Street photography at its best.
A little while ago I decided that I enjoy taking photos. I enjoyed it so much that I’d save up and splurge on buying myself a toy. So I did. Like a good little boy I saved some pennies and bought myself a solid entry level DSLR; the Canon 400d. In the time since I’ve taken a little over 5500 photos on my toy and I still love it to death.
Like any good aspiring photog I enjoy the normal things. I think sunsets are pretty.I’ve gone for walks in the sugarcane with our dogs. Even flowers caught my attention. But it’s not what made me fall in love with making photos. It will always be people that pull at the emotion strings. The ability to capture a little piece of someone else’s life whilst it’s unfolding is what makes me weak at the knees. This kind of photography is normally categorised as “street”.
The 2 biggest hurdles I’ve had to battle while shooting strangers as they go about their business are as follows:
With a lens like a 18-55 or even the 28-90 I’ve been playing with lately it’s rather difficult to get close enough to make a photo worth while. By this I mean the point is to not be seen. I don’t want photos of people smiling at the camera; I want to capture a little piece of them; just being. Not to say that it never happens. Sometimes you do get lucky. It’s just not as frequent or easy as I would like; unfortunately there ain’t no such thing as an invisibility cloak. Yet.
My second problem is one that’s rather ingrained in me. Like good manners or the ability to walk it’s just there. I’m structured. Straight horizons; rule of thirds kind of structured. This is great and all, for the most part I like being anal about details, composition, focus, light and all that sorta thing. But it can make for rather sterile photos. And where’s the fun in that?
A little while ago I decided to shoot more from the hip. I’m at the point where I’m fairly comfortable with knowing what settings I should be shooting with for the amount of light or whatever the case is; along with the ability to nudge settings in post regardless. I wanted to “let my hair down” if you will.
In the same way that scars make us interesting and we learn from mistakes. I wanted to intentionally make photographic faux pas; and reap the rewards. The only way I could force myself to experiment with composition tools like negative space, angles and the likes was to literally not look through the viewfinder while shooting.
Walking down Brooklyn Bridge I see a girl getting ready to take a photo of her friends. From the back I see her jiggling with her camera while the 3 friends stand a little closer and prepare their smiles with awkward side hugs. I’ll be passed them before they’re ready.
It’s kind of cloudy; ISO400 to be safe. Keep walking.
With my camera at my side I flick the F settings wheel to compensate for possible bad auto-focus. There should also be a good backdrop but I don’t look. It’s part of the experiment.
One. Two.. Three more steps and guess the angle.
In the time it takes for another step I half press and feel the tiny vibrations of the lens fighting to focus on something.
That was fun. Again.
A week later I’m in Toronto and surprised by the number of homeless people in the city. Apparently Toronto has the highest population of homeless people in the whole of Canada.
I walk around the city for around 2 hours.
Guessing the light.
Estimating depth of field.
Tiny vibrations and a hearty click.
The ancient American Indians used to think that photographs would steal a little piece of their soul and maybe they’re right. I love the fact that these from the hip photos aren’t perfect. But they capture reality.
Verbatim.
vincenthofmann
SheBee
AcademicGeek
gogi
gobz
cath-jenkin
JuicyJustin
BlindCripple
supercopygurl
Green_Guerrilla
Cassey
romeogeek
steve-tech
beetle001
Woo-hoo, thats my boy, can’t wait to see him but as you can see he is having a fantastic holiday etc etc. geekmommie x x
I so need to learn to use my camera better!
Haha; I guess you can always count on mum being the first with a positive comment
Would it be a schlep to change the title to how it was sent in? “Why I shoot from the hip”?
i’d have commented, but the form took up too much typing time.
i did read the whole thing and even made click click on the link, so thats commentary, innit?…
[...] post was originally written for NerdMag but I felt like re-posting it here as well as the fact it got a little edited over [...]
You…squatting and taking pics…it all makes sense now
The second to last picture is brilliant…the lighting, the shadows, the angle…were you laying on the floor by that point?
I told him when he sent this in to me, Geek Mommy, that he’s upped his game and that the next article has to be this good or better
You should be proud.