Public Transport

I have found that public transport offers plenty of different photo opportunities, from entire train stations to people and small details. Everything from wide angle lenses to telephoto lenses can be useful. Even if I just happen to carry my camera from some event, no matter which lens that happens to be on the camera, it is likely that there is something to photograph.

(The timing of this post is not entirely arbitrary - until recently I had the one month regular public transport ticket - starting with the Snowball week - but now I’m again primarily bike-bound, so fewer public transport photo opportunities for me.)

The big picture / Wide angle

Using the subway, passing escalators is normally a part of the journey. Several photo opportunities. Many of mine turn out dull, but now and then the lines and/or the colours create a pleasant visual effect.



Colourful escalators


Since I don’t care about the documentary aspects as I’m photographing for fun, I have no objections to manipulating the colours the way I want them - which might mean anything from over-saturation, like the one above, to black and white.





As a winter bonus you get the moist-lens softening for free if you come in from the cold into a warm subway hall (the camera manuals advice against this usage, especially if you do not have weather sealed lenses).



Converging Lines


Movement

Large vehicles rapidly moving - opportunities to practice your long shutter speed skills:



... either from the outside ... (Photo is from Häggvik tramway station, shutter speed 1/30 sec.)





...or from the inside! The photo above is from inside a German bus going from Dagstuhl to St Wendel. The driver drove at least 10 minutes with the doors wide open before realizing something was odd (we didn't complain, as it was rather warm, and no children in danger on the bus - in fact, me and my cs summer school travel companion D were the only passengers). The shutter speed 1/50 sec was enough to create the blur.

People

If you have the guts and/or don’t mind risk being seen as obtrusive, public transport is also good for candid portraits. (Since I do mind being seen as obtrusive, there are many moments where I later regret not having the reflexes to snap a picture.)



Waiting for the subway




Security guards


The two pictures above are taken with my 135mm lens, which allows you to get close without physically being close.





In the line for the bus


On the other hand, travelling nighttime on weekends you might also encounter people that want to pose for you when you carry your camera visibly...



Random posing people


Details

Finally, there are plenty of details which can be worth paying attention to.



STOP


Refresh Yourself


All of the photos in this post are taken from my compiled set of public transport pictures

Herräng 2010, Week 2, Tuesday

This is very much old news, but I’m still going through the Herräng photos. I was just going to write some text to go with the flickr-album, but I ended up with more text than practically readable in the flickr small column format, so I modified it a bit and posted it here instead.

Tuesday (the 13th of July) was a terribly hot day. Sweaty classes, including a “special” one. Later I escaped to the beach, where I met some of my most stylish friends, enjoying the afternoon with style. Nice Retro Fashion Show during the meeting. Blues night, so no dance photos! (Well “Slow Drag Night” with the new official Herräng terminology, to emphasise that old style music and nothing modern will be played.)

The 13th class
Here comes one of my (hopefully very) few rants about Herräng 2010: The idea of a “13th class” was very appealing - instead of the 12 classes we were paying for (or working for) we got 13, where one of them was something completely different, to introduce some randomness and fun. Some classes petted a boa constrictor, some gave massage to each other, yet some were comparing candy from different countries. We, we were told to make one row out of several in a paint-by-checkboxes giant Frankie-portrait, on the asphalt in front of Folkets Hus, in the blistering midday sun. As the “cult” part of the lindy movement is the thing I have the most objections to (add that I have too little sun tolerant facial pigment) this was not my favourite activity. Although of course, I participated and had kind of fun convincing myself and others that this was not a bad working-in-a-group practice - fake it until you make it.


Almost everybody drawing


Drawing


Well deserved break



At the beach
The beach was, for understandable reasons, well occupied. As mentioned I encountered some friends who know how to do anything with retro style. They kindly shared a glass of well-known sparkling wine with me. Listening to “Champagne Galop” on a portable wind-up phonograph, while drinking champagne, in the shade on the beach next to the world’s best dance camp - one of those “life could be worse”-moments :)


Winding up


The portable phonograph


Champagne


Retro Fashion Show
A returning theme at the evening meetings has been to have a short retro fashion show, with clothes that can be ordered through the Lindy Hop Show.











To be honest I don’t remember who made these clothes, but I do know that one of the companies which does make retro style outfits suitable for dancing is Swing Outfits, so it could have been them. (p.s. Take a closer look at the cup in the last photo, and you will find another returning theme :)

Blues Night
Blues (slow drag...) night was very good! At least after some hours, when we had moved down into the library. Up in the main hall it was way too warm and crowded, and too many beginners / people that were not that interested in blues (don’t misunderstand - I’m a beginner myself, but I know I like dancing to / trying to dance to blues music, which some beginners who haven’t tried find out that they don’t).


In the Mood for Blues


Blues Morning


Dancing all the way until the last blues dj gave up, which was ~7:30, as can be seen above. (Or, of course, in the photo meta-data, but all my Herräng photos are one hour off, since I never switched to daylight saving time.)


Walking back


Going to back to shower (no sauna week 2 - it was broken for one full week ): and finishing the “day” with breakfast at Yum-Yum. Then sleep - horay for Wednesday = “cultural activity day” = sleep until afternoon.

Visit the flickr-album or the Herräng 2010 collection for more photos!