Breaking News!

A Decisive Moment was narrowly averted today when an alert Insecurity Guardian detained a would-be Imagist found with nearly two-and-a-half pounds of plastic Nikon strapped to his wrist. The suspect appeared to be a street photographer and had concealed on a memory card various jpegs of conscientious consumers carrying shopping bags, swaddled in cell phone cocoons or drip fed from latte cups.

This kind of jpeg, Investigators warned, can easily be uploaded and viewed electronically by foreign operatives. A spokesman for the HomeLand Profit Alliance stated that all persons not conspicously consuming will be prosecuted regardless of the law and those found carrying cameras could face water boarding.

The Blistered Blink

Here, now live in a blistered blink.
No dress rehearsals. No engraved invitations. BE Here NOW. BOOM. Take the snap or get off the street! BOOM. Do it. DO IT! Raise the friggin camera NOW use whatever settings you've got NOT the shoulda-woulda-coulda you wish you had - SNAP. Out- a focus - underexposed - it don't matter NOW or NEVER this way or no way.
Life is a blistered blink, baby... a blistered blink.

Dog Daze

Bums, Kids, and dogs are often the only interesting thing happening on the street. Bums and kids come with certain ethical baggage that you have to learn to deal with, and dogs..... well dogs are just not as easy to get good street photographs of as you might think. First, they're low to the ground,

second, they move fast...

and third, they have their own agendas...

For awhile I thought a good technique was to pretend to tie your shoe - that gets the camera close to the ground for a dog eye view...

But it can also make you look like a pervert doing up-skirt photography, so be advised.

Good street photos with dogs are challenging but worth the effort.

Hapless New Year

I started thebONGOLIAN a year ago with the goals of posting at least once a week ( I came close with 47 ) -- and to post only my own opinions and observations rather than rely on links to other people's stuff. A lot of blogs are comprised mostly of links - I know because I read and enjoy them, but I wanted to see what I could come up with "on my own" as it were.

That seemed to work for better or worse until about two months ago. I've had bouts with ennui before, but this is something more sinister, malignant.

In the past when my street photography wasn't working I would paint, or write, or binge on galleries to rekindle the fire.

That doesn't seem to be working this time but I'm not that concerned about it.

I only made one resolution for the new year. To be a better human being. Not a better photographer, or artist but a better person. What does that mean? How do you go about doing it? I'm not sure but I hope to find out.

War On Xmas

For the last several years I've been a photo journalist on the War On Xmas. This year I've yet to find much new to report, although admittedly I've been mostly in the green zone out of harm's way. So CLICK HERE to see the War On Xmas's past - and I'll add to the set any yule fire fights I might engage before year's end.

Bat Street Photography

Here's one fresh off the frontal lobes - Bat Street Photography (BSp)

Hit the street blind folded (or at least with your eyes closed) - use your sense of hearing, your sense of smell, your street acumen to capture what your eyes cannot... also try not to step out in front of a bus....

Bat Street Photo no. 1 by bONGO.

BSp is like a work-out in the dojo, only you do it in the street... with a camera ... and nobody gets wacked - hopefully.

Camera Color Coincidence

Coincidence - when two unrelated events appear to be arranged or have some causal connection.

Color Coincidence - when it involves color.

Camera Color Coincidence - when there is a street shooter around to capture it.

Here two moving objects - man and bus would be gone seconds after the shutter snap. That transcient aspect is a plus but the photo could use more eye candy other than the left edge.

Here the color coincidence is between a stationary color reference and a (somewhat) transcient object. The man in black apparently discovering the coincidence is a plus but I can't help but wonder if the man in purple might have chose to wear a purple shirt knowing he was going to dine at Purples.Here the color coincidence is between two stationary objects - but is more interesting visually than the others - AND there is another reason why the third photograph will prevail, where the other two will eventually get the delete key - .

Yes, I enhanced the colors in all three photos - but the man in the first photo really was wearing red and yellow, and the man in the second really was wearing purple. But and this is a big BUT - if they were not I could have easily have changed them to achieve "color coincidence".

However in the third photo we know from life experience that those colors are true - that curbs by fire hydrants and driveways are painted yellow, that Yellow Tail wine uses a yellow tailed kangaroo in it's ads and this adds a certain cash value to the color coincidence that the others lack.