angelobakoulas

Boem Athens

NIKON D80

Aperture 71/10 ISO 100 Shutter 1/25 Focal Length 320/10

upload_date

Sep, 2016

Views

Likes

Awards

Zenith Award

Well Done

Superb Composition

+10

Absolute Masterpiece

Outstanding Creativity

Top Choice

Peer Award

Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken in Monastiraki in Athens, Greece, in a neighbourhood were a lot of thrift and antique stores are located. I was walking on Ermou street when I noticed the chair coming down the road on top of a car so I waited till it reached the ivy-covered abandoned house which I always like looking at, and snapped the picture. The traffic jam helped me have the time to frame it as well!

Time

I was with friends coming back from a late lunch probably in June. It was about 6 or 7 in the evening and the heat was finally starting to be more bearable.

Lighting

Photographing Athens in the summer is always a challenge because the blinding light often wipes away a lot of details and shadows. Yet, in this relatively narrow street in the evening the light was mild enough to highlight the colours of the scene while the lack of clouds still made the daylight appear uniformly spread across the landscape.

Equipment

A Nikon D80 was used with a 18-105 mm and 3.5-5.6G AF-S Nikkor DX lens.

Inspiration

The vibe of the area, and the city more generally, is very inspiring and the stories that items and buildings can tell are endless. I was particularly moved by this moment because it involved someone's everyday retail activity yet both the chair and the buildings around which it was being transported moved the whole scene into a whole other era and mentality. That contrast between the individuals and the objects involved made me want to isolate the chair and the building and tell their story and hint towards the secrets they may hold.

Editing

I slightly corrected light and contrast on the picture with Adobe Lightroom.

In my camera bag

Just my DSLR - formerly the Nikon D80, now the D3300 - with my longer or shorter lens, or my Zenit analogue camera.

Feedback

With street photography, regardless of whether you go out specifically for that or whether you just happened to get mesmerized by something and have to pull out your camera, it is often easy to get intimated by the people and the noise and either shoot wide unintentional frames or nothing at all. Yet, especially if you are someone who does not like going up to people and photographing them, take a moment, find a corner of the sidewalk where you are not in the way and lounge, look at your phone if you want to look less 'suspicious', but pay attention to the details of the buildings, the traffic, the crowds in front of you, any animals around - no not giraffes, more like cats or pigeons - the pattern of the sidewalk and even the dirt and the trash that may be around. Then zoom in or out, just always play with the frame until it hits a nerve and that's that.

See more amazing photos, follow angelobakoulas

angelobakoulas

angelobakoulas

Boem Athens

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow angelobakoulas

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.