Results 1 to 7 of 7

Spare change

This is a discussion on Spare change within the People photography (portraits, sports etc.) forums, part of the Show your photo (Color) - Landscape & Nature (flowers, mountains, storms etc.) category; Today was the most discouraging day I've ever had as a photographer. spent all afternoon shooting, some in the rain ...

  1. #1
    Michaelaw's Avatar
    Michaelaw is offline Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Vancouver Canada
    Posts
    4,838
    My Photos
    Please ask before editing my photos
    Critiques
    Critique my photos anywhere in the forum

    Default Spare change

    Today was the most discouraging day I've ever had as a photographer. spent all afternoon shooting, some in the rain and this was as close as I got to a good shot. Even then I messed up the focus and cut off the feet. I thought I'd go out and shoot only at f8. Trying to get some candid street shots...Well not at 300mm on a cloudy day you don't





    Shame of it was I had a real good study going with this guy. I knew him years ago in the early eighties and have watched him over the years turn into this. But you see, this is a total scam, an act. He spent a lot of this begging time putting weight on the wrong foot...The one in the cast. He made almost twenty dollars that I counted in the space of an hour and that was just the bills I managed to see through the telephoto. When he left, I followed him. I had a really hard time keeping up. About three blocks away from his office (the place he was panhandling) he started to carry the crutch, a short time later he was jumping in and out of dumpsters. About six blocks from his office he went into a seedy east side bar, maybe to spend his loot who knows? I left him there and went off to shoot more fuzzy photos. The last time I saw him before this was about nine years ago when he opened the door for a group I was with as we entered a downtown club. As he opened the door he held out a plastic coffee cup for change. Looking back to the eighties, I'm not too surprised at his lot in life today.


    Mom sends junior back with a fiver




    Umm Dude...That's the wrong foot!




    Hot to trot





    A speedy recovery





    Still one has to applaud him for the act
    Last edited by Michaelaw; 06-21-2009 at 11:20 PM.

  2. #2
    JAS_Photo's Avatar
    JAS_Photo is offline Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Calgary
    Posts
    7,359
    My Photos
    Please ask before editing my photos
    Critiques
    Critique my photos anywhere in the forum

    Default

    Ha! Ha! Love the expression in the first photo. Living just off 17th avenue in Calgary, I encounter many panhandlers and hear many sob stories and scams. There is a group of them athat are quite aggressive and friendly. I do not mind them when they are alone or in pairs but if I see three four or more of them together, I avoid them.

  3. #3
    Mad Aussie's Avatar
    Mad Aussie is offline Moderator
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Brisbane, Qld, Australia
    Posts
    14,098
    My Photos
    Please ask before editing my photos

    Default

    Busted. Print the photos off on a contact sheet and give them to him M

    We have the same here in Brisbane ... I think some of them make more in a day than I do.

  4. #4
    casil403's Avatar
    casil403 is offline Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Calgary Canada
    Posts
    6,612
    My Photos
    Please do NOT edit my photos
    Critiques
    Only critique photos posted in the critique forum

    Default

    Busted indeed! I remember a story a while back in Calgary the evening news or paper...can't remember which... did on a local panhandler guy who hangs out in the downtown core. He was in a wheelchair and had the usual sob story. The camera secretly followed him and photographed him at the end of the day going to his car, getting up, out, then stashing his wheelchair in the car and driving away!
    "Life is like photography, we develop from the negatives"-anonymous
    My website: www.albertaandbeyond.com

  5. #5
    Marko's Avatar
    Marko is offline Administrator
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Montreal, QC. Canada
    Posts
    14,870
    My Photos
    Please do NOT edit my photos
    Critiques
    Critique my photos anywhere in the forum

    Default

    I like the story here in these shots Maw. I always find it sad that people (particularly people 40 +) choose to do this to make cash (even if it is a scam). What bothers me more are perfectly healthy young adults (20 and younger) begging for cash.
    - Please connect with me further
    Photo tours of Montreal - Private photography courses
    - Join the new Photography.ca Facebook page
    - Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/markokulik
    - Follow me on Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/111159185852360398018/posts
    - Check out the photography podcast


    "You have to milk the cow quite a lot, and get plenty of milk to get a little cheese." Henri Cartier-Bresson from The Decisive Moment.

  6. #6
    tirediron is offline Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    1,201

  7. #7
    hoyinsiu is offline Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    29

    Default

    I really like the story. the pictures actually tell you everything.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36