APRIL 2023: VALÉRIE JARDIN
“MAKE A SELF-PORTRAIT, STREET STYLE”
This month Valérie Jardin sets an assignment to make a street-style self-portrait. This assignment was set initially in episode #375.
THE ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
From Valérie: “Reflections, shadows, double exposures... I'm the one subject that's always with me! This is not necessarily a photograph that you’re going to plan, it may well be a picture you make in passing, an informal opportunity that presents itself when you’re least expecting it. This is a creative challenge, with an accent on spontaneity. There are photographers who have made amazing staged self-portraits that are truly complex, but I’m asking you to think more about what you might do if you were making a street shot, though this is a street photograph of yourself; your most available subject. Use this as an opportunity to experiment and have fun; it’s all about learning.”
HOW TO ENTER
Send your entries to stories@photowalk.show, pictures should be 2,500 pixels wide if possible. Feel free to provide text too, to support the feeling or mechanics behind the picture.
Entries are shown below and good luck!
Neale
VALÉRIE JARDIN
Examples of street styled self-portraits by Valérie. See more with the Mirrored-Me gallery.
JOHN ST. JOHN SMITH: flask winner for APRIL
This image is of me driving home from having attended my mother who’d had a bad fall last week, I’ve been going every day this past week to help her and my stepdad. Food shop, sorting out dinners for the evening etc. I had a lot on my mind yesterday, although not as much as last week, but as I finished the podcast from Friday - I thought I could make a street style self portrait in the car. iPhone 14Pro tinkered in Lightroom Mobile.
PETER MADDERN
Hi Neale, My name is Peter Maddern, a retired teacher, now in my 70s, who took up photography about 5 years ago. I'm self taught-largely through YouTube, magazines and websites. I began using a bridge camera, moved onto micro four thirds and in the last couple of years Fujifilm. I have an X-T3 but have also been buying up older cameras such as the X-T10 X-E1 and X-T2. I discovered your podcast a few weeks ago and have been catching up with many of the old episodes. The other day I listened to the one that had the April Assignment and so today on the last day of April I thought I'd have a go.
My photography seems to be split between seascapes using a tripod and filters etc and relaxing photowalks with a small camera around west Cornwall. My wife and I love to wander along beaches or around the small local seaside towns documenting the comings and goings. I created a website a few years ago so that I had something to do with my thousands of images. I keep a daily diary on there and as you can see if you look at April for example, I am out everyday, sometimes twice a day. I've also created pages about places to go in west Cornwall which I hope may be useful to other visiting photographers.
Have attached three images for the assignment-all taken around Penzance Harbour on a still damp Sunday morning. Overnight rain gave me lots of puddles to play with. The colour image has been inverted.
RICK SMITH
I normally use a Sony A7Rlll for my regular photography but recently purchased a small Sony RX100Vll for street photography walks that takes photos in Raw. Yesterday, I went for a walk in the town I live in , Royal Oak,Michigan , and took the little guy for a walk. This camera has a 24-200mm zoom lens which enables me to take photos of scenes across the street. Great for framing distant scenes and people. On this walk, I walked by a very little store which is a psychic store and thought with my reflection in the window it was perfect for this months Photowalk Assignment. Call me the Psychic Photowalker. Camera settings: focal length - 9mm, 1/60 sec, ISO 100. See more of Rick’s work on his website.
PATRICK SCHOENMAKERS
STEPHAN HENNING
With April coming to an end, it’s time to submit my assignment pictures “self-portrait, street style“. Valérie Jardin’s examples were so amazing that I felt intimidated at first… I took a lot of pictures of myself being mirrored in windows etc, but somehow none were pleasing to my eye. I kept trying, staged some scenes, set up a tripod… Duh. Finally, I settled on these two very spontaneous ones. What a great assignment!
MICHAEL MIXON
Here is my contribution to this month's assignment. I was walking downtown earlier this week, on my way to get a coffee, and thought that the multiple layers in this reflection were interesting - the interior of the restaurant (which you can only see because of the darkness of my attire), the harbor beyond the restaurant and then the parking lot behind me.
DAVID HORNE
My submission for this month’s Photo Assignment: A Street Style Self Portrait, truly was happenstance.
I was out on a photowalk testing my new Fujifilm XF 18mm 1.4 lens on my X-T5 when I noticed a reflection of a colorful Sponge Bob mural in the black ceramic tile wall directly opposite the mural. This black tile wall lines one side of a walkway in our local shopping area..
The lighting on Bob and that whole wall was superb. As I worked to get the best shot of Bob, I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in the tile and I thought, “that would be a cool shot for this month’s assignment.” So after getting the shot of Bob (not your Uncle) I began to do the “what ifs”.
What if I could get my reflection to line up with Bob’s reflection so that I would appear just behind the Sponge Bob section. But try as hard as I might, I just couldn’t make it work. At least now without a tripod. I didn’t have one with me. That’s when I noticed that my favorite ice cream store, Ben & Jerry’s, was right behind me. So I lined up that shot and and snapped one off.
I’m enclosing the reflection (below) of the Sponge Bob shot just to lend a sense of place.
MAL MCCANN
Feeling reflective on a train journey to Dublin. It’s a 2 hour journey but I get bored and like to document as I go. Not just taking pictures but making pictures. Shot on an iPhone13pro, converted to black & white and edited in the Snapseed app.
NIALL O’DONOVAN
GREG BLACKMON
Greetings from the Scruffy Town of Knoxville, TN. I have often heard Valérie use the term photographic push-ups. This am; as I drove to meet my friends, I heard her April challenge. Accordingly, I chose to seek reflections/images of myself using only my fixed 90mm on my M11. It is a new lens to me and I am struggling to learn its quirks. Manual focus, manual exposure and slow everything is my typical challenge. Reflections of me? This restriction seemed reasonable. Above and below, you will find my humble submissions. All the best from the home of the 1982 World’s Fair. See more of Greg’s work on his Instagram.
ERIK JACOBY PETERSEN
ANTONY HIBBLE
As a street photographer, there is something magical about being in the city at night. The same streets I walk during the day feel more mysterious when cloaked in the darkness of night. When I get the chance, I love roaming the city streets of Leicester (often while listening to the Photowalk of course!) looking for a that one image that I can take home and edit in the comfort of my warm bed! One evening I saw this dimly lit spot and decided to wait patiently for the right person or people to frame the scene (I am a fisher not a hunter!). After a few minutes of waiting I turned around and happened to catch my reflection in the window behind me and loved the way I had accidentally framed myself. I took a few more photos in that spot of people walking into the frame but it was the one of me reflected in the window that I picked as my favourite from the night. Sometimes the best shots are right in front of you (or in my case behind you!) See more of Antony’s work on his Instagram.
CHAD GARNER
I wanted to share with you my entry for the street style self portrait assignment from episode 375. This shot was taken downtown Lexington, NC. While waiting on a client to arrive for a Photoshoot, I was shooting some local storefronts and walked by this Sophie’s Cork and Ale which sells food, beer and wine etc.. I really enjoyed the reflection and the way the light was shining into the store. Here is what I came up with.
DENNIS SKYUM
See more of Dennis’ work on his website.
JEREMY BASSETTI
On reflections and self portraits. Here is one — or maybe I should say eight — I took in Cochabamba, Bolivialand last year. See more of Jeremy’s work on his website.
KEVIN PRITCHARD
I was out early on Sunday morning, walking the streets of Brisbane with friends from the local camera group and decided to focus on reflections and to also stick to one lens – my 50mm f1.2. I saw this barbershop and loved the confusion created by the reflections and lights….. with me in the middle of it all.. ”Losing my religion”.
NICK ELDERBY
See more of Nick’s work on his Instagram.
PHIL FERRIS
I tried a few times and this is the best of it - not as spontaneous as I would like but hey - it's a learning process.
JOHN GRINDLE
April 1st round these parts is the start of the trout fishing season and I always head out, even if conditions aren’t conducive with catching fish. Very much like this 1st April, it was wet and windy and the rivers up and coloured from the previous weeks rain. I also write our fishing club blog, I try to photograph a scene setter for the hero image of each entry. Today I thought rain on the windscreen and me tackling up in the background, after several missed timed shots I was happy with the result. It wasn’t until I uploaded my days images that I realised I had subconsciously taken an entry for Valerie Jardin’s assignment, here it is should you feel it worthy of the gallery. See more of John’s work on his Instagram.
JON DORSETT
I was on a long haul flight when I took these. We were coming towards the end of the flight, I’d not long woken up and my fellow travellers were mostly still asleep. I was thinking about a 365 project I’m doing about finding quiet moments of reflection, and how I might find pictures for it at my destination - an exceptional busy part of the world. As I sat there looking out of the window in that “not quite fully awake” state, I noticed how completely undistracted I was. I couldn’t immediately check my email, no texts or WhatsApp messages, no web browsing. No disturbances. Even the background noise within the plane was subdued by my noise-cancelling earbuds. It was a perfect moment of solitude and reflection. So I captured it as a diptych. See more of Jon’s work on his Instagram.
GRAHAM GOODWIN
My contribution to the assignment for episode 375. I took this while looking for somewhere to have breakfast.
KYLE ATTWOOD
PAUL FRIDAY
I've attached a couple of selfies for the April challenge. I'm afraid the one with the hands was taken in an alley rather than the street. The other one is a true selfie, in that you can see my face (for which I apologise). This was taken in a swim lane.
CINDY POTTER
Two Sundays ago, we were in our former hometown, Reno, Nevada and we met a friend of our daughter’s for breakfast. We were waiting outside afterward while our daughter said goodbye to her friend, and I caught my reflection in the restaurant window as I held my grandson. It reminded me of Valerie’s assignment, so with one hand, I was able to quickly fish out my phone and snap one picture. It was quite sunny outside and he’s a squirmy little guy, so I wasn’t able to really see if it worked and/or try again. I was happy I got two and half of us—my husband on the right, and myself and grandson in the window.
MIKE MILLER
I've been spending a lot of time on the streets of Hamilton while my wife tends to her ailing father. I've made a composite of four street self-portraits that I have made this week and have attached it for your consideration. They are all different and would be something to change up the submission of just one of these.
ROB SPICER
This is probably only the third "selfie" I have ever taken. Me and my constant photo walk companions, American Eskimo Dogs Mika and Lucy were walking past a school bus and I noticed the convex mirror and I decided to grab a selfie of us. I'm glad I did as Mika has since passed and Lucy is too old to go on anymore long walks. Great memories that I hadn't thought about until you set the assignment this month.
MARTIN PENDRY
I am sharing two images (above and below) I took for this month's assignment. It's a bit cheeky submitting two, but you might appreciate them. The first one was taken on a train, and I love how it captures the lady looking at me and thinking, "What is he doing?" It's an amusing moment, but unfortunately, the image is noisy. As you may know, I'm not usually keen on being in photos and prefer to take them myself. But I couldn't resist capturing this moment and wanted to share it with you.
MICHAEL ASSMANN
I'm currently quite busy with the (non-photographic) project I'm running for one of my clients, so I have very little time for photography. On a business trip last week, however, I was able to use the evening hours to stroll through the town where I was staying in a hotel. In one of the shops I found this mirror that said "Immerse yourself in the moment" and that's what I call this picture. It is one of my keepers of self-portraits for this year. See more of Michael’s work on his website.
PHOTOFERRET
Liverpool Street Fuji XT4 + Viltrox 85mm f/1.8, a double window that creates distortion in its reflection.
