Looking through my archives, I see that I have absolutely no street shots of the people in Charlotte. I had plenty of people in Charleston, but none here. Well, I've set out to remedy that situation. I know have the prime opportunity to shoot most every day. In order to get a less expensive lot, I park 5 blocks from work and walk in. Each day, I take with me my Olympus 35 LC, though I will be switching to the Leica because, quite frankly, it is a much better machine. I'll qualify that just a bit. The Oly is a great camera, but the controls are so very easy to accidentally move, especially the aperture ring. I have to make sure to hold it a certain way so as not to bump the controls. I find this distracting and it ends up in missed shots. With the M6, I have no such constraints. I set it and forget it. I see something, I respond. That's it. The center of Charlotte, both literally and figuratively, is the corner of Trade & Tryon. Should you ever find yourself in Charlotte and want pictures of people, this is the place to be. No, it's not NYC, nor even close, but you will find an diverse range of folks, all interesting. On Friday afternoon, for example, on the Northeastern corner was a man with a bible preaching to all who would listen, opposite him on the Southwestern corner, stood young man atop a small stool with a microphone talking about who knows what. On the Southeastern corner another man, seemingly homeless, babbling on about something, coherent to him, perhaps, but ignored by most. On this particular day, the Northwestern corner was unoccupied, at least at this time. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me, I was heading to lunch with some of my coworkers. No excuse. I happened to photograph the guy above one morning on the way to work. Although my building would be directly to his back, I like to walk past the building, shoot a bit, and relax before going into work. I usually arrive downtown about 8:30, arrive at Bank of American Center at 8:40, but I don’t go inside until 9:00 AM. The interesting thing about this shot, for me, is that the guy and the statue are looking in the same basic direction. FYI: The name of this particular statue is Industry; It is one of four statues on that corner. All really cool works of art. Well, it’s a start. Time to get the M6 out and have at it. Oh yeah, this is the first roll of film that I’ve ever developed in Charlotte. Related posts:
Olympus 35 LC – Ilford HP5 – Rodinal 1:50
7 Responses to “On the street in Charlotte”
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Dang right it’s time for the M6. Looking forward to your images. Interestng, do you know who this guy is in the image? I also like his shadow.
I have no idea who he is. I just snapped a picture.
My word, the tones and crispness in the top image are like ‘buh-tah.’ Just exquisite. Hey, a question: when you scan your negs, how much do you sharpen them? Just curious. Also love the conrast of him in his shirt against the darker background. Great shot.
Chris: I have the scanner bring them in with a minimal amount of sharpening. I find that with the Leica that I do not have to sharpen at all during the scan or in post processing. With the Olympus, I have to sharpen just a little bit on export. In this case, a small amount of sharpening was applied during export with Lightroom.
My experience has been that my film images need little to no sharpening at all, regardless of the camera. All of the digital images seem to need just a hint of sharpening to make them look crisp.
Great catch. If this is a representative sample of what we are in for, then bring on the Charlotte street scenes.
Paul, to me your street photos from Charleston, for the most part, seemed to have a laid-back, relaxed feel to them. I would expect street photos from Charlotte to have a more stressful feel. It will be interesting to see it that proves out — I think it does in these first two.
Interesting thoughts, Earl. We’ll see what turns up in the upcoming weeks and months. Certainly, Charlotte is a busier town, a banking town, and downtown Charleston is all about tourism. I’m not even sure what is in downtown Charleston other than shops, restaurants, bars, churches, and historic homes. I do, however, know what is in downtown Charlotte: shops, restaurants, bars, a few churches, no historic homes, and banks, banks, and more banks … oh, did I mention that there are banks here.
There are lots of peaceful, landscaped spaces in Charlotte, but also lots of grimed, determined, business faces. I’d never thought of it that way, now I shall make an attempt to forget about it so that I can see it as unbiased as possible.