Late Night Snack – Austin, Texas

For this last photo of a long twenty-three day SXSW related series of posts, I feature what I call a classic street photograph. I’ve heard many definitions for Street Photography. Mine consists of candid photos, which usually feature people, mostly in urban areas — though not exclusively — unaware or unprepared for my photography.

I often shoot casual portraits on the street, which I don’t consider street photography, since I first talk to them before making the photo. These women, on the other hand, were totally unaware of my presence. I noticed these three, with matching attire, lit by food truck. Unlike my portraits, I wanted a completely unposed look. With a relatively short 50mm equivalent, this still came out better than I expected.

I captured this photograph during the same night as my SXSW 6th Street photowalk with Emily and Charles. Using the same camera and lens, as my portrait of Emily — an Olympus PEN-F with 50mm equivalent lens. I’ve used this combo so often, perhaps I should change it, just to do something different. On the other hand, the 50mm equivalent had worked so well for Henri Cartier-Bresson, I suppose one can make an entire career (or hobby) by shooting with this classic focal length.

It’s a far cry from when I started photographing seriously some 9 years ago. Back then, I often used ultra wide-angle lenses, shooting urban landscapes, usually HDRs, on tripod. And, while I still love architecture and documenting a city’s fabric, I seem to be shooting a lot more people these days. Go figure.