People photography is not my specialty.
I am not a confrontational person, and when you're as big as
I am, when I try to get close with my camera to people, their reaction kills
whatever potential photo I saw.
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| Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 48mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200 |
You have to be a good people person and have a lot of
personal charm to get good people photos, like a great street photographer
does.
Saturday, I hobbled around downtown Melbourne for a little
while, the afternoon light was glorious (as was the whole day).
At one point, I could see amazing light on the west-facing
buildings of a side street. so I followed the light.
When I wander with my camera, I just look for interesting
light around me and walk over there, good photographs invariably present
themselves.
On the other side of the small street, where the light was
great, a tattoo artist came out of his shop and sat down for a smoke.
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| Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 95mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200 |
He looked up at me and I pointed at my camera and asked if
he minded if I took a photo or two of him and his shop.
He asked what the photos were for (people often ask if I
work for the newspaper), and I said they're just for me. I told him I'd lived here for eighteen years
and I had realized that if I moved away I wouldn't have photos that represent
this area as I saw it. That I was trying to
now take photos that would more completely show how I see the area where I live.
He said he didn't mind and set about doing stuff on his
smart phone.
I took these photos.
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| Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 34mm, f8, 1/160sec, ISO 200 |
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| Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 48mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200 |
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| Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 95mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200 |
2 comments:
How big are you? I'd never heard that as a reason before.
Basically, I'm a really big guy. I've found out repeatedly, that when I get within peoples "personal bubble" with my camera (big-ish dSLR with large lens), they react to ruin a typical street photography shot. This happened even when I had a small but high quality point-and-shoot camera for easier carrying. But then again, true street photography and street portraits usually entail the photographer walking right up to a person, pulling up the camera and taking a shot before the person can react. Then the photographer walks away and the person photographed either does nothing and wonders what just happened, or sometimes they confront the photographer. Either way, I'm not (as of now) a pushy enough person to do that, and my size is an added factor in surreptitiously getting that close. I like looking at other's street photos, but I'm not a confrontational person and when I watch "how-to" videos on street photography, I realize that I'm pretty chicken. Legally, it's not a problem, a photographer in public places can legally take photographs of ALMOST ANYTHING in view from that public place, including children and things happening on private property. The only exceptions are semi-secret military sites and many nuclear power plants areas.
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