Thousand Mile Stare
May, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a morning walk along the promenade in Camps Bay, an affluent suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The beach is opposite Camps Bay's main tourist hub, featuring hotels, restaurants and shops. I love the challenges of street photography and one never knows what is around the next corner.Time
The image was captured on 19 May 2013 at midday.Lighting
Although being midday, the light was not that bright, with the day being a little dullish.Equipment
This portrait was shot with a Nikon D4 and my trusty Nikon 50mm 1.8 prime, hand held no flash.Inspiration
Found this homeless drifter sitting on his rolled up blanket against a large rock next to the promenade with this blank stare on his face. His face portrayed a strong character which immediately caught my eye. His feet were black with grime and it was obvious that he had not bathed in some while. On offering him some money, he allowed me to get up close to photograph him without changing that Thousand Mile Stare. The subject was shot at a distance of 1.8 metres away. His face was deeply weathered with heavy wrinkles and defined pores on his nose, forehead and cheeks.Editing
Felt that the image was suitable for conversion to black and white mainly to accentuate the craggy, weathered and rough-textured details in the face. As the image was quite tightly cropped, the colors in the photo did not contribute much, and I felt that the strength of the image lay in emphasizing the grimy ridges and wrinkles. For post-processing I essentially use Adobe Lightroom with Photoshop (and sometimes plugins) for final post-processing.In my camera bag
I now carry a Nikon D810 and love it. Together with my 50mm prime, it is smaller, lighter and less noticeable than that which I was previously used to. I also carry my super sharp 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro-NIKKOR as a general-purpose medium tele lens, but seldom for macro use. Living in South Africa with great wildlife parks and reserves at our doorstep, I am privileged to be able to do quite a bit of wildlife photography. On game trips to the bush I mainly use my 300mm f/2.8 which I mount on a gimbal head clamped to the roll-bar of the landrover. I also take my Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED zoom lens.Feedback
Anyone like myself will tell you that you should carry your camera with you at all times, but this is not always practical. I myself often make the mistake of coming across a perfect opportunity to capture what could be an amazing image, but have failed to bring my camera along.
