Many years ago, with a newly purchased 24mm lens gracing my old Nikon F, I decided to try something. While walking through Paris, I held my camera at my waist, and simply shot in situations that seemed visually interesting. Even though this was an expensive proposition in the days of film, I was quite pleased with many of the results of “shooting blind”. It was as though the images had been freed from the rigors and rules of composition that I automatically followed when composing through the viewfinder.
Recently, on a trip to New York City, walking through that magnificent city, I thought to try the same thing, but this time I decided to add a new variable, which was to shoot at very slow shutter speeds to see if I could paint with blur as well, shooting as I walked, never stopping to take the picture. Obviously this is an exercise best done with digital, since only a few percent of the images are worth saving. But for me, those few percent have a quality that makes them both satisfying and interesting. Taken in Paris, Rome and Milano as well as NYC. Warning: there are quite a few images!
I don’t think these will be to everyone’s taste, and I must admit that I sometimes wonder if these are faces only a mother could love, but I present them here for your judgement and hopefully appreciation.
