Pardon the repeat photos from last week, but you’ll see why.
Happy Holidays and upcoming New Year!
If you haven’t checkout out last week’s shooting in quiet areas post, here’s the link. Make sure to check out the comments below as there are so many good ones. I really enjoyed everyone’s thoughts – they’re fantastic. I’ve been so pleased with the commenting so far so keep it coming!
Next, for those of you who haven’t been able to see Vin’s fantastic family set, she created a profile album so everyone could see. Here’s the link, but you may have to friend her to see it, not sure though. Leave a comment!
For those of you in group Levitt, I also wanted to introduce you to the work of Taisuke Sato who recently joined from Japan. He has two albums of very different but wonderful work – At the Countryside and Walking Around Nagoya – Please leave comments!
The term street photography is often thought to mean photographs of people, and usually in big and busy cities, usually walking along the sidewalks. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s a big part of it yes, but it’s only a part.
Street (or social) photography is a sensibility, one that can and should be done anywhere and everywhere. It’s a way of observing our surroundings, sharing our surroundings, and often sharing our feelings and interpretations of these surroundings.
Environmental photographs, shots of buildings, structures, nature, landscapes, details, and abstracts can and should all be included, in addition to portraits and candid photographs.
Yes, many of these types of photographs on their own certainly won’t hit the technical definition of ‘street photography,’ but when weaved together to share the story of a place, or an internal story, the sky is the limit with what you can do creatively.
There’s just no need to box yourself in with a strict definition.
But the reality is that it can feel a lot tougher to do this type of work in quieter areas. It IS a lot tougher, at first, and especially for introverts. However, I know that with practice and learning to carry yourself in the right way, it can actually become just as easy as photographing in much busier places.
And the advantage is that you’re most likely the only one shooting this type of work in the area. The place is all yours to take in any direction you want.
The transition can be difficult at first
Being out there mostly by yourself in a quiet area, coming across the odd person here or there, and just standing out as a crazy person with a camera is a really tough feeling.
But at the same time, that feeling is still just in your head. Photographers shoot in these environments every day, meet people, take nuanced and intimate photos, and have a blast doing it. It just takes time to figure out the right formula for you to pull this off.
How you learn and adapt to handle yourself is the key. I think it makes sense in these environments to often be obvious about what you’re doing. Have a smile on your face, be friendly and introduce yourself to interesting people, and most importantly, explain what you’re doing.
You can say you’re a photographer, you can say you’re taking a photography class. Tell people you’re trying to capture the spirit of the area and people there. Flatter people. Tell them you’d love a portrait of them for your project and you’d love to send it to them.
Portrait Tips
I asked for this portrait and when the guy in blue started to get down pose I had to tell him I loved how he looked already, so keep that pose.
Candid shots are always important, but in quieter areas, I think the portrait takes on even more importance.
And you can take portraits that feel real, that don’t feel forced, that show a glimpse of who the person is and allow us to ponder them.
Not always, but the best photographers in these environments learn of time how to approach and talk to people. And many of them have said how hard it was and how nervous they were at first – not many started off feeling comfortable with this right away.
But all it takes is a couple interactions, a couple good experiences, to turn your feelings around. And I know we’re going into winter for most of you so it’s a tough time to get started shooting this way, but I want to get this all into the back of your heads for when the warm weather starts coming and for when the pandemic starts to wain.
Sometimes I just give a simple nod, like can I take this photo – that often works well, while other times I’ll stop and talk to people. It really depends on the situation.
Ask people about themselves. Get them talking and they’ll open up to you and give you a great portrait. Alec Soth often asks his subjects, ‘What’s your dream?’ That such a fun and surprising thing to ask a stranger when you’re photographing them. It’s such a great and surprising question to suddenly ponder. It’ll open a lot of people up to you.
Think about what you might want to ask someone while photographing them.
Revisit the same areas at different times in different lighting
A big part of doing good work in these areas is both giving yourself time to get lucky and time to get comfortable with the areas themselves.
It’s easy to walk somewhere, see nothing, and then disregard it and not want to revisit. But the more you go back to a place, the more you’ll see and the more you’ll get comfortable shooting there.
New moments and special things will pop out at you that you completely missed at other times.
And lighting is just so important. I’m a huge proponent that you can get great photos at any time of day and in any lighting, but in quieter areas with more details and environmental shots, getting fantastic lighting is a huge key.
This often means timing with pre-sunset, sunset, sunrise, early evening, dusk, and days with moody weather. Light rain is an amazing time to shoot. Multiple people have commented about going out on bleak days, and those can create the most spectacular environments.
Get used to checking the weather and sunset forecasts.
Look intimately at your surroundings
Particularly at first, I think it’s easy to do a lot of disregarding in quieter areas. You walk through and see nothing out of the ordinary and keep going and going.
But it’s important to stop yourself and think about why you’re feeling this way. Often of course there will be nothing there, but just as often you will be missing something completely.
Sometimes the boring and ordinary, the thing that you want to disregard, can actually make the most spectacular photograph.
And I think looking at a wide variety of work from other photographers and projects can help us all open our eyes to what these things might be.
What do you think about the area? Connect yourself with the place
This tip is important. You’re trying to tell a story here of both a place and yourself within the place.
Try to understand the area and its quirks and try to figure out how to explain that to us in your photographs. Not every photograph has to be obvious. Some can be strictly about interpretation and feeling.
And thinking about yourself and how you relate to the area is just as important. With a cohesive body of work, you’re going to shine through in some way, and this is an important idea to keep in the back of your head.
How do you feel about all of this?
If you have the time, I’d love it if you could add a comment below about your thoughts about all of this. Do you feel like this is something you can improve at? Are you interested in working on more portraits through 2021?
Regina also brought up a comment about feeling sometimes like a paparazzi and dealing with the feelings (for candid street photography) that many people just won’t like what you’re doing despite often not knowing.
That’s a tough one to come to terms with because we’re doing this because we like people and just want to share stories. It can especially be tough in quieter places. Do you struggle with this?
I personally feel like as long as you feel okay with what you’re doing, you really can explain your enthusiasm and what you’re doing to most people and they’ll get it (I’ve had that experience many times).
But also, there’s no harm if you don’t feel right in just not doing candids and focusing on strictly your surroundings and/or portraits. It really depends on how you feel and what you want to create.
Photographer Research
Winter is a great time for this!
Looking at photographs is just as important as time out shooting, especially taking the time to look through projects and to get a few photobooks on subjects that are similar to what you want to shoot and where you’re shooting.
Looking at projects with environmental shots, grand shots, weird details, and portraits of all types will not only give you so many prompts when out shooting, but it also will help you learn what’s possible to do.
I know sometimes it may seem like it, but none of this stuff is out of reach. The key is giving yourself time to get lucky, educating your eye enough to notice those great moments, and just going for it. The moments will come, but you’ve gotta go out for them and you’ve gotta make a move when they happen.
Now for links to some of my favorite photographers / photography projects in (mostly) these areas!
Congrats to Vin Sharma on photo of the month. Check out some of her incredible quarantine family photos! (Currently only in group Levitt can access the link, but working with developers to make a quick change so everyone can view, so will reshare this as soon as that’s done.)
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First of all, Happy Holidays!
It was great seeing so many of you on Weds evening and getting to hear your thoughts about the Salon. If you haven’t had the chance, I’d please make sure to watch the first 10-15 minutes of the video, which will explain new thoughts about how things with the site should work. Below are some important points and takeaways.
(I also redid the community and photo guidelines videos, but watching the event video beginning should be enough.)
Coldest day of my life, Central Park, Feb 19th 2015.
(*Don’t forget – the Salon ‘Meet and Greet’ is this Weds at 8pm Eastern time. You can find the links to login on the events page. The event will be recorded and posted as well.)
Light
The first thing I want to talk about is light. We all know how important the right light is for photography, but I think this fact is even more pronounced in winter.
The quality of the right winter light, particularly during sunset, twilight, sunrise, and overcast days can be the most gorgeous time of year to shoot. And particularly when it’s tougher capturing people and certain types of photos that come about during the warmer months, I think timing your exploring with the right light is the key to taking spectacular shots during winter.
There’s just rarely a more beautiful time to capture your surroundings.
I hope you all (or the Americans at least) had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as possible given the circumstances. I’m also going to announce a Zoom meet and greet for a couple weeks from now (probably Dec 8th or 9th at 8pm), so keep an eye out for that.
I’m still a little beat up but improving finally and managed my first photo walk in three weeks, which felt amazing. Even cold and quiet days where you don’t come back with a great keeper are so important. I feel like I probably come back with a true keeper every 5-7 medium length walks that I do. Obviously, the hit rate is higher on bigger photo days, but the important thing, particularly during winter is to enjoy the walk and try not to think too hard about getting the best photo of your life.
So heading into a dreary winter (for most of us), I wanted to create an interesting month-long challenge.
The challenge is going to be called Dreamlike. For those of you who want to participate, the idea is to create new work (no old work) that has a dreamlike feel, and also keeping within the Close to Home theme or any area you frequent as part of your daily life.
You can take this in any direction you want. Dreamlike photos can be tack sharp and colorful. They can be dreamlike because of the scenes and objects or people in the photographs, or they can be dreamlike because of the look of the photos as well. You can use blur, black and white, you can make things more abstract, take detail shots, or take strange shots within your home. The sky is the limit with this challenge.
I also want to share two photographers that have done this extremely well.
So this is the first of the inspiration posts. I’m not sure if I’ll continue this in written or video form but for now, we’ll do written because I’m dealing with a bacterial infection from food poisoning (thankfully not COVID) and you do not want to see me on video! Once these insane antibiotics wear off, I’ll set up a date for a Zoom meeting for those who want to attend.
There are still 13 people we’re waiting on to fill the beta, but I think about half of those will sign up soon and I’ll consider that fully stocked. Make sure to go through your group and friend everyone in them.
Commenting on the photos of your fellow group members is by far the most important aspect of this salon.
We’re here for inspiration and education of course, but having a group of people get to know you and your work intimately, to be able to learn to trust their opinions, and to have them help guide you along the way, that’s the key.
Commenting and guiding another person’s work can be difficult. We all want to be pleasant of course, but at the same time, we don’t want to skirt around helping a photographer with the advice they need.
The internet makes this issue even tougher.
Sitting around a table and looking at photographs with good friends, saying something like ‘this photo doesn’t really do it for me,’ is a totally normal thing to say. That might even feel pleasant and fun to hear in person because you know you’re getting some real opinions.
But on the internet, it can feel harsher, and that’s a big reason why people stay away from constructive criticism like this.
Keep in mind that it will take time for the groups to become comfortable with each other and for tougher comments to emerge, particularly at first and in an online forum. It’s much easier to give tougher critiques to people you don’t know well in a live setting.
It can be a good idea to ask for them. But the group will progress with this as time goes on.
Live group critique sessions will start to be held once the group has some time under their belt together – and this is a major catalyst for how a group evolves with getting to know each other and improving at critiquing everyone’s work.
If someone is critiquing you here, it’s important to imagine you are sitting around a table with a person you know – and you WILL get to know your group members better over time.
Assume everything is said with a pleasant and helpful tone. And if you are doing the critiquing – people need to hear everyone’s thoughts, but understand how you might come off through a website versus in person.
There are two main goals here – inspiration and education, and it’s a fine line between both. We have to help each other to improve our photography, but even more important is to help to figure out what drives and excites a person. Sometimes a granular piece of technical advice is the way to go but just as often a big picture thought or sparking an idea in their head will be more important.
This salon is going to have photographers of different experience levels, and that’s a feature I think will provide a significant benefit. We need a wide variety of advice and a beginner’s advice could easily end up being much more helpful than an expert’s.
The point here is to please don’t hesitate to give your opinion on the work of anyone in your group. And on the flip-side, please encourage advice from everyone.
Another issue, which I think happens often, is that people get strictly too granular with their advice.
Specific advice on the details of photos is great and encouraged, but much more important in my opinion, is trying to give overall advice on the direction a photographer is going.
Keep up with a photographer’s album as they grow it. How does the work make you feel? What makes you the most excited about it? What would you like to see more of? Would you like to see more people, more environment shots, should they try to capture more interior photos or intimate photos in their daily life?
This overall advice is immensely important for a photographer. It will allow them to start to understand how many different people interpret the world they are creating.
When you are critiquing someone, I think it’s also important to understand where they’re coming from. I change up my advice somewhat for people with different experience levels and interests. And most important is to inspire and help people figure out their future direction with their work.
We’re going to try to make this place feel as much like a bunch of photographers sitting around a table as we possibly can. But we need everyone to do their part to make this happen.
