I still am fascinated with documentary street photography. I really like this emotional content on this mans face. It is always the emotional content that tells a story. I found this scene deep in the Bronx. After about two hours, I was fully lost in my search for…..(I leave that to the interpretation of the reader).

There are many tire places up the Bronx, that’s just how it is. You need some shit fixed, you head uptown. There’s likely a guy that can hook you up.

Ultimately, for this scene, I think the eye contact made it work. If this man hadn’t looked up, I don’t know that I would have cared about this image. Knowing what images to keep and which should be passed is a skill that each artist learns to develop and hone. I think my honing process is much better, but I am constantly learning.

For editing, as usual, I had to really play with the shadows here. I started with a Bronx Park East (an Adobe Lightroom preset I would fully recommend) as a guidepost. My preset was a great start, but there is a long way to go before this image would pop in my eye.

I used a small brush to manipulate the shadows further, to brighten them mostly. The scene was initially very shadow heavy and I wanted to change that first and foremost.

What do you think of this edit? Would you have done anything different? I would to hear from you

-Maurice