The Streets Of Pittsburgh

The Streets Of Pittsburgh was inspired by the awesome work of Brandon Stanton (Humans Of New York). The Streets Of Pittsburgh is an ongoing series here on DecisiveShot.com, I’ll be taking you right into the heart of the city to meet some of her most interesting characters.

The streets are abuzz this weekend for the 7th Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon.  If you’re a Street Photographer this is what you wait for, they’ve closed down many streets and there are people from all over the country packed into our wonderful city.

I started working on some images before the marathon much like a runner trains for the marathon.  I wanted an image that portrayed the preparation for this event.  If it were a selfie it would have been me nursing a bad knee and/or passed out from exhaustion…  It’s not a selfie.  There are always a lot of runners and bicyclists throughout the city, it’s a pedestrian friendly city, but the week before the marathon runners turn the city into their own personal track and field.  Runners would pop out of every nook and cranny in the city as you walk down the street, it was actually a little humorous.

Runner

Photographing runners is probably one of the easiest things to do, they don’t normally stop to ask why you took their photograph.  Most runners are so engrossed in breathing and keeping their heart from exploding that they don’t even notice you.  I wanted to get fairly close to someone running to get something like the shot above and the best place to do that was on the narrow walkway going across the bridge (I believe I was on the Andy Warhol bridge).

The lighting is what stood out to me in this scene.  Converting it to black and white allowed me to deepen the blacks and increase the shadows to create a more interesting image.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below and join us on our Flickr page to share your own Street Photography images.