I went out at lunch yesterday to practice my panning skills, trying to determine the best shutter speed to capture movement, not too fast because you don't want to stop the background (and wheels etc) and not too slow that you can't freeze the subject. I was getting some reasonable results with 1/125sec. To be honest it was kind of hard to even find fast moving objects around Yonge and Dundas as the traffic is pretty grid locked most of the time.This was the last one I shot and as it happened, I think there's a story here. If you're not from Southern Ontario, then you've probably missed the news about a prominent politician who is being charged in the death of the bike courier earlier this week (Bryant quits post, declares innocence, cyclists ride in support of dead bike courier). This incident has sparked the debate again about cyclist safety on our city streets. I sometimes ride my bike around the city and I've had a few close calls with cars and experienced the tension of sharing busy city streets with mammoth SUV's, trucks and just plain, poor drivers. However, I must admit that I'm not always a model bike citizen and on occasion I'm guilty of disobeying some laws of the road. Another combustible element to the argument is the bike courier - urban hero or antihero ? So back to the photo, could my friendly subject be reacting to the possible negative slants towards couriers or is it simply capturing the stereotypical anti-establishment attitude of this urban figure ?
The other story that this photo perhaps captures is the growing negative attitudes towards photographers taking photos in and of the public. I've been personally tackling this one as I straddle the line between trying to capture unstaged urban street scenes versus approaching strangers for permission to take their picture as part of my 100 Stranger project. There is quite a lot of new commentary and a few organizations raising awareness on public photography, how it is legal - not a crime, how it is a creative art form to embrace, and in some parts of the world, how photographers are sometimes being suspected of being terrorists (something I haven't personally experienced).
So I'm going to keep taking pictures of people, because they are beautiful, interesting, funny, colourful and in many cases there's a story behind their photograph.
1 comment:
So much to say but I will try to be brief. As an experienced cycling commuter for the last 3 years I am entangled in this debate daily, and in DC we have had similar tragedies to help ignite the issue. My initial reaction is motivated by the photo you took. The messenger is riding a fixed gear bike with no brakes, which immediately reveals his status as an idiot! Yeah, its cool to ride a track bike, but in a busy city it is simply irresponsible and dangerous. A cyclist must be able to stop in a hurry, accelerate in a hurry, and adjust to traffic patterns and obstacles. All of these tasks are far more difficult without brakes and gears. Track bikes are for the track, period!
The argument about sharing the road will never be resolved until drivers are more educated and cyclist act like vehicles. I am disgusted by my fellow cyclists that ride through red lights, hop onto curbs, ignore stop signs, and never signal, and then complain about getting no respect. If you treat your bicycle like a toy you will be treated like a child.
A quick story: I was stopped at a red light in a busy city intersection very early in the morning. I had a number of cars behind me waiting for the green as a fellow cyclist approached me from behind. Instead of stopping with me, she continued ahead, without any concern for the law and peddled through the intersection recklessly. Once the light turned green, the drivers and myself proceeded as I was met with barks of disdain from a number of them. I became the target of another cyclist's actions. Each time a cyclist breaks the laws in the face of a driver they make the road more dangerous for me.
When I finally caught up to the young woman in question I reminded her of this dilemma and suggested her actions caused me harm, I was met with the same response your messenger provided you.....
Cyclists suck and I'm ashamed.
-Dick
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