Scary street photography at Ink and Iron

 Street Photography

The Ink and Iron show was held on the 5th March 2011 at, 11th Street, La Rochelle, Jhb (ex Ze Carioca, next to Lusito Land Venue). There where 27 Tattoo Categories (male & female), 11 Bike Categories, 3 Hotrod Categories, trophies where awarded for ALL categories. There was a Mr & Miss Ink & Iron and the Biggest Club Trophy. This was to be my first attempt at street photography.

There where some of Jo’burg’s top tattoo studio’s working, so if you needed some new ink, then this was the perfect opportunity. This was a perfect opportunity from scary street photography at Ink and Iron.

Well why was I there? Well to take some unusual photo’s and support James my best friend as he entered his first competition with his new tattoo. What an experience, I must have stood out like a sore thumb, dressed in Land rover cap and Jeep T shirt with my new Puma takkies and no tattoos, a real virgin compared to the local crew sporting black leathers, tattoos, chains and bandannas on their heads.

Ink and Iron 2011

When I got there the competition was well on the way with each of the catagories being called up on stage to be judged by the panel of judges. There was a real atmoshere of excitement as contestants put oil on their tattoos to bring out the colour and detail in them.

Standing there I took out my camera in anticipation of taking all these great images and then I realised that I could just get “moered” for just candidly taking images of these rough and tough bikers, who I would image would think nothing of “klapping” me for invading their privacy with my lens. I had never done street photography before and it was rather scary considering the setting.

I decided to take a walk around and have a look at what the event had to offer, seeing many stalls selling clothing as well as tattoo studio’s and more importantly a lot of places selling Beer, the staple diet of a biker it seemed. I though I could just walk and shoot, without people noticing what I was up to, like a covert agent undercover. Like I blended in! This was street photography at its best.

So while this proved to be fruitless, I went to the area where they had the bikes on show. There was lots of smoke and noise comming from a tent in the corner of the parking lot. Inside they had a dyna tune machine where guys had there bikes on the set of rollers and where hanging on the cable, cranking the revs, all the while a technicial was tuning the bike to get optimum performance out of it.

The bikes on the other hand where awesome, all customized in every aspect imaginable. From chrome to leather, paint jobs and accessories, everything was spotless as they stood on show in the setting afternoon sun.

So I went about my business taking images from every possible angle in search of the one perfect cameo shot of a piece of this magnificent machinery. I quite like the image posted here which a call “Hogg on a Hogg” which just illustrates the great attention to detail that each owner employes on their pride and joy.

Ink and Iron 2011

By this stage the sun was starting to set and I was warned not to stay after dark even thought the festivities would go on later into the night, as the biker knew how to party it up and things would get out of hand. I didn’t need any convincing to make my exit stage left. My first experience of street photography was coming to an end.

Ink and Iron 2011

In hind site I am sorry that I didn’t just take more images, irrespective of the perceived consequences. So I will be back next year, dressed more appropriately, sporting some stick on tattoos and be able to showcase a better variety of images. The potential to fill my hard drive with awesome black and white images was huge, and so my street photography catalog starts. So all ends well with James winning one of the two categories he entered, and I am sure he will be back next year sporting a new entry. So next year “I’ll be back  “

Unique Micro-stock opportunity

Unique Micro-stock opportunity, and especially if it costs you very little, financially, allows you to capture images for your library that don’t compete with mainstream stock images. I have often though about what could I shoot and where I do not have a lot of competition with other stock contributors. So what defines a unique Micro-stock opportunity, they are not everyday images, they are specific to a time period or subject. While they might not be top of mind in everyone’s daily search of images, the chance of getting a sale is that much higher due to few images being available in the category.

Friends of the Rail restores, preserves and operates steam heritage trains in what can be described as a living museum

So where do you find such a unique Micro-stock opportunity? Once a year the Friends of Rail allow photographers to go to their sheds where they refurbish old steam trains to photograph them. They allow a limited amount for photographers in and after a hot cup of coffee and some rusks, they begin to run the trains along the tracks, while we have front row seats.

Gear used is my Nikon D200, 18-200 lens, SB900 flash and tripod. As it starts early in the morning a tripod and longish exposure are order of the day. The trouble is the fact that generally photographers have little concern for others and get in the way of each other as they jostle for the best position to get the shot.

Friends of the Rail restores, preserves and operates steam heritage trains in what can be described as a living museum

What is also great is the fact that they have guys dressed up and perform the daily maintenance tasks that one would have expected to see in time gone by. They dump the old ash in the ash pits, clean the train as well as grease and fill up all the oil well on the engine. The problem with using shots like these is the fact that you would require a model release. Carrying a few with you at all times makes a world of difference. I never had and have had to publish images that have no people in them.

Friends of the Rail restores, preserves and operates steam heritage trains in what can be described as a living museum

They pull the steam trains out of the sheds after they have been warming up for some time and this allows shots with dramatic skies depending on the morning . This was a difficult shot to meter as the foreground is dark and the sky is light and the object of the shot is to get enough detail in the steam engine as well as not blow the sky out and still retain the light emitted from the headlight to add character. I think this shot works well even though there is an area of the sky that is blown out.

Friends of the Rail restores, preserves and operates steam heritage trains in what can be described as a living museum

Finally they let you stand next to the tracks and shoot as the train passes a few times. Here the sun had just started to rise and I wanted to capture the warm morning glow emitted from the sun as it diffused through the bellowing steam. The ideal shot is to try and pick up some of the salmon pink colours in the steam as the train passes, while keeping the image of the train crisp and sharp and capture the headlight that was still on giving the shot some character.

Friends of the Rail restores, preserves and operates steam heritage trains in what can be described as a living museum

It is quite amazing how quickly the light conditions change as the sun rises and around 9:00am the light starts to deteriorate and become a bit harsh for the shots that I like to take, loosing some of the atmosphere of an era gone by.

So how did this work out for me, was it a unique Micro-stock opportunity? Well I have had number of the images accepted at iStockPhoto and I have had a lot of hits and sales from the images. Have I covered my small entrance fee for the events? Yes, and will continue to enjoy sales for a while to come.

Fire fighting action shots

Have camera, will travel. This is often my motto, but how many times do we wish we had our camera’s with us when we are traveling. I have even considered having a concealed safe fitted in my car to keep my camera safe. To all the car thieves out there, I have not done it, so leave my car alone! But I digress. Having spent a wonderful afternoon shooting off road rally cars and bakkies, James from Punch Photo where on our way home, when from the highway we saw huge black plumes of smoke smothering the skyline from an industrial area. The black smoke looked like the type you would get from a chemical or rubber fire. After a brief discussion we decided that while we where out shooting and had all our gear with us we would go and have a look, this led us to capture fire fighting action shots. Turning off from the highway and heading in the general direction we picked up our first fire engine and followed in hot pursuit.

Firefighters from the Ekurhuleni fire department fight a chemical fire in the Roodekop Industrial area

Parking down the road we approached the main gate of where we thought the fire was and spoke to the fire chief to allow us in to capture the boys in action. What met us was totally unexpected. A factory that manufactures croc type shoes and slops had had an explosion earlier in the day and the guys had been battling the flames for the last four hours and only managed to contain the fire to the original factory, not allowing it to spread.

Firefighters from the Ekurhuleni fire department fight a chemical fire in the Roodekop Industrial area

The heat was unbearable, and the action was all around us. What settings to use. After a lot of trial and error we settled on program mode and ISO 200 and started shooting. Getting the exposure correct was difficult as the amount of contrast in the images confused the sensors to the degree that each shot gave a different result. Getting fire fighting action shots was proving to be more difficult than we anticipated.

As the guys worked tirelessly to contain the fire, the images just presented themselves, and what a pleasure and privilege it was to be there to document the event. Often one hears of the saying “F8 and be there”, and the latter could not have been any more relevant at that moment. I have seen many images that fellow photographers have taken when the these fire fighters are in training, but to experience it in person in a real live situation was amazing.

Having had our fill of images, we went and thanked the fire chief for his help, to which he informed us that the real action was on the other side of the building, where there was around fifteen fire engines fighting the source of the fire. This was our cue to get in the car and shoot around the block, only to be met by a sea of red fire engines and a labyrinth of fire hoses crisscrossing over the road.

Firefighters from the Ekurhuleni fire department fight a chemical fire in the Roodekop Industrial area

We worked our way through to where we were allowed to stand. Settings where changed to aperture priority as we had the golden glow of the late afternoon sun at our backs making the shooting conditions perfect. Getting fire fighting action shots was quite challenging as all the passers by stopped in front of us disregarding instruction and took images and video with their cell phones.

We had all the action, excitement, and drama unfold in front of us. We had awesome lighting conditions and we had somehow left the photographers curse at home for the day. The smoke was amazing as it seeped out of containers in front of us, the firefighters cutting through the steel to try and extinguish fires that where raging in the containers, which had been burned to a deep dark red wine colour. What more could you ask for.

I have to say that often emergency services are taken for granted, but I they sure as hell earned my respect on the day, and I have to admire their dedication and bravery. They are the people that protect our hard earned assets in times of adversity. Well done and I look forward to capturing then in action again.