Cian Oba-Smith is another photographer that has inspired me and will influence my street project. I decided to look at Cian Oba-Smith's bike life project because of the similarities it has to my project on street skating. I like the colours in the images and how he has used shutter speed to tell the story better.
The first image shows two people riding motorbikes, on the left of the frame you see a man stood up on the bike doing a wheelie and on the right side of the frame another person, much closer to the lens and out of focus is going past on another bike. The entire image has signs of motion blur which I feel adds to the image as quick, careless and in the moment much like what they are doing on the bikes. He has shot from waist level and used a larger aperture around f4 to slightly blue the fore and background making sure your attention is on the person doing the wheelie. I believe this was shot with a focal length around 35mm. The tones in this image are very soft and subtle and give it a very relaxed feel which contrast the speed and danger of this activity. The image was taken in the soft natural light which gets rid of a lot of the contrast however there is a nice amount of contrast of the black coats against the background. The background plays a big part in the context of this image due to the legality of what they're doing. These things often happen on quiet industrial estates/ roads which is clear in these photos, I want to include that sense of place in my project as I want to look at how people pick different locations on the 'street' that fit their more specific needs.
The next photo that caught my attention is of similar scene in what looks like the same location as the previous image. It was taken with a standard, wide lens with a shallow depth of field making the background soft and out of focus yet still readable. On the left of the frame you see 3/4 of a small blue car with a person dressed in blue stood outside the drivers door, towards the centre right of the frame in the out of focus background you see someone doing a wheelie on a motorbike. The person stood by the car is facing away from he camera and looking at the person doing the wheelie, I like the connection this builds between the two people in the image. What I really like about this image is the light/tone, the image is very blue and yellow which go very well together and reminds me of films that are coloured teal and orange. The image has been exposed more for the highlights making the shadows deep and rich whilst leaving the sky bright yet not overexposed. Again he has played with the shutter speed to blur and show movement in the bike going along the road. The background is important in this image is it ties all the images together in location as well as recreation, it is clear to the viewer that these are all taken around the same place.
The next image is a portrait of two people sat on mopeds. The image is framed so that the two people are either side of the centre, their bikes are angled towards each other and has been shot from their eye level. One of the people has their helmet pulled whereas the others face is mostly covered. The image was taken with a standard wide angle lens with a mid aperture around f5.6, there is a lot of headroom in this image however it works due to the building behind them acting as a frame, I also like that he has used the fence behind them as leading lines towards the people. Again the light is soft and natural and gives the image a nice relaxed feeling with light blue/ green tones throughout which nicely contrast the darker blue and black of the bikes. The portraits mixed with the more 'action' shots really gives the viewer a close look at this community that is usually very private.
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