Where's bONGO??

When I first started out in SP, I would sometimes make a shot that I was so sure at the time was "great" that I would get this massive adrenaline rush like the top of my head would explode. This shot did that. Not 'cause I thought it was that great, but 'cause a bus laid on the air horn as it whizzed a few millimeters around me.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I was a few feet off the curb aligned where the two mirrors intersect, and where my reflection would vanish along with half the bus.

ZIG Life

I checked out the Sony A300 - what a sweet package. The live-view with articulated lcd is da bomb for the street. But not wanting to invest in yet another DSLR system, I picked up a used first generation Zigview to hang on the back of my K10D. Total cost including shipping and the Pentax adapter came to $85. It turns out this thing has some major limitations - but if you can get one for around $100 or less I think it's worth the money. The screen swivels 360 degrees but only usable in the up and down positions as you get a chopped view in the other angles.

Switching back and forth from Zig to viewfinder requires two hands and ten or fifteen seconds (an eternity in Sp time) but it can be done - hint: make sure you wear a shirt with a pocket. The second and third generation zigviews look like a better implementation but way pricey and from what I've gathered have the same 1.3 cmos sensor.

bONGO, zig - zaggin down the street...

Huh? WOW! WOW! Huh,?

Ed Ruscha, the artist once said:
Good art is Huh Wow, while Bad art is Wow Huh.
Here we have Wow! - cool shot of a skateboarder!... but then ...yeah so, Huh?
.
Here we have a guy with a cup of coffee - Huh? Then we notice the hair -wirey - like the trolley wires! And doesn't caffine make you wired! - WOW!

Then again Peter Schjeldahl, the art critic, once said:
"Art isn't inherently anything.... The possibility that the whole thing is bullshit can't be excluded."

Undeletable

Taken about two years ago, well after my "ban on bum shots" pledge. I've never printed or displayed this image but there is something about it - the shined shoe sticking out from the blanket I think - that keeps me from deleting it. I have a lot of "undeletables" enough to make an alternative collection.They have been dragged across several hard drives now, but I can't bring myself to use them or delete them. Some are borderline good others not so much but all impervious to "Del"...
ciao bongo

A Fake and A Fraud

a fake and a fraud -that's what I feel like every time I sit down to update this blog 'cause the truth is I haven't been doing much if any street photography lately - I'm ashamed to admit. I'm a bit burned out and bummed out but not completely blacked out - yet. I've seen some pretty good SP lately and it's got my competitive juices going some. I want to hit the bricks with a new attitude and a new set of eyeballs - forget all the BS I've been sprouting here, and see if I can still take a decent snap... we shall see.

Why?

x ("Riddle Road" acrylic on 15x30 canvas by bONGO)

As street photographers we rarely know the motive, the "why" of the actions we capture.

We have at least a physical description of the "who", and we know the "where", "when" and "how",... but the "why we can only surmise. Maybe that mystery is part of the charm, part of what makes street photography work...

Things Nobody Told You #4

We didn't start the fire....

It was always burning since the world's been turning...