Friday, February 7, 2014

Personal Photo Challenge February - Street Scenes..............


My personal theme for Donna's February Photo Challenge 
titled "Street Scenes" appears to be 'Ladies'.
Not exactly ladies of the streets which would be quite 
different - although some interesting photos might be captured 
if one hangs out on city streets after dark!

Moscow Ladies - Russia, June 2013

When the morning rain ceased we drove to the Sparrow Hills, one of the highest points in Moscow. On the terraced street at the top of the hill, interesting groups of people were hanging out including several brides. Apparently, before any actual wedding ceremonies take place, it's usual for the bride, groom, family and friends to stop at scenic places for photographs. This bride points to the modern section of Moscow. I love this pic despite it being back views of the subjects.

Camera - Canon 7DSLR, probably set on P as usual!

Vietnamese Ladies - Hoi An, November 2012

Photo ops of people in Vietnamese cities and towns are awesome. The streets are alive with color, noise, action, smiles, unusual merchandise of every description, all are things I recall.
These market ladies enjoyed posing for me, their genuine smiles lovely and friendly. The street scenes always include the markets - life gathers and is lived on the streets day and night. Hoi An was my favorite stop in Vietnam - a stunning vivid place, undamaged during the war so the French influence was still intact and visible in the awesome historic buildings.

Edited: BTW - just received the most recent Anthropologie catalog and it was photographed in Hoi An!

Village lady - Zambia, Africa - May 2010

A street? Perhaps not to us, but here in the village near the banks of the great Zambezi River, this was the main street where you can see my friend Babs chatting with some of the children. Note the older children often carry the younger ones around which we thought was lovely.
This lady was outside her home, her cooking pots on the ground.
Life is hard in such a place, but still the smiles on every face, the laughter of the children, made the street scene alive and a very special place to be privileged to visit.


Umbrella lady - Chiang Mai, Thailand - 2012

I decided to change this photo to black and white for more impact. These unfinished umbrellas being twirled in the street were white, resin coated, handmade paper. When dry, hand painting turned them into gorgeous works of brilliant colored art. To see more of this same lady at her work making these umbrellas, go HERE. For more on the history of the umbrella factories and their beautiful creations, go HERE.

All three photos taken with the Olympus SP-590UZ set on auto.
All editing done in PicMonkey.


Stop over HERE at Donna's blog to see more great entries in the February photo challenge - and join in if you wish, the more the merrier!


24 comments:

  1. I enjoyed the scenes from different countries, each is unique in the people you captured.

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  2. Stopping in from the photo challenge...you have captured some wonderful photos on your travels!

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  3. You captured this challenge perfectly Mary. Beautiful photos.

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  4. Wonderful scene of the bride looking over the city with her friends. Love the faces in the other shots...warm, friendly, open...

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  5. You travel the world and take such amazing photos. I love the lady in Africa....beautiful! Just look at her smile! Such great photos for this challenge. Sweet hugs, Diane

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  6. So beautiful!! You have a great eye for photography dear. Love the lady with umbrellas... hugs and kisses ~ Vanessa

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  7. Oh Mary with all your travels you have some great street scenes. Love them all.

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  8. I love the international flair to your photos Mary. They are all so beautiful and showing women in their various daily lives. I was amazed at the Moscow skyline in the background of the first photo. Amazing photos!!

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  9. Dear Mary, The African street scene (in the background) with the colorful woman in the foreground is my favorite photograph. Actually, they are all very special. You have captured each scene brilliantly. ox, Gina .

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  10. Wonderful shots, Mary. Such colour and life. Each of your photos highlights a different culture, yet draws us all into the commonality of being humans sharing this great planet. Really gorgeous. I love them all, but my favorite is the one of the group of ladies looking over Moscow.

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  11. Each photo is just gorgeous! I love seeing the people when traveling and you captured them perfectly.
    I have a friend that use to live in Hoi An. How I wanted to visit her there, but she moved back to the states
    before I could make it there. Every picture I have seen just calls to me to visit. Oh to travel, I am missing
    it right now. Your pictures do help, but then again they remind me what I miss.

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  12. Loved your photos Mary. My favourite is the 2 Vietnamese ladies - smiling so naturally ( wish I could do that when someone points a camera at me ).

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  13. I knew I could count on you to hit a home run with this particular them! Terrific composition on that first one. I think the positioning of the subjects really makes the photo! (And a nice pop or red in the mix too, LOL.) Such sweet smiles of the ladies in the 2nd and 3rd photos, and the scenes help to tell the stories about their lives. I think foreigners are much more agreeable to pose for tourist photos than Americans. And the composition of the last one is superb. Very dynamic scene and the B&W treatment adds to the visual punch. Take a bow on this challenge, Miz Mary. I think you could give street photography tours for the rest of us!

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  14. Excellent. I enjoyed each one of these and looked twice. The smiles are wonderful!

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  15. I can see you are well traveled! I like your entire collection but really like the photo of the woman and the umbrellas. I never think to convert any of my photos to B&W and really need to think of that sometimes.

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  16. Mary your photographs are always a treat. Thank you for so generously sharing your travel experience with us. Have a wonderful weekend. Bonnie

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  17. Dear Mary - lovely photos of ladies from around the world - all shapes, sizes and age groups - so interesting to compare them.

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  18. Mary, what a lovely post .....I think I like the top one best, it reminded me of a wedding we went to last year and the best photo was the back of a little boy and girl aged about 3-4 gazing over the fields . Love following my namesake blog :-)

    Annie

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  19. Oh Mary, all your street scenes are wonderful.
    I particularly love your Zambian woman and I can imagine just how hard her life is. The background of the village tells the story too!

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  20. I love the different street scenes that you have captured in parts of the world. I particularly love the last capture of the unfinished umbrellas. Beautiful x

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  21. Loved catching up with your blog Mary, and also especially your streetscape photos!
    They were all wonderful!
    Yes, it is a lot warmer here than in some places!

    Thanks for visiting my post also.

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  22. Excellent. I like the last photo composition, more!
    Have a nice day!

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  23. Oh....the Village Lady really grabbed me!! Bless her heart! And look at her smile.....beautiful shot.
    These are all lovely!!!
    hughugs

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  24. The Vietnamese ladies are so colorful and the village lady stunning. Your submission for this month are spectacular. BTY thank you for visiting and commenting on my efforts.

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