Trolley Ride

Trolley photographs will always be taken by tourists and local Memphians alike but none give you quite the experience as an actual video of the trolley ride itself. Memphis photographer Jason Lee created a video that really is the sum of amazing moving photographs. Posted are some stand alone stills from the video at the bottom. Watch it with the sound on and you'll catch the magical quality that all kids seem to be entranced by.

See more work from Jason here. He also works as a 3-d artist with Paradigm Marketing & Creative.

Trolley Ride from jason allen lee on Vimeo.

Happy Friday, Happy Dance

[ Dancing at Cooper-Young Fest ] To get you in the mood for the weekend. Photo by Ziggy Mack. (By the way, go see Footloose!)

luvmud 2011 [ Josh Malahy ]

[ day 2 ] luvmud 5k 2011by the amazing Josh Malahy with his digital Leica M8 and Fuji X100, perfect for street photography. Josh usually shoots gorgeous weddings using mostly film (which makes me an instant fan), but we hope he contributes more Memphis street photography soon. Check out his website here.

luvmud 2011 kids' run [ Ziggy Mack ]

What's more fun than getting muddy? Cleaning up in water sprayed from a fire truck! luvmud's addition of the kids' race this year was a triumphant success. They also gained a great volunteer photographer this year too - Ziggy Mack. Thanks Ziggy for this set. I'm sure you'll see more luvmud photos on here soon.

LeanIn

Nikon D3000, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 200, 55mm

[ young love ] Memphis photographer Jackie G. Ellison scours the urban environment with his camera like no else I've seen in Memphis. He captured this intimate moment in the busiest part of downtown - Beale Street.  Honestly, I usually gag at PDA but I'm feeling the sweetness in Jackie's photo. Have a lovely weekend!

See more of Jackie's photography at his site itchyshutterfinger.

Trolley Tour Instant Film Portraits [ Joey Miller ]

[ July South Main Trolley Tour ] Tonight is probably going to be another great Trolley Tour night but I’m not sure it can top the exciting amount of talented photographers I got to meet and hang out with at last month’s Trolley Tour.  One of the talented photographers I’ve always heard about but met for the first time is Joey Miller, carrying around a vintage Mamiya camera all the photographers were drooling over. Joey, like other photographers there, were getting photos of people but here is where you can start to understand the difference between just a photo with a person in it and a true portrait. I’m sure the instant film quality helps add to the artistic vibe and grittiness I love but Joey truly captured the personality of Memphis.

PHOTO DETAILS PER JOEY  They were shot on a Mamiya Universal with 100mm f/2.8 lens. Film was Fuji FP-3000B, a 3000 speed peel apart instant pack film, similar to the old Polaroid 667 type. I was using a two stop ND filter, allowing me to shoot wide open for effect, and still keep the shutter under 1/500, the top end on that lens.

TONIGHT  Joey will be back out downtown again tonight, this time shooting with blue film.  You might be lucky enough to be in front of his lens.

Zombie Walk 2011

[ Downtown ] Zombies / Zombie Walk 2011 / Photographed by Memphis photographer Ziggy Mack. Since we were impressed with how Ziggy captured these shots like scenes from a horror movie, we thought they were best presented as a series.

Hula Hoop Girl

[ Beale Street ] Taken after the 2011 Beale Street Music Festival by Memphis photographer Ziggy Mack. We love how intimately close this shot is taken, and with the expression on her face, it seems she enjoys the intimacy.

SUBMISSIONS + FIRST FEATURED

Thanks to everyone who has shown such great support for this blog and to those who have submitted their work so far.  In the spirit of the collective effort, we are asking to see your best street photography of Memphis in order to see the city and its people from as many angles as possible.  Although street photography as broadly defined is photography of the public realm, we wanted to also describe what we consider great street photography. The first and easiest way to illustrate what we are looking for is referencing the work of great street photographers, past and present, that inspire us.

[ Inspiring Photographers for Street Photography ]

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Robert Frank

William Eggleston

Yanick Delafoge

Eric Kim

Charlie Kirk

[ Other Resources ]

In-Public

Smashing Magazine

[ Key Ingredients ]

We want to be inspired by you. The photos that will most likely get featured do not have to be technically perfect. Needless to say they can be digital or film, color or black and white. They just need to move us with certain key ingredients such as nice composition, interesting subject matter, emotion whether it be humorous or distressing, and capturing the perfect moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson would call the “decisive moment.”  Capturing that decisive moment in many ways takes luck and patience. This is the reason great street photography is so difficult but rewarding and also why we’ve made this a collective effort.

[ Submitting ]

To make it easier for all the contributors to see and “vote” on your submitted work, we’ve created a Facebook Submissions Page. You may upload your photos to the wall with the photo date, location, and contact info.  Even if your work is not featured, the wall will have enough viewers to see your work that it may fit someone else’s need in another way. Go here to like the page and submit. If for some reason you are not on Facebook (no judgement here), just email me sophorn [at] hotmail [dot] com, and I can post the photos for you. As a side note, I may come across great photos on my own that I will feature with the photographer's permission so you are welcome to send suggestions of any Memphis street photo you find exceptional.

[ seen ] 

FEATURED PHOTO Valerie June /  Java Cabana Cooper-Young / 2010 Cooper-Young Fest / Raising money for her new cd / Memphis as a true music city really does have musicians performing in the streets regularly. Thanks to local photographer Amanda Hill for submitting this great photo.

LINKS Amanda Hill - Web / Twitter / Facebook / Email: contact [at] amphotography [dot] us / 901.652.0432

We look forward to your submissions.