most of the time they only approach you when you have done something wrong or you need them. Hardly ever do you see a normal relationship between the force and the people they are serving.

2. Get rid of these paramilitary type uniforms. The average “beat cop” looks like he’s part of a riot squat, only missing the helmet and club.

3. Stop trying to whitewash police transgression, get rid of the “cops investigating cops” theme that is going on. The VPD reports to the city. Cityhall should set up their own investigation group, even if they their findings won’t be binding (not sure about the law on this one).

4. Lastly: Educate yourself about your rights. The charter trumps whatever a cop may think they can do, and then STAND your ground and don’t just cave in and then whine.

It’s rather simple, I am actually partly waiting for the VPD to do a something like this on me. I am severely pissed at how the police in this Province has been behaving and Jim Chu and his fellow “top cops” don’t do anything to make me feel better. Either the people stand their ground now, or all is going to be lost.