The best thing about shooting in the street, at least what I feel, is that you never know what you are going to encounter. Even in the most familiar place, you get to see something totally unexpected. The street is always there for you, and it will bring you something new as long as you are willing to be there.

This street shoot in Surry Hills was exactly like that. The places we visited and the streets we walked through were relatively new sides of Sydney for me. Every corner we passed I had to pay more attention to the details as I didn't really know what I was about to see. Then, yes. There were some interesting people I met along the way.

Jesus and Me
The nun in the background apparently comes here 2-3 times a week doing anti-abortion protest, on Randle St behind the Central Station, where the Korean karaoke locates. She is literally standing right in front of the karaoke. I found that pretty funny by the way :)

Whether you agree to the abortion or not I have to say I read the great deal of determination on her face. She is old but has a very strong persona. Mixed feeling of respect I got from her.

I was trying to capture some irony with the picture of Jesus and her in one frame, but I have to say I failed as it blurred the background too much, as more than I intended to, which makes it hard to identify the nun in the back. My photography teacher also pointed that out in a very positive manner :) Thank you Lynn, I can't agree more to you.

Prayers
Not very far from the nun, I met another group of people doing the same silent anti-abortion protest on the street. I wasn't that moved by their prayers but the shadow in the back was impressive.

Tree
Good Morning
This aboriginal lady was another very interesting person I met. First I saw her on the opposite side of the street and she was walking toward the same direction as I am. On her way to the park she was greeting everyone she met with the two kind words, "Good Morning". She seems to be a long time resident here and knows the ins and outs of the place very well.

She was really happy to be photo taken and told some stories about her to a group of us, how long she has been attending to the church, and how they all had to move out of Redfern and relocate to Surry Hills. The unpleasant reality of Sydney shadowed by the glorious Opera House and Harbour Bridge I believe.

Look at Me
Smoking is not good for your health girl, go easy with it. As it's really really difficult to quit later when you really really want :(

The kids we met in the park, everyone got a big happy smile and they all seem to be excited about the sudden surge of attention by a group of photographers. Then I felt pretty sad about it.

Some people on the street become grumpy when I ask for photographing. They just can't be bothered to be disturbed by an unknown stranger and become "Leave me alone" mode. Of course I totally respect that and had no problem with it. Then, there are happy people who are easy to start a conversation, very casual, polite to talk and most of times happy to be photo taken.

Those kids were neither of the cases. The excitement and happiness they expressed were like the one to the unknown, something that they don't experience often, but still feels so nice. I believe that was the positive attention from others. I didn't stay there for long and maybe shouldn't judge the people so quickly like that, solely based on my intuition, but honestly that's all I felt at the place and didn't feel very good about taking their photos.

Sunshine Girls

Untitled
However, it's not very far to come back to the reality as I know. Literally just around another corner, people are busy walking on the street, enjoying their late breakfast in the cafe and most importantly just living their life. And that's right. People just live their life on the street and I am just happened to be the person freezing their moment in the frame and I find this process truly attractive and that's the real joy of photography for me at least.

For today let's bring some colours out too as the street offers a lot!

Old Man?

Over the Rainbow

Dear My Hair

All the images were taken with X100. The weather was really nice and the sun was strong. This kind of weather makes the built in ND filter very useful. I used it quite often on the day and found it really handy. By the way the ND filter function is assigned to RAW button and ISO control to the main fn button in my camera.

Thanks for visiting.

All the images were published under the "Creative Commons" licence.