When I saw the topic of the challenge for this week, Urban, I almost choked on my coffee. The challenge states “The idea behind urban photography is to photograph your city and the streets where you grew up as they are. Unlike the photoshopped pictures to which we are accustomed nowadays, urban photography presents a more direct, unaltered view of life. It is about documenting urban living space and how people adapt their environment to certain needs and vice versa. Urban photography shots provide cultural, social, economical, and ecological context all at once, and can capture social tension.”
I thought first “I’ll post some scenes from Oakland or San Francisco”; and then I said to myself, “no, I’ll show our little downtown out here where we live now” I’ll play fair.
So, when we say we’re going to the City, we drive into San Francisco. When we say we’re going downtown, we’re going into our little town out here in the Central Valley of California, Tracy. And here are a few small snapshots of our urban.
And the folk are pretty friendly.
Reblogged this on Wayne Messerly Pages.
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Thanks for the reblog.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban | this man's journey
Thank you for the mention!!
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban « Mike Hardisty Photography
Thanks for the pingback, Mike. Much appreciated.
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I like that first shot and the others are cool too. 😉
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Thank you e. It’s a pretty quiet downtown, except on Farmer’s Market Saturdays, then it’s bustling.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban – Spokane – Going Home | rfljenksy – Practicing Simplicity
Thanks for the pingback!
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Cool! I have Lou Reeds “Smalltown” in my head now 🙂
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hahaha….I love it http://youtu.be/rssTBesfQQA
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban | mothergrogan
Thanks for the pingback mothergrogan!
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I love the photos, and the words too.
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Thanks Naomi. Glad you do, and thanks for stopping in to comment too.
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Having lived in or near major metropolitan areas, we are now enjoying living in a small village in a very rural setting. We find we don’t miss the traffic and stress of the large city, and, as it is not too far away, we can still enjoy the museums, cultural events, and shopping opportunities when we choose. Thanks for sharing about Tracy. It looks like a wonderful small town.
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Thanks Ruth; I appreciate your comments and visit. We, too, are enjoying the ease of living here in a rural area and being able to drive, or hop on the rapid transit train, to get to the cultural events and shopping of the City.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban–Calm before the storm! | Simply Charming
Thanks for the pingback.
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The colors, joy and rich everyday life in a city that never stops to amaze me. Beautiful!
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Thanks IT. It is a rather beautiful place.
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a great post Angeline…what a fabulous town
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Thanks Jo. Glad you could visit.
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This is very nice. I like small towns.
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Thanks Shimon. It’s very comfortable to live in a small town; easy to get around, and not much traffic congestion at all.
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I like your post because it stays on the theme. I’ve been to or by Tracy many times over the years that I lived in california.
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Thanks mhdriver. It’s definitely easy to whiz right by on the 205 getting over to the 5 or heading the other way into the Bay Area. It’s a good place to live since it’s so easy to get to so many great places from.
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Tracy looks like a pretty little town. Love your shots!
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Thanks Carol. And thanks for visiting my blog.
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Very cool photos…Your town looks like a really fun place to live. My small town is really small but changing quite a bit. Now I need to go downtown and take some photos. Thanks Angeline!
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This photography thing has opened my eyes! Tracy is a neat little place I’m finding out. Thanks for stopping by…and yes, go out and take photos of your downtown.
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AWESOME!!! I’m glad you chose to focus on your own small town. I love, love, love small towns. I grew up in Spokane, WA and back in the day it was a pretty small town.. it’s grown a lot since then but it’s still pretty small. Much of my life has been spent in small towns and there’s just something about them that is great. Thanks for posting.
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Thanks! I chafed at the small town living when we moved here. I did not even get near this downtown area for over two years, but with my first foray into town, I realized what I had been missing.
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It’s funny. I’m the same with my town.. though I’ve always loved it and have always gone back to it.. when I’m there I sometimes get caught up in the “I can’t wait to move on” line of thinking.. but always miss it when I’m gone.. when I drove with my dad to Wyoming and Colorado.. we passed through so many small cute towns.. I don’t know where I’ll end up when i go to retire.. may just never retire.
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We’ve only lived in this area for a few years. It’s surrounded by farmland. It really is beautiful. And when I need my big city fix I hop on our rapid transit system into San Francisco. Best of both worlds.
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That is the best of both worlds. Nice. San Fran is awesome.. I’m a city girl for daily living… but love the small towns.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban | Mirth and Motivation
Thanks for the pingback e!
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Beautiful pictures. I loved each one of them. Great work. Very nicely done.
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Thanks so much Arindam! Glad you’ve enjoyed them.
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They are great images….love the folk on the bench (I am glad he gave me a wave – i have waved back!). Urban for me are shots ‘as it happens’ not contrived like many so called Urban of todays magazine pages. Look back on them and they tell a little bit of history. Have a good weekend
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Thanks David. If he only knew he was getting a “hi” back from England! Hope you are having a good weekend, too.
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I like these , the one with louis makes it individual area and not the same same when town planners get hold, love the people it makes it feel real
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Thanks Jackie. Tracy downtown seems to have a firm hold on its identity.
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Wonderful photos! Love the mood and the strong sence of presence. And thanks for not photoshopping them! 🙂
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Thanks for your visit. I decided with this post that it had to be real. The photos are straight out of the camera.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban | Project 365 Challenge in 2012
Thanks for the pingback. It was a fun challenge.
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love the first photo: from Antiques to Main street music
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Thanks. Main street (which is really 10th Street) has a little bit of everything.
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban | The Kindness Kronicles
Thanks for the pingback TKK!
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge – Urban « mtlawleyshire
Thanks for the pingback, and for stopping by for a visit.
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the red chair and people on the bench were my favorites
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The people have got to be my favorite. I was trying to catch them in conversation, they saw me, and he waved. That made me laugh. We used to have chairs like that in our patio when I was growing up. What memories.
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I was under the impression that for the weekly photo challenge we were to pic one photo that represented the theme of the challenge. I am new to this so guess I was wrong. Great pics.
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Not necessarily; initially I thought it was just one photo also, but have found over the months that I’ve participated that it is what you want it to be. That’s what I love about WordPress, you are free to express yourself as you see fit, you are not tied into other’s opinions. I’m glad you like my photos, though. Thanks.
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The atmosphere of these smaller… more personal communities is very attractive to me. I have lived in large cities for many years… but I remember very fondly the smaller communities of my earlier years. Excellent images…
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Thanks Galen. I have never lived in such a small community until these last couple of years. I love the larger urban areas, but also find myself being very content here.
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These are awesome….I particularly like the first one for all the signs and leading lines….and then of course there’s Louie! 🙂
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Thanks Madelaine. Glad you like the photos.
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