The Story Behind the Photo:
July 2021: Street Photography with Motion
by Kathy Conzelman
©Kathy Conzelman
My family and I have always enjoyed the music at the annual Folk Life Festival at Seattle Center. In 2017 I took my camera to record the day in images. The original image of the marimba players was made using my Samsung NX1 mirrorless crop sensor camera with a 16-50 mm lens at a focal length of 35 mm (this would be an equilvalent of about 52 mm on a full frame sensor), f 8, for 1/80 sec-hand held, ISO 200.
This is the original color image. For the assignment I wanted the focus to be on the movement of the players’ hands and the mallets. I found the color of the man’s shirt to have too much visual weight and it drew me away from the motion, so I converted it to monochrome. I like the look of monochrome for street photography, and I wanted the viewer to feel like they were standing right there and feeling the energy. I cropped out the right side and bottom of the image in order to really pull the viewer in, without losing context.