'Hungry Heart' - Photography

Another in the occasional "What I shot - What I got" series on the how's and why's of my envisioning, imaging, and editing.

"Everybody has a hungry heart." - Bruce Springsteen.

I keep returning to this particular photo, and I’m trying to figure out why, both thematically and photographically. I managed to catch this sweet little girl in her white dress at the end of a Farmer's Market festival held in Tzfat at the beginning of the summer, ‘24.

She looked weary, probably hungry (or sugared-out), and undoubtedly at her mom’s(!) wits’ end.

But I just loved her pose and expression, and how the highlights of the setting sun reflected off the red heart, and backlighted her face, arm, dress, and legs—and how the pink flower complimented the red metal of the heart.

In editing, I was going for a less "smartphone" look and so, rolled off some of the unfortunately usual Samsung oversharpening and oversaturation, changed the image Profile from the Samsung "bright and shiny" default to a less hysterical, and more nuanced Adobe Vivid, dropped the exposure about a step, and cropped to focus on her expression and body language. I wanted her to look alone with her thoughts - and, well, her giant heart... 😉 Here’s the before shot—unedited:

Several of the subjects’ families asked me to send them copies of the finished image, which I was happy and proud to do.

The setting itself, set along a promenade near City Hall, was a Municipality and Upper Galilee Regional Council initiative to help small local businesses economically sandbagged since the beginning of the war on Oct. 7th, 2023. They held a series of local street vendor fairs in Tzfat and other areas in the Galilee Panhandle—of which our Neshikha Honey booth took an avid part:

Among other street images at and around the popular lookout, last winter I clicked off a series of shots of the iconic “I ♥️ Zefat” installation itself (before and after editing):

Before

See what editing can do?

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All photos were shot on a Samsung #S24ultra or #S22ultra in #expertraw Mode, the former in a #Beastgrip rig using a 4-stop #ndfilter, and edited in #LightroomMobile.

I welcome opportunities to discuss personal photography and editing sessions—both online and in-person: https://www.davidbrianbender.com/book-online.