The Story of an African cyclist

The more I do this the more boring it becomes, the more I find that I can't seem to even be bothered to get up and take my camera for a walk. Not like I used to in the past. I am however still inspired by the various works of other photographers in particular, photojournalists. I was talking to Suby in my last post how I just want to take great pictures, well now I just want to tell great stories with my pictures. If there picture doesn't tell a great story then it doesn't make it into the outside world. That's what Alakija.com is about. Telling great stories through images.

RE: black and white conversion, for those of you who ask me how I convert my images, I think I've got a straight forward way of doing it. This image was converted in ACR in Adobe CS3 and it has a black and white converter built in. I used it to do this one and hey it's pretty decent. I might actually stop using C1 Pro for a while just to see how well I get on with this method.

comments (7)

DrAW!
nigeria
8 Apr 2008, 09:23

the clouds, the b&w conversion, and the vignette complement your story well

i wouldn't have bothered with so much space at the bottom but then i'd have been too busy trying to get the technical aspects right to even think of using it to tell a story

well done

Jide Alakija: Thanks for the first comment Wale.

Vignetting is from the lens, which is very surprising at f/8.0 though the lens was open very wide.

Interesting point on the crop, I'm not sure I like it without the space, I would like to look at it as my stage (theatre) where the actors and props are in the background. Also I wonder if the road markings would then be competing for space too. Could be choked in. Hmmm...interesting point you raise.

I was in a moving van when this was taken. It was amongst my first set of shots taken whilst in Rwanda, I was in a van on my way to a project just south of Kigali.

I don't know how much you know about black and white landscape photography, but if you ever see a print/photo with a dark sky, take that as a hint that the sky was very blue when the shot was taken. In the colour version, the sky is awesome, but the shot is not as dramatic as this one.

Bitchy
Nigeria
8 Apr 2008, 13:24

This is fantastic honey. I love it! I'm so proud

Teehee!

Jide Alakija: I'm so glad to see you back too.

Roz Sears
Great Britain (UK)
8 Apr 2008, 22:54

I think this is a really great photograph. Already I am wondering where he is going on his bike, where the road is leading, who is in the buses...and, I like the foreground, personally I would not crop it. (:o)

Lagbaja
Somewhere we all belong
9 Apr 2008, 13:04

another annoying 'photographer'
You like to yarn sha.
No I am not going to worship you like all the other half-wits out there

Lagbaja has spoken

aminTorres
United States
9 Apr 2008, 13:21

This is great jide!
since you are on these notes these days id like to share a few links that you may or may not find interesting:
http://www.jacobsilberberg.com/
and
http://www.jezblog.com/
you may have seen jez's before but still, great images there.
hope you like them

Kayode
London
9 Apr 2008, 20:07

Jide, This shot just blows my mind!

kunle lowo
Nigeria
9 Apr 2008, 23:25

This is lovely. Top notch conversion as usual. I agree with your composition. I thought you added the vignette but at 16mm on a full frame camera, I guess it may be expected somewhat. It really does add to the image - please forgive the lens.

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camera	Canon EOS 5D
exposure mode	aperture priority
shutterspeed	1/2000s
aperture	f/8.0
sensitivity	ISO400
focal length	16.0mm

Jide Alakija

The Story of an African cyclist

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