The Streets of Boston

I almost always gravitate to landscape shots.  The are grand, beautiful, and most importantly, they do not move.  I can set up, pick my camera settings, tweak my camera settings some more, play around with the composition, and nothing moves.  At the end of the shoot, I am almost guaranteed to have a shot worthy of posting.

Well, this past weekend I tried another type of photography – street photography. No, I am not shooting streets, though some are pretty cool. Street photography is looking for shots of interesting people, local attractions, and anything else one can find while walking down the street.  This is way out of my comfort zone.  Instead of fiddling with my settings, I have to make snap decisions and shoot.  Then hope for the best.

We arrived in Boston for a weekend getaway early afternoon and went out on a walk.  After a couple of hours of shooting cityscapes (they are just like a landscape but the city skyline instead), we headed into some tourist areas in search of interesting characters. Almost immediately we passed the “Barking Crab” (I will not try and explain) where there was live music.  Peering in I saw an interesting drummer – and just fell in love with his hair:

Drummer with great dreadlocks at the Barking Crab

Next we visited the Boston Common.  While most tourists (and my wife) are shooting ducks and swans,

Getting one’s ducks in a row.

I came across what looked like Bert (Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins). I put a dollar in a bucket and Bert agreed to the photo.

Brought back into the world of Mary Poppins – say hi to Bert!

I left Bert feeling more confident in my street shooting.  Then, not 50 yards from Bert, I came across a very interesting oriental man playing an instrument I have never seen. I placed another dollar in his case and asked for a photo.  He consented.

Does anyone know what kind of instrument this may be?

Finally, one cannot go street shooting without returning with a street shot:

What do you think of my street shooting?