graffiti ride
Jun, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Wynwood (Miami, FL) on a Saturday morning bike ride. It was a group ride with a few graffiti artists riding with us, as they were giving a tour and talking about the graffiti murals in the area.Time
This was taken mid-morning, on my mobile phone. It had rained over night, and thus the parking lot had a big puddle in it.Lighting
Perfect time of day, as the sun was behind a cloud, softening the shadows and not interfering with the reflection on the water.Equipment
Pretty straightforward, as I pulled out my mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy - set to the highest resolution). No zoom, no flash, no tripod (but I did get off my bicycle in order to get the framing I needed!)Inspiration
The graffiti artwork on this wall was unlike any I had seen before. It was done with small blasting caps, placed strategically to "deconstruct" the wall to reveal the artist's vision. The single rider on the right adds to the shot (I was thinking how he was missing the shot by getting up so close!), and the puddle in the lot obviously make the image more that just the artwork on the wall, impressive as it is by itself!Editing
I probable added some clarity, brightness/contrast, saturation, and played a little with the exposure in Photoshop's RAW window - just to make it look how I saw it with my eye and to not have the sky overexposed (I just brought some of the detail back).In my camera bag
I usually have a Nikon D90 with a couple of lenses (one wide, one telephoto with a good macro), a gorilla tripod and a GoPro Hero3+, but because I was on my bicycle in a large group, I decided to travel light that morning. Luckily, mobile phones offer a chance to capture high res images when you don't have all your gear with you!Feedback
I also say that you need to see the big picture -start wide and work your way in. By kneeling down, I was able to get the graffiti art into the puddle as a one-to-one reflection, something you didn't really see while riding past on the bike (notice the bicycle rider in the picture rode right by the puddle to get a close-up of the art, but he missed the picture!) I also had to be patient and let the wind die down a bit, so the water was more like ice, and I had to wait for the sun to go behind a cloud to even up the overall lighting. The key is to look for different angles and perspectives, to see something that one normally wouldn't see unless they tried new viewpoints.
