Mexico City Trip

Every year for the last three years, my Wife and I have made it a goal to travel somewhere new out of the country. Last year we traveled to Europe and experienced great countries and cultures.

In 2017 we had to save for our wedding so I was nervous that we would not have the opportunity to save and travel. During the summer after paying for our wedding I saw there was an opportunity for us to travel by attending a San Francisco Giants game sponsored by Virgin Airlines. They were offering deals of purchasing one plane ticket and getting the one for free. Well the other one wasn’t actually free, you would be required to pay taxes on it. So I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, attending my annual Giants game with my college roommate and getting the Virgin Airlines deal. Unlike our previous two foreign trips, the trip was purchased and planned by me because I thought it would be a great surprise to present that as a surprise to my wife on our wedding day.

A few weeks after our wedding we were shocked along with the rest of the world to see an earthquake had killed and affected the lives of thousands as it devastated Mexico Capital and areas near it. After seeing what the earthquake did we were undecided if we would still go or not. Our trip was the for the second week in October, 3 weeks after the earthquake on September 19.

I thought it would still be ok to travel there but was a little reluctant, in fear the city would not be in good shape. My wife on the other hand did not share the same optimism. She thought we should cancel and go somewhere else another time. As our date to leave came closer, I convinced her everything would still be ok to go. I looked up every news outlet broadcasting I could on the state of Mexico City to make sure it was still safe to visit.

I was ecstatic to be in Mexico for the first time. To my surprise there was so much to see and do in Mexico. To put the city into words it was awesome! The people were incredibly hospitable, the food was phenomenal, there was an unlimited amount of things to do, and was fairly an inexpensive trip.

This was such a fun experience for my wife and I. It definitely ranks up there with one of the best places ever visited. Oh and I forgot to mention I made the biggest mistake a photographer can make by forgetting to bring my camera. I was stuck with my iPhone 6 to pick up the slack. I realized with the right lighting phone cameras aren’t that bad. Now I would probably prefer to only travel with my phone as my primary camera because it is so convenient and inconspicuous. No one cared what I was doing with my phone but everytime I look as if I’m pointing my camera their way people look suspicious. I think people don’t care about phone cameras as much because they maybe seen for casual user whereas professional cameras are the real thing.

The Art of Panning Cont..

Sorry for the delay in the lack of recent post, unfortunately during the winter it’s hard for me to get out and shoot as much as I would like to. A while ago I wrote a post on panning. It has been a learning experience which has continuously interested me over the past few months. I love the spontaneity of what happens as you are shooting while doing street photography. The experience is duplicated while panning as well. Here are some of my favorite shots from a recent trip to San Francisco.

To start my friend Henry and I like to find busy areas to get panning shots, which enables  ample opportunities to perfect the shutter speed and aperture you would like to shoot at for a particular shot. I’ve read how some people set there cameras to particular settings and let the camera do the rest, but for myself it’s a bit more complicated than that. For me I adjust the settings based on how fast or slow the object is going.

During times of traffic or in a busy city like San Francisco you can leave the settings alone because most of the cars are traveling at the same speed. It’s always nice when your settings are right and you can line up the shot you want.  While panning it takes me a few minutes to adjust to the speed of traffic so during that time I fix the settings to align with the shots I have in mind. Henry and I always joke about doing a panning workshop one day, but until then I’ll continue trying to perfect my skills at the art.

Fun, Fun, Fun…

I am interested in photography because I enjoy it. For that reason, I think it will be hard for me to consider taking up photography as a profession. I’m not a fan of doing photo shoots for people because they can be too specific about what they want out the photos which takes the thrill of spontaneity away from me. Which is why I enjoy candid street photos. I’m able to edit the photos how and when I like with no scheduled timetable. I’m in no way knocking people who make money by doing photo shoots because I’d love to get paid for doing street photography. Everything about walking the streets with my camera is fun; the thrill of getting the perfect shot, catching people in their natural elements, and even being spotted by someone and yelled at for taking their photo. It’s all FUN!!! These are some of my latest photos.

 

The Art of Panning

Recently I have been fascinated with panning. For those of you who are familiar with panning in photography, the idea is to capture some kind of clarity with moving objects while everything else is blurred. For the most part panning is done with moving cars, but can be done with moving boats, bikers, motorcycles, skaters and even with people walking. My friend Henry is an expert in the art and thought me how to do it, now I love trying to capture new things while panning on our walks throughout the city.

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As you can see, panning is truly an art form and can inspire street photographers to create unique photos. Now the trick is having the right settings to pan. You have to set your aperture high, so around 11-16 and the shutter speed is set to 1/15 sec to 1/30 sec. Once the settings are right you are ready to go out and pan.

San Francisco Streets

San Francisco being one of the most unique cities in the United States makes the city a street photographers dream. Only living 75 miles east of San Francisco enables my friend and I frequent opportunities to visit to the city. Our goal is to spend the day in the City and roam the streets aimlessly. Of course we have our go to spot where we start but the ending point is always random. Every alley or block presents opportunities for creative and candid photos. These photos are from some of our trips to San Francisco.

 

Love For My City

I moved to Sacramento 10 years ago from Houston, Texas and have loved every experience I’ve had here. The city is so diverse, which has given me the opportunity to meet great people outside of my ethnicity. Through common interest I have acquired great friends in Sacramento. I share a love for Street Photography with one of my good friends Henry Huynh. When the time permits you can find us walking the streets of Sacramento with our cameras in hand. These are some photos I’ve taken during our walks. All photos were taken with my Fuji film X100T. 

With Great Power, There’s Great Responsibilities

When I started shooting street photography I was using my iPhone 5. I was not very well versed in cameras and what kind of camera I should purchase. When I went to Instameets, I would see and hear these photographers nice gear and hear them talk about full frame cameras. At that time I became close with one of the local photographers named Henry who I met at an Instameet and we hit it off. Henry was just getting into street photography, but knew a great deal about cameras and gear because he helped his wife with wedding shoots and also did portraits with local models. Henry would always tell me “You don’t need a full frame man!” but I was stubborn and wanted one anyway. I was convinced that’s what I needed to be an official photographer, so I went out and bought a Nikon D610 and soon after bought a 24/70 2.8 lens for it. It wasn’t long after that I realized I made a mistake. The camera and lens were great but for street photography the gear was too heavy to carry around all day.

During that summer, my fiancée and I traveled to Europe for two weeks which was my first time out of the country. I was so excited to have a nice camera but was miserable carrying my huge camera and lens around everywhere we went. From Northern Italy to Austria I walked with that thing everywhere. During the trip I was able to take some amazing photos but when we returned to the U.S. I knew I couldn’t keep walking the streets with that gear so I had to downside. Sold all of my gear and purchased a Fujifilm X100T and I love it! Here are some of my photos with the Nikon D610. Lastly, please check out my good friend Henry Hhyunh’s work. Henryhhuynh

Begger’s Break

Down the Street

Nap Time

Venice Block

Milano Street

9 to 5

Transportation

Meditation

Piazza San Marco

Fierce Cat

Burano

Venice Night

Milano Duomo

Early Work

Photography has exposed one of my favorite things to do, which is walk around and people watch. Before having a camera, I would walk around seeing certain things thinking “hmm now that would make a great picture.” One of the first things I did when I finally got a camera was walk around my city looking for things to shoot. At the time I didn’t know my style was street photography but ultimately, that’s exactly what I was drawn to. Finding people in their natural environment and randomly capturing them at different moments encourage my love for street shots.

City Jazz

Paris Caution

Notre Dame Block

Colosseum

Nooo!

Lessons From Outside

Highlighted Path

City Love

Street Flash

Big Al

A few days ago I purchased a flash for my Fuji x100t. I like it a lot and having it makes me want to learn as much as I can to get more familiar with it. I can see this is going to be another fun experience into photography.

Jesus Shuttlesworth

Stewart