Overcoming My Street Photography Fears!
Street Photography
It's a Steemit tag that's thrown around a lot. I've used it myself when sharing pictures of city buildings, street views and occasionally interesting pictures like the one above of a poor lady being savaged by wild pigeons.
But what is street photography?
The Wikipedia definition:
Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. ... Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment.
This seems like a fair enough explaination but I feel that there is a lot more too it.
I have been really inspired by the works of street photographers such as Eric Kim, who roams the streets with his tiny compact camera capturing truly interesting moments. These are often taken candidly (without the subject knowing) however he is known to model random people he meets on the street to craft some really unique pictures.
These are just a few examples of his work. They are thought provoking and composed really well. Drawing your eye in and making you want to look at them just that little bit longer. Obviously he has been making photos like this for a long time and we all know practice makes perfect, but this type of photography has its own unique hurdle that I'm finding hard to get over...
It takes balls!
Courage! Guts! It requires you to walk the streets and take unsolicited photos in the name of art and it's something I've been struggling to do. On a number of occasions I have seen an opportunity to take a really nice photo in the streets but have been worried about people reactions and bitched out of taking the shot.
If you have been following my blog lately you'll see mostly nature photos where the trees don't give you dirty looks if you take photos of them, on the street its different. It's fast paced and you need to act quickly to capture the decisive moment if you want to have a photo worth keeping all the while risking a punch in the face...
I know practice makes perfect, so I vow to get out and start practising with a goal in mind!
Take one photo of a person on the street per day, have composition in mind and do my best to make it interesting. Just one is all I need, more is a bonus.
I'm going to follow Eric Kim's advice on how to improve at street photography, which you can find here https://erickimphotography.com, and overcome my fear of people's reactions in order to capture great moment and share a view of the streets I visit in the future.
I'll probably end up posting a few of them here, the good and the bad as a way to keep myself accountable.
If you post this type of photography yourself let me know and I'll gladly follow to see some of your quality content. The more inspiration the better!
@harrynewman
Positive Thinker
An Adventure Awaits Us
What I've done before which might work for you if you're worried about some shots is to sit there for a second or so with the camera pointed but hold off taking the pic (unless it's one of those things where you really need the people as they are candidly). Generally anyone with any environmental awareness who don't want to be in a photo will either pause or move.
Similarly if I see people pointing cameras I make sure not to walk across XD
I don't "do" photography though, just happy snaps and reference shots, so feel free to ignore me ;D
Good luck with the photography practice :D
Normally the people caught candidly make the picture a lot more engaging and personal but to do that I basically just have to take it as is, people and all, which can be pretty sketchy :/ see how it goes I suppose... thanks for the support though Ryiv :)
I love street photography. Particularly black and white to give it atmosphere. It can be intimidating as you don't want to get yelled at.
I remember years ago we had a meet up of photographers in Melbourne and we went around as a group taking photos in the CBD. One of us got told off by someone who got in a photo. Depends on the city as I know in London no one gives a shit.
It takes practice to get camera positioned right but shooting from the hip helps to not stand out. I think you posted some "from the hip" recently.
Do you never leave home without your camera?
Location definitely changes people’s reactions. I’m on Newcastle which is a fair bit smaller than Sydney or Melbourne which makes it difficult at times. I just need to keep practicing to get the camera position and the timing right. Also I basically take my camera everywhere (to work, away on weekends) but I don’t always get it out and use it...
I know what you mean not getting it out and using it everyday. Then there will a day that you don't take it and there will be something to photograph. On my Nikon for street photography I use Aperture mode and set it to f/5.6, I found that to be more reliable than using Manual and trying to adjust, looking suspicious hehe
Is there much street art in Newcastle?
Yeah that’s always the case haha. There definitely is some decent street are tucked away in ally’s etc, I’ll have to share some of it some time. Thanks for the tip on the camera settings though, helps to not look suspect haha
I think street photography is more interesting! Keep it up!
I think it is too! Just takes a lot more skill. I’ll get there though :)
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