Last rays

I'm enjoying the views over the city from our new apartment but this evening's sunset was particularly spectacular.
The weather over the last few days has been pretty miserable, so I didn't expect such a beautiful sunset.
The dark, grey clouds gave way to an orange blast as the sun peeked from between tall buildings, giving hope for better weather in the coming days (or more realistically, weeks).

I didn't use HDR but used three exposures, blending the layers by hand.
I'm still not sure about the final result but I don't think a standard, one-shot exposure would have done the scene justice. I might play with it some more in the future and see if I can achieve something better.

ISO200, f/3.5, three exposures at 1/800, 1/200 and 1/50. Merged using PS. Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 G.

How it works

Although we initially had bigger plans for today, we watched a movie into the early hours of the morning and couldn't get up early enough so we decided to head to Shoreditch High Street and Brick lane again.

It's always an interesting mix of people and a clash of colours.

Just after grabbing a bagel at Beigel Bake, I spotted these two eccentric looking characters.

I never thought I was too comfortable with taking photos of strangers, but my girlfriend was even less sure about it.

After a brief debate about the pros and cons of shooting strangers, I'm still not convinced that I should ask people if I can take their photo.

From the perspective of politeness, I feel I should ask.

From a photographic viewpoint, I'm not necessarily looking to capture a portrait and asking takes the spontaneity out of the moment.

Also from life experience, I prefer acting first.

The "asking bit", post-snap is still missing, so I might try to add that to my repertoire next time and see how I fare.

It also feels a little alien to me not to properly frame my photos. What happened to the upright verticals? Is the image slightly blurred? Yes...and I probably should have chosen a faster shutter speed.

I suppose the moment is sometimes more important than technical details. After all a photo is about an image made by variations in focal length (fixed, in this case), shutter speed and aperture (and iso).

ISO200, f/5.6, 1/30s, RAW

One too many

I saw this man wandering around with his can of beer before he finally sat himself down amongst his friends.
I sometimes wonder what "street people" think.
Do they have regrets? What do they regret?
Can you really solve problems by drinking?
Do they yearn for their youth again? Another attempt?
Do they have children or siblings?
Are they totally lost or is it possible to communicate with them given a topic of interest?

ISO200, f/2.8, 1/60s, RAW

Focused

I was in Brick lane, with a friend of my girlfriend, first to drink coffee and snack, followed by a close study of graffiti art.

I took my re-modified X100s, hoping to do a bit of street photography.

Initially, I relied on autofocus (not always aiming properly).

This effort was via the autofocus route. Later, I managed to use a bit of zone focusing + hyperfocal distance, using the distance markers in the screen/EVF. The zone focusing was actually quite good, perhaps better than the autofocus attempts, especially when shooting from the hip.

This one didn't quite make it into focus but I like the shot nevertheless. The barista seemed to be very into her job.

ISO1600, f/2.8, 1/30s, jpeg (B&W conversion in pp)