Street Focus 89: Q&A and Street Challenge

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/thisweekinphoto/p/content.blubrry.com/thisweekinphoto/Street_Focus-089-Q_A_and_Street_Challenge.mp3″ title= “Q&A and Street Challenge” artist=”Street Focus 89″ ] Street Focus 89: Q&A and Street Challenge

This week on Street Focus, my guest co-host is Susan Rosenberg Jones. Together we answer questions about promoting your street photography, how to put together a portfolio and more. Special thanks to Rob Wareham, Yuri Rasin, Bud James and Michael Schmitt for submitting your questions.

About my guest co-host, Susan Rosenberg Jones: 

Susan Rosenberg Jones was born and raised in Boston, and moved to New York City in 1976. She holds a BS in Education from Lesley College.  As a post grad, she enrolled in SVA as an undergrad (at the time, they did not offer an MFA program) and studied photography for two years.

In 1978, Susan began working at a lab in Manhattan as a custom black and white printer. She loved that job but quit when she became pregnant for fear of the chemicals. A few years later, she started working as a photo researcher for a stock photo agency, and began a long career in stock photography, licensing images to various publishing and advertising clients.

During her daughter’s growing up years, Susan photographed regularly, shooting chromes in those days because it was most convenient.

In 2008, Susan’s husband passed away after a long illness. She felt the need to photograph seriously again and purchased her first digital camera. Feeling rusty, she took a course at ICP just to re-connect with the camera controls and practice with editing software. Other Continuing Ed classes followed.

She worked on various portrait projects: women of a certain age, couples who’d been together for many years, and in 2011 began work on Building 1, a series about her neighbors in the apartment complex in Tribeca where she’d lived since 1984.

In 2012 she married her second husband, Joel. As a tangent to her photographs of her neighbors, she began shooting in her own home, and Joel was a willing subject. He was a bit skittish at first but he became more comfortable as she kept photographing. From this practice, Susan’s body of work, titled Second Time Around emerged.

Susan explores her feelings about growing older, family and community connections, through photography

She was on the show 2 years ago for episode 10. See more of her work on her website.

And the winners are….

The last challenge was all about shadows.

Susan picked a photograph by Yuri Rasin

©Yuri Rasin
©Yuri Rasin

Valerie picked a photograph by Sally Coggle

©Sally Coggle
©Sally Coggle

Both winners will receive an ebook of their choice form our friends at RockyNook.

Next street challenge: RAINY DAYS ON THE STREETS! Umbrellas, reflections, natural filters, puddles, etc…  Post your best shot by JUNE 23 in the comment section below.

Picks of the week:

Susan's picks:

A book by Lynsey Addario It's What I Do

A book by Haley Morris Cafiero The Watchers

Valerie's pick:

Her favorite photo lab: WHCC

Announcements:

Valerie's Street Photography ebook is available for download!

34 Comments

  1. Always nice to listen in on a discussion between two women making it happen in the photography world!! I especially liked the personal projects ideas and finding a way (making a way) to stay connected to your passion while still having a day job. Great conversation, ladies! Thank you!

  2. Downpour in OshVegas!

    When I saw the radar I headed downtown. My camera and I were soaked, but I had fun!

    1. I love that you managed to get the woman mid run. I feel sorry for how wet you must have gotten

    2. Yes Linus, I got soaked 🙂
      I was a little worried about my X70. It is not weather sealed, but both my camera and survived! 🙂

  3. Reflets dans l’eau disposées pour violoncelle (avec des excuses à Claude Debussy).

  4. So much fun – a day out when it supposed to be high temperatures in Portugal. I think I call this photo ‘happy face’. Thanx for your shows – they keep me shooting.

  5. My first submission, I literally snapped this while running around in torrential rain in Sydney. I loved the conga line of umbrella toting university students lined up outside UTS.

  6. Sunny going in a bar to hydrate after a very long climb, only to find this mix of rain and snow while exiting the bar. Unreal .

  7. Looking doubly perplexed on Westminster Bridge.

    I tried for a little while to capture someone framed by the London Eye and eventually my timing and patience paid off.

  8. Rain and precipitation have quickly become some of my favorite settings to shoot in. Here’s one of my favorite shots of a scene I caught right outside of the Flatiron building in NYC on my way to work! I had just barely pulled out my camera in time to capture this moment. Hope you like it!

  9. This is Julie one of the regular Hereford parkrun volunteers. She is always cheerful- whatever the weather. She was carrying a couple of the other volunteer’s umbrellas while they did things (not a photo setup). Parkrun is a weekly timed 5km run at 9.00am Saturday open to all and I take photos at the event in Hereford, UK most weeks. Its a snap and not at all arty but I like it! I needed some joy on the day the UK voted to leave the EU.