It's title is "The Exception".

I wanted all people touching their hair. I waited for 4 hours. At this place (in Hong Kong Central) people come out of the sky bridge and the wind tunnels through the tall buildings and blows everyones hair pretty hard. EVERYONE (Except the bald people or those men in full firm belief of their masculinity) would right away go to fiddle with their hair. And look at the mirror windows of the building behind me.

So I waited and I waited and I waited, squeezed back against the other building with my 28 on and my TMAX2 loaded.

And waited, and waited... and shot and cranked and missed and shot and cranked missed and shot...and FINALLY! I left a bit later thinking that 3 out of 4 would have to do as I had a flight to catch and short of asking people to pose - that was how the cookie crumbled that day. :-(

@ Kettelarji

They were all waaaaay too focused on their hair... every single person (well 90%) were for 4 hours straight...

@ Rockas.

Nikon FM3a with a 28 2.8 AIS prime in a full covering leather Luigi case. It looks very non threatening. Same size and lighter than a leica but is SLR - which I have no problems with in normal light. I was leaning against a wall - and the film was set to 1600 - so I could stop down, zone focus and always fire quickly.

thank you Richard! :-)

@ Tracy

You know what it means for me to receive praise from you and Mark. Appreciate it. I am trying hard to behave myself.

@RF...when I say, "common," I don't mean the scene as you captured it--and congratulations on that--I mean that it's a people-descending-escalator shot.

@ King

Yeah - I wanted a flush. This is the best I could do. Believe me - I sank the time in. The exposure was hard - dark alley below and sky up top. I also was pushing my TMY2 to 1600 which is going to further add to the contrast extremes. I think I also had a K2 yellow on as well..more than likely - that filter never comes off except for when very dark.

@ King

Yes common. I must admit this is also part experiment as there was a thread on the groups about street and appreciation. So I uploaded the shot that I think of as street (in the stricter sense) that had the most favs and popularty from flickr.

Next shot will be one that I like for myself and me only. And I am beting that the score will be lower than that of this one.

Yes - I am rather bored. My baby left me yesterday to go to Korea on his way back to Australia (7 month trip all up) and I don't have much motivation for anything anymore without those big brown eyes and waggy tail to greet me when I wake up, come home or just holler his name. :-s Oh yeah - maybe I should give the wife a call.... ;-)

@ ArneG

No conversion. This is the real deal silver halide. I don't shoot digital at all.

Well done Richard and you were licky enough to get 3 of them with their hands in their hair....:)
Did you crop this?

@ Jens Just a little bit on left and bottom to get the leading line in the corner. Where the top of the rails exits the frame on the top right - the rail did the same on bottom left. But it didn't feel balanced when I finally looked at the scan - so cropped. I would have gone corner to corner but that would chop a head off.

@ Jens. Reckon I could have gotten 4 or 5 or 6 all at once. I just didn't have the time. :-s

It is ok as it is....corner to corner is what I call unnecessary perfection without life inside....:)

Well now I see what the deal is with the Street Photography discussion on the google group.

This is a brilliant shot, but City is not what would first come to mind when I look at it. Perhaps we should have a Street theme, though technically this isn't in the street.

It featured long before I saw this, but I would have given high marks.

@ Kadenajack

I think you are labouring under a mis understanding of street.

Street is just a label. It has nothing to do with streets anf roads. THe shots could be made in the bush or on a farm or on a plane.

What the category is refering to are those fleeting moments of intrigue, surpise and fun that happen to people when they do things - either by themselves or with others.

As to city. Well people make a city and a city affects how people work. A city is like a maze and the people the rats inside. Shooting the people is a great way to tell a story about a city.

That is why we have such phrases as he is a typical "New Yorker" or "Rio" kind of guy.

Cities and people can't be separated.

I knew as soon as this theme came up that I didn't want to focus on buildings or roads or alleys. I wanted to capture the flavour of people that can tell a stereotypical story of what people from a certain city are like - or what the city does to them and their way of life.

There will be more on this stream of thought from I. I want to show what it is like to live in a city of 20 million people.

Anyone else care to guess what it must be like to live in a city of 20 million people? Well I hope I can portray that in my next few submissions (well 2).

Cheers,
RF.

@ Kaden

And also - this is actually outside. Hong Kong has a city in the skies so to speak. A vast network of raised footways and cut out second stories of all major buildings. So people can pretty much walk around the entire city without getting in the way of traffic and without clogging up the side walks.

These were escalators down to the street on the outside from one of the raised walkways - or pedestrian arteries - of Hong Kong.

Wow...you must have the patience of a Saint, but lucky for all of us that you do because...now we get to enjoy this perfect capture in exceptional timing! Love this one!

I wouldn't call it patience. There are few moments in a street shooters life when things fall into place so well AND you know that the setup will be persistent. So you have more than one chance.

It just so happens that the pre visualisation that I went for - didn't "fall out" right away. Others may have seen other stories and got their moment much sooner. I wasn't bored - I was excited as I was waiting for what I was dreaming of to occur in front of me.

Yes it is an apple store. The only one of its kind. the trick is not to look up and see what you don't want to see passing by. IN fact the floor and stairs was clear glass then they had to change it. Just imagine buy your apple and grinning too or being in despair from the the sight above. Now the store is respectable.