Spontaneous Impromtu Stealth Portraits

venchka · 08-09-2006

I did a quick search and found out that this topic has not been covered. So, let's see your stealth portraits.

Some background. A colleague and I went to a local Tex-Mex place for dinner after work one Sunday. I had the camera loaded with my first roll of BW400CN. After my friend had what I thought was enough adult beverages to loosen him up, I aimed the camera at him. He freaked and said, "No way are you taking my picture!" So I set the camera down with the self-timer cocked. I set it off. He didn't notice. So I did it again. He didn't notice. Grinning. Here are the results.

Lesson learned: Don't put the camera behind the basket of chips!

Next time I will pick a better location for the camera. Bonus points if you can name the lens. Minimal postprocessing with Lightroom.

Critiques welcomed. Thanks for looking. Large files-high speed connections!

James Burton · 08-09-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by venchka

...So I set the camera down with the self-timer cocked. ...
Thanks for looking.

Any chance you could reduce the size of the pictures to say 500 or 600 pixels
on the longest side? Should be about 100k. That way us dial-uppers can look :-)

Nice idea with the self-timer, now how do you do that without endless futzing
and calling attention to what you're doing?

---
Who does stealth portraits 'round here?

simonankor · 08-09-2006

JimG · 08-09-2006

She was preoccupied with her phone call, so I snuck a shot.

Dougg · 08-10-2006

One of our town's strange characters. He's sitting on his bike (as usual) at the farmer's market. He rides this old single-speed balloon-tire bike all over town, and he rides incredibly slowly. Must take very good balance to go that slow. Often smoking a cigaret while riding too. He's a fan of the fire department, so shows up whenever and wherever they're doing something. This is very impromptu; I raised the camera and he's just beginning to react to that...

Ilford XP2 at EI 250.

kully · 08-10-2006

This is a vegetarian mate of mine:

He's looking at us trying to get the brains out of this hog:

taffer · 08-10-2006

Piazza Spagna, Rome.

venchka · 08-10-2006

Dial up friendly smaller files.

As for the self-timer, I just used my finger to cock it. When my friend wasn't looking I pressed the release.

The rest of you have practiced this a lot. Y'all are WAY better than I am. However, it would appear that you all actually had the camera up to your eye.

Todd.Hanz · 08-10-2006

KKK rally demonstrators:

Todd

Gabriel M.A. · 08-10-2006

JoeFriday · 08-10-2006

did you mean stealth photo or stealth fighter?

the street scene was a total stealth shot.. hyperfocus and guestimated exposure.. the camera was actually pressed against my hip and I was walking toward the women as I pressed the shutter.. the amazing thing is that I didn't have to adjust the level of the frame in PS.. what you see is exactly what the neg shows

goo0h · 08-10-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeFriday

did you mean stealth photo or stealth fighter?

LOL. Cute.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeFriday

the street scene was a total stealth shot.. hyperfocus and guestimated exposure.. the camera was actually pressed against my hip and I was walking toward the women as I pressed the shutter.. the amazing thing is that I didn't have to adjust the level of the frame in PS.. what you see is exactly what the neg shows

Actually, inspired by your earlier post of the gals walking towards you, I recently took some chest-level pics at a birthday party. I'm tall enough that a ceiling light over a bar was cutting into the top of the frame, so I lowered the camera. I then did a few more like that because I noticed it wasn't as distracting to folks. I haven't had a chance yet to develop the film so have no idea if any of them came out, but at least it was fun!

Pherdinand · 08-10-2006

Here you go.
Guess where it is.

Pherdinand · 08-10-2006

Joe Friday, she's not a stealth fighter but a bomber.

venchka · 08-10-2006

Good eye, Brett!

All of this is very inspirational! Think I'll practice some more this weekend.

Gabriel M.A. · 08-10-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pherdinand

Guess where it is.

New Orleans?

venchka · 08-10-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pherdinand

Here you go.
Guess where it is.

Amsterdam would be too easy.

Pherdinand · 08-10-2006

well, venchka, life is sometimes simple and easy. Amsterdam it is.

Pherdinand · 08-10-2006

gabriel, indeed i made it difficult by hiding the bikes and, by the english-only-text.
And wow,there are no windmills wooden shoes tulips neither!

MinorTones · 08-10-2006

A scan of an inkjet print cuz I can't find the original file at the moment.

venchka · 08-10-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pherdinand

well, venchka, life is sometimes simple and easy. Amsterdam it is.

Bonus points for me! It looked too nice to be New Orleans.

Nobody has ventured a guess on the lens I used to start this topic.

Looks like I found a favorite subject! Keep 'em coming! I might add that the timer and shutter of my RF camera was so quiet I couldn't even hear it over the elevator music from 2' away.

JoeFriday · 08-10-2006

here's another I dug up.. taken with my Contax T in an artist's gallery.. he was sitting in the middle of the room as people walked around.. I believe I was 4 feet away when I took the shot.. he had no clue, which is funny to me since he's a pro photog

James Burton · 08-10-2006

Dougg · 08-10-2006

Paving work

rvaubel · 08-10-2006

I spent the afternoon sitting on the steps of the Vancouver Art Museum. This is just one of many interesting shots. The RD1 was great for these low key pictures. After a while I was just the guy hanging out on the steps with a weird old camera.

Rex