After a week of off/on rainy, cloudy, and cool weather - but we decided to venture down to Galveston to check out a little of Mardi Gras. Visiting during the day we hoped to see some interesting sights, but not the shocking/interesting sights that "might" be around at night. This (I thought) would also be a great opportunity for me to really step outside of my comfort zone & attempt some street photography. At least this post will be entertaining & include more pictures than usual (and these are all straight out of the camera - maybe straightened & cropped - but no crazy HDR or adjustments - just photos).
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| View looking down the Strand (street) |
We drove to the Strand/Historic district & found out that admission to just walk on the streets was $17/person - so we ended up people watching from behind the fence - for free. Luckily we caught a parade & they threw us beads too - even though we were behind the "designated" area. We didn't find out if kids were free - the $17/adult was more than our budget would allow (we planned to eat out too - not to mention the $10 to pay for event parking).
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| The parade was short, but we still caught enough beads. |
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| Police horses were decked out in Mardi Gras beads too. |
We were looking for interesting people as well (my entire family enjoys people watching), here's a few who caught our eye - there were some more elaborately dressed, but my introvert self just couldn't point the camera directly at them for a picture. I cheated & used a longer lens for most of these, then cropped to get closer. Street photography is such a giant step outside of my comfort zone - I easily took pictures of the people as they were walking away from me & sometimes that accidently worked for the best.
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| Not sure where this guy got those huge beads - they didn't look very comfortable to wear. |
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| Some parties were throwing beads from the balconies of historic buildings - some of the buildings now have loft apts. |
Here's my comfort view for street photography - taking pictures of people as they walk away -- interesting head piece - sometimes what people have on the backside is more interesting than their frontside.
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| Beautiful Mardi Gras head piece |
And one of my attempts at straight-on street photography (from my safe distance, using my long lens) - but I figure it is a step forward. I still think the guy knew I was taking his picture.. not sure if he liked it or not (maybe he was just cold - it is February after all).
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| Unknown man walking away from the party - but he was still "inside" the fence. |
And finally - my other attempt at real street photography & I used a 50mm for this one, so I was relatively close. The guy's shoes were very interesting - they were platform, but with holes - like they were made for comfort. This was outside of a Starbucks right outside of the Strand area, so not sure if he came from the party or was a Starbucks employee. You can't see the shoes as well as I wanted to - but the anxiety this picture caused me was ridiculous.
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| I put in B&W like I've seen other street pictures. |
I really wanted to take a picture of an elderly man inside Starbucks - reading his book, listening to everyone's conversation (he would smile from time to time & look up), but he was too close to us & I just couldn't muster up that kind of courage (but I did think about it). My husband is so encouraging - he said "just do it" -- yeah easy for him to say - he would only wear 1 bead necklace -- so yeah he's really the show-off kind of guy (not).
I'm happy I at least tried to capture more of the street happenings, even if at a safe distance. We had a good time on the Island; watching crazy people surf (had decent waves - for Galveston), people starting to really party, ate somewhere we've never been to before, and wrapped it by taking night pictures along the seawall - lighted fishing piers, seawall traffic, etc. It was good to get out - even if the weather wasn't perfect. What adventure have you taken lately - a spur of the moment one? And how do you get the courage take strangers' pictures that close up?
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