Contest Semi Finalist

Recently, I have been trying to build my confidence in my ability to capture quality photographs. To do this, I have entered 3 separate photo contests 1 from strobist and 2 from DIYPhotography. The first 2 entries were not photos that I was particularly proud of. For one, I lit it using only my cell phone and got decent results considering but the photo was nothing special.

All that changed on my third entry. More details after the jump.


For this contest from DIYPhotography, the theme was "work." It was open to interpretation, but was intended to be a shot of where someone worked or a person at work.
I wanted to find someone that I could photograph at work that wouldn't find it intrusive. Nobody I knew came to mind though. So I decided that since I live in New York City, the best place to find a subject would be a street performer or a subway performer. So I set out to do just that.

I passed up shooting several people who were playing music in the Times Square station knowing that lighting these people would be very difficult and the end result would not necessarily be visually pleasing. I had just about decided that I was going to give up on submitting an entry. While on my way to shoot the 48 Hour Film Project film submissions, I wound up being about an hour and 20 minutes early at the Union Square Subway station. That's where I found this guy in a not too busy corner.

I decided to take my time and photograph this guy a bunch. I got my camera set up and dropped $5 into his hat. Then he was thrilled to pose over and over and move as I needed him. At one point, he stopped posing to grab his can of spray paint and do a touch up. I knew this was the moment to capture. This was the rarely witnessed part of the act. This was him at work.

So after a few adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop to remove the background, I submitted the photo to the contest. It was named as one of the 5 best beating out some photos I was quite impressed by.

The detail in the full size version is quite amazing thanks to my new camera (Canon 5d Mark II) and the rented lens (Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II).