Note: Nacho Cordova who recently wrote this blog post about the differences between candid and street photography wrote this nice street photography poem for us all to enjoy. Let him know what you think by leaving him a comment below!
Walking with a Camera
Street photography is
ambulatory and peripatetic,
which is not to say pretty pathetic
though it is that too
when it evokes the
emotion of the dingy streets
it loves to walk,
temporarily and momentarily
a witness
chased by shadows
into that alley where
flirting freely with the instantly impermanent
–I wonder if those two will…?
fleetingness of the moment,
which, though recorded,
as all subjects are,
with inimitable singularity, both
always and never
ahead of time,
–Who needs a Leica?
remains bewitched,
bothered, bewildered and
ironically bemused all at once-
ready to find the urban hope
picturesquely revealed
In the least likely places
–Leap the puddle already!
What better way to allude to
the illusive nature of the
hope that slinks surreptitiously
down the street
with a finger on the shutter?
Recently one of my readers named Reacher Rau suggested that I write a blog post on the pros and cons of using rangefinders. He told me how he always heard how awesome rangefinders such as Leicas were good for street photography, but never heard a discussion about the pros and the cons. Although I have to disclaim that I am not a rangefinder master, I still have enough experience using them so I feel that I can give a pretty unbiased opinion on both sides of the issue.
I have to say that I am a pretty passionate guy when it comes to street photography. However as I have recently noticed, passion simply isn’t enough when it comes to street photography. There are days that we aren’t going to feel inspired, which makes it really difficult for us to get in the streets and shoot.
Recently on Twitter I asked you guys to share your best street photos with me. Here are all of the best entries that I got which I find quite inspirational. Congratulations to everybody who made the list!
If you haven’t heard of Scott Schuman or his street fashion blog, “The Satorialist,” I highly recommend you to check it out. Essentially what Scott does is roam the streets of New York City and take photos of interesting people that he meets, with an emphasis on their fashion. If anything, Scott Schuman is less a fashion photographer and more of a street photographer with an eye for fashion.
In this beautiful and 7-minute mini-documentary, Scott gives an overview of what goes through his mind when shooting on his streets as well as why he does it. As you can see he (like many of us) hasn’t had any formal training in photography, but truly has a strong passion to go out and capture what fascinates him. He is quite methodical with his work and commited as well (he has run his blog for over five years, taking photos and updating them nearly everyday).
I think we can all draw inspiration from Scott and strive to capture the beauty of everyday life. If you look through his photos, he doesn’t necessarily take photos of people who only wear high-end clothes such as Prada or Gucci–rather the ordinary everyday people on the streets who are able to put together bits and pieces to create their own unique style. In this image you can see that he has even taken an image of a construction worker’s boots. How much raw and urban can you get?
"On the Street....East 13th St., New York" - The Satorialist
What is your take on Scott Schuman and his blog? How can you take inspiration of his his style of photography? Share your thoughts with us and leave us a comment below!
Legandary fashion photographer Helmut Newton once said, “The first 10,000 shots are the worst.” When it comes to street photography in the digital age, I would say your first 100,000 shots are your worst.
Recently word of the phenomenal discovery of street photographer Vivian Maier has been hitting the web like wildfire. A fellow Chicago street photographer by the name of John Maloof found Vivian’s negatives in 2007 while at a furniture and antique auction house. After scanning and looking through her collection of 30-40,000 negatives, he soon realized that she had a tremendous gift for street photography. Not only that, but he realized that he also had a huge responsibility to share her work with the rest of the world.
Note: This is a guest post from Nathaniel I. Córdova, a rhetoric and media studies professor from Willamette University. I hope you enjoy this great article that he generously offered to share with you guys!
—
This is a handout originally developed for my students at Willamette University. As such it was designed to be generic and introductory, more an opportunity to clarify and simplify than to provide depth about a subject. Some caveats: I’m a firm believer that rigidly held category schemes can get in the way of creativity and the photographic imagination. The following is written in order to encourage you to think more about these issues. Updated: December 2010.
A quick glance through various photography forums often reveals a category of “candid” images of people walking, pretty women, people in festivals, etc. The overall impetus for such “candid” photography seems to be the casual snap of something the photographer found intriguing at the moment, or the adventure of shooting in public. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that (although some images tend toward the voyeuristic), and many of those images can be quite compelling. Unfortunately, some posters in those forums tend to conflate such “candid” photography with Street photography, eliding any difference between the two practices.
Hi everyone, my name is Michael, I am a street photographer, I shoot with an iPhone.
The iPhone offers me three things that a big camera doesn’t – it is discreet, it is always with me and it is easy to use.
I have been using the iPhone since I moved to Melbourne, Australia in February this year. The iPhone lets me concentrate on scene and structure instead of dials and lenses. I feel more connected to the process because there is no glass in the way.
Eric has asked me to share some hints to help make the most of the iPhone when shooting the street. So here we go.
Note: This post was originally written by Ahg, who is a young and talented street photographer from the Philippines. He originally wrote this post on hisTumblr, and he was generous enough to let me host it on my blog. I made a few edits here and there, but mostly it is untouched. I hope you guys enjoy it and please leave a comment below and let us know what you think :)
—
*Author’s note: The following are my reflections and realizations as to why I enjoy street photography. These are from the 2 years of experience I had with film photography and my undying passion for the street because there is perhaps no other genre of photography that captivated me and made me grow as a photographer. I am writing this as a reminder of why I do street and to urge others to give street photography a try.
I would say that I’m a pretty mellow and easy-going guy. However as a street photographer, there are some things that really bug me or really annoy me. Hope you have a good laugh and can relate to these 5 things that piss me off as a street photographer.
"Cubes" - Shot with my Contax IIIa Film Rangefinder
If you guys have been noticing, I have been experimenting with many different types of cameras including disposable cameras, my Contax IIIa Film Rangefinder, as well as my camera-phone. After doing this for the last month or so, I have re-kindled my love for shooting in the streets.
I just finished a book by Paul Arden titled “It’s Not How Good You Are, it’s How Good You Want to Be” and got blown away by one of his chapters on finding inspiration. Paul Arden worked as an advertiser for several decades, and he wrote that one way that he got re-inspired in making advertising campaigns was by using “new tools.” He clamored that how everybody in the advertising world only used felt-tipped pens to make advertising campaign layouts, which often lead to the same boring ideas. To go against the grain, he often used different tools such as brushes, pencils, charcoal, chalk, and even crayons to get new ideas.
I see this easily being relateable to street photography as well. Although I love my Canon 5D to death, it started to bore me. Everything was just too easy with it. The autofocus was quite responsive, and the images always came out great. I wanted a little more challenge– I wanted more excitement. I wanted to re-stimulate myself and my street photography experience.
Now I’ll tell you straight up that using a different camera won’t necessarily give you better images. However what it will do for you is re-inspire you by realizing certain camera’s strengths and limitations.
Currently I am teaching a photography class to under-privileged students in Los Angeles at a high school named Phoenix High. These are the students that I ran my campaign for camera donations for (which you guys helped donate to). Teaching photography to these students is the high point of my week, as I love to interact with them and also see their passion for photography. Not only that, but it seems that photography is a wonderful outlet for them to express themselves creatively and also use as an escape for the difficult situations that many of them live in. You can watch a video I made on YouTube.
Although I wasn’t able to take portraits of all the students, I wanted to write a short photo-essay about them. I hope you can enjoy their stories as well. Also if you were wondering, I shot these photos all with my old Contax IIIa rangefinder with my 50mm 1.4 Zeiss Sonar lens with some cheap Kodax 400 Max film. I love the look and feel.
Eddy
Now don’t judge Eddie by his appearance by his rapper-inspired sideburns and punk-inspired gauge earrings. He is shy and quiet in demeanor, and doesn’t say much. However when given the opportunity to speak, he shows great insight into photography and life. He is always enthusiastic to be in my class, and although shy– is always wiling to contribute to class discussions.
$5 Disposable Camera from Walgreens. My new street photography camera.
When it comes to street photography, I am a huge advocate that it doesn’t matter what camera you have for street photography. You don’t need a $6900 Leica M9 to do street photography–whatever camera you have on you will work. In-fact, there is no “best” camera for street photography, as every camera out there has its own pros/cons.
To help bring some light to the issue that what camera you use for street photography doesn’t matter, I decided to do a new project involving disposable cameras. First inspired by the Mosaic photography contest, where contestants in Beirut, Lebanon had to take photos with disposable cameras– I was quite amazed by the results. And at $5, disposable cameras are certainly cheap. Sure buying a ton of them and developing the film isn’t, but I thought it might be a fun exercise regardless.
All the images taken below were with a disposable $5 Walgreens camera. I am quite pleased how they came out (no post-processing applied):
Street photographers are all amateurs. Not to say that we lack skill, insight, or vision– but that we do street photography for the love of it (not the money). Although people typically equate calling someone an amateur in a negative way, the word amateur roots from French meaning “love of.”
I know very few (if any) street photographers that make a living doing only entirely street photography. Honestly in this day and age– I would say it is near impossible. However, us street photographers try to take out every minute of our days and free time to go out and do what we truly love doing–shooting in the streets.
Having a passion for street photography for the pure reason of loving photography is beautiful. There is nothing better than wandering the streets, stumbling upon serendipity, as well as meeting fascinating people along the way. Not only that, but there is no greater joy than getting “The Shot”–rushing home–downloading your photos to your computer–processing them–and finally uploading them on the internet for others to appreciate as well.
When I realized that I shoot street photography purely for the love of it and not for the money, I tried my best to take away the temptation of making money from my passion. I knew this would only cause me to be miserable and lose the true sight of why I love photography. In-fact, I hear many photographers who go into commercial and wedding photography…they feel that photography is more of a bore and a chore than their passion. I never want this to happen to myself.
Sure I could always use a bit of extra money–but I knew that I wanted to spread the love of photography rather than making myself richer. Therefore I founded The Sukhee Chung Photography Foundation which strives to spread the love of street photography to under-privileged youth. I have already raised enough cameras for the high school class I am teaching (with a very generous grant from Jonathan Murray) and am looking forward to helping out other photography programs in Los Angeles as well.
So remember–shoot street for the love, not for the money (as my good street photographer friend Thomas Leuthard loves to mention). Be an amateur and truly bask in it. Before there is nothing more noble than doing something purely for the love of it.
In October of 2010, I asked the community to donate old digital point and shoot cameras to the Phoenix High Photography Class that I am currently teaching to under-privileged high school youth. To say the least, the response was overwhelming. The first few days I already got donations from Cydney Alexis and Jason Paul Roberts. However on the third day, a talented Swiss street photographer by the name of Jonathan Murray generously donated 11 brand-new Canon Powershots to the class.
You cannot believe how ecstatic I was. Wanting to record the students’ expression, I decided that I wanted to film a short documentary (which was directed with great help from my beautiful girlfriend/manager Cindy Nguyen). Not only that, but she really “set the mood” in the video to give you the fuzzies in your heart. Anyways– please take a few minutes to watch the film and we both would love to hear your feedback!
The Sukhee Chung Photography Foundation is also currently fundraising for 20 used digital point and shoot cameras for another photography program in Los Angeles lead by my friend Terry Kim. Please check out the Facebook Event for more information. Also please spread the word by posting this on Facebook, Twitter, and any other social networking site you use! Thank you so much for the love and support!
Note: Recently New York Street Photographer James Maher got in contact with me asking for some points and tips regarding building his online social media presence. He noticed that I had a great community backing me up (you guys), and he was curious how I did it. I thought about it long and hard, and came up with this blog post. Hope you guys enjoy!
The modern-day photographer is more blessed than ever having a wide-array of online social media networking tools at his/her fingertips. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, DeviantART, and online Forums/Blogs allow photographers not only to build up their own online social media presence, but also to connect to the rest of the photographic community. The benefits of having a strong online social media presence are numerous. One of the most apparent benefits is that photographers are able to get more comments & critique on their work, which help them develop their own style and composition.
However for an aspiring photographer with no experience with online social media, building a presence can be difficult. In this blog post, I will give you a small summary of my experiences, and hopefully give you information which can help you in the long-run as well.
During my time in Beirut, Lebanon– I was fortunate enough to meet some of the nicest and most fascinating people in the world. Not only were the people extremely cordial here, but they actually liked getting their photos taken (compare this to Los Angeles and New York). Regardless of the fact that I was a blatant tourist (I was probably one of the only few Asians in the city), people were genuinely interested about my life story and why I was “gracing” their presence by visiting Beirut, Lebanon. Considering the fact that everybody there is trilingual (speaks English, French, and Arabic), it was extremely easy to converse with everybody I met.
I will forever remember Beirut, Lebanon for not only having some of the friendliest people in the world, but also for being extremely photo-friendly as well. Considering that there are practically no laws against street photography (except taking photos of military personnel and embassy buildings), it is truly the street photographers’ dream city.
If you are an avid street photographer and looking for a new place to travel to, definitely check out Beirut. When you go there, say hi to all the people in the street and tell them that “Eric says hi.”
Street photography is one of the biggest passions in my life. I spend a large amount of time either shooting on the streets, blogging about street photography, tweeting about street photography, and talking/thinking about street photography. But why do I love it so much and why does it bring me a lot of happiness?
The answer is “Flow“–as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes it. I’m sure all of you guys have experienced this when shooting on the streets. You go out and take photos, and become totally immersed in the experience and forget a sense of time or space. You can be out for hours shooting, and don’t even realize that time is passing by.
Whenever I am on the streets and shooting, I feel pure euphoria. I am out there in almost a zen-like state–simply wandering wherever I want to go, while capturing the beauty in the mundane. I meet interesting people, and I experience fascinating and new places. There is no feeling quite like it.
However the problem that many street photographers (myself included) face is that we lose sight of what really makes us happy (shooting photos) and we chase other things such as fame, wealth, or prestige. Would making a few bucks out of our photographs really make us happier? Will the $6900 Leica M9 make us happier? If we become as famous as Henri Cartier-Bresson–will that make us happier? I beg to disagree.
After watching the TED talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow and his theory on the matter– I am convinced that the true happiness I will gain out of street photography is quite simple and in front of me. Shooting in the streets.
For those of you who are interested in watching the TED video that inspired me, take 20 minutes out of your day to truly change your perception about photography, happiness, and life. And if you are really interested in the subject, purchase his book on Amazon titled Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness.
So my question to you guys is that do you experience this zen-like feeling of “flow” when you are shooting on the streets as well? Leave a comment below and let us know what your experiences are like!
When I was in Beirut, Lebanon–the city was full of fascinating old cars. They came in so many different varieties, colors, as well in various places. They caught my eye, and I thought they would make a gorgeous photo-essay.
I tried to shoot all of these cars with roughly the same framing, all using my 35mm. These images were taken from all different neighborhoods in Beirut, Lebanon–and I feel each car has so much character and a story to tell. However when looking at these images, don’t get the impression that all the cars in Lebanon look like this. The streets are full of very nice cars as well– such as BMW’s, Mercedes, Audis, and even Ferraris!
However, I hope you enjoy these images, and that your eyes get a nice feast.
Found this beautiful picture of a Rolleiflex on the internet today. Thought I’d share it with you guys (drool). You can read more about this amazing camera here on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolleiflex.
(11-17-10, waiting for my flight at 6:25AM at the Beirut, Lebanon Airport)
My beautiful morning view
My last week in Beirut, Lebanon has truly been a very humbling experience. I left leaving Los Angeles to teach my street photography workshop in Beirut, Lebanon with my friends/family telling me to “be careful” in Lebanon as it was still “politically unstable” and that I might “get shot” while here. Many also suggested for me not to go, but I decided to take my chances and plunged both feet in.
Despite what the media and general public says, Beirut, Lebanon is not full of terrorists and no– you will not get shot here. First coming to Beirut, I didn’t know quite what to expect. Everybody told me to be careful and that it was a dangerous place. However after being here for about 4 days, I highly recommend everyone I know to come visit here. Not only does everybody speak English, French, and Arabic–but there are some of the kindest people here in the world.
In this post, I will give you some reasons which show why Beirut, Lebanon is indeed “The Paris of the Middle East,” and why it is such a beautiful country and why I don’t want to leave. In 2009, The New York Times also called Beirut the #1 place to visit as well! [Link]
1. It is a street photographer’s paradise
"The Printer" - Beirut, Lebanon
I would say that Beirut, Lebanon has one of the most lax laws on street photography, as there are no laws concerning photography here. Sure you don’t want to do things such as shoot photos of military or embassy buildings, but everything else is free reign.
I was surprised that most people here didn’t mind getting their photos taken of. In-fact, there were many people who would approach me in the streets and ask me to take photographs of them. Some of them even invited me into their homes to talk and some even offered me coffee.
When you are walking around the streets, you will find street photographs around every corner. Beirut, Lebanon is a city of contrasts. On one side of the street you will see a decrepit and abandoned building, while on the other side you will see new apartments and shopping centers. Not only that, but the streets are always full of hustle and bustle and people are constantly interacting with one another.
2. It has amazing food
Eating a traditional dinner in Beirut, Lebanon
Sure every country has its great foods, but Lebanese food is on a totally different level. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have probably gained 10 pounds in the last few days getting my hands on all these different types of foods. The food here is fresh, hearty, and always satisfying appetites.
Fallafels, lamb, hummus, olive oil, pitas, wraps, tomatoes, barbeque beef, and grilled onions are only a few of the things that will delight your tastebuds.
3. The people treat you like family
My Street Photography 101 Workshop Group Picture
As I write this, I am currently staying at my host (Mohamad Badr’s) house. Although I did not know him at all before, he treated me like family and truly opened up his home to me. Not only that, but all the times that I went to his families’ houses to eat dinner, they were always open to me and really spread their love with me as well. Mohamad’s aunt even told me if I stayed in Beirut, she would find me a beautiful wife! (of course I declined as I already have a beautiful girlfriend/manager back home).
But regardless, the feeling of community here is very real. In Los Angeles I often feel that everybody is always out their for themselves and don’t spend enough time with friends and family. Here, people have a huge emphasis on spending time with one another and are always out on the streets having a great time.
There are a million other reasons why you got to travel to Beirut, Lebanon before you die. I highly encourage everybody out there to disregard the public inaccuracies of the media and the general consensus about Lebanon being a “terrorist country.” Definitely swoop on in and you will definitely have the time of your life.
Just wanted to update you on my travel in Beirut, Lebanon. After 5 hours waiting at LAX, 11 hours on a flight from LAX to London, a 5 hour layover in London, and a 7 hour plane trip from London to Beirut, I have finally landed in Beirut, Lebanon. My flight arrived about an hour later than expected, but it was a great pleasure meeting my host Mohamad Bahr and Thomas Leuthard at the airport. I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t be able to find me at the airport, but then I realized that I am probably the only Asian in Lebanon (so it was really easy).
After landing down, Mohamad took Thomas and I to one of the downtown districts where I had some of the most amazing Lebanese street food. They were chicken skewers marinated in Garlic, roasted over a charcoal fire, then wrapped with some sauces I am not quite sure what they are. Regardless, they were delicious beyond belief. After downing a Pepsi as well, we hit the streets and walked around at 12AM in the morning.
Beirut definitely has a fascinating vibe and soul to it. It reminds me a lot of Seoul, Korea–with the narrow streets and the tall buildings. In the area that we were shooting, there were many art/movie posters plastered all over the walls, which gave the area a very artsy feel. Not only that, but the city was hustling and bustling with cars and people in the street. It truly felt alive.
Anyways, we arrived at Mohamad’s place, and after a nice little chat with him and Thomas, I passed out and am currently writing this at 10:09AM in the morning, waiting on one of our friends here to get us traditional Lebanese breakfast.
For the record, my workshop here is going to be from Saturday to Sunday, and there are already quite a bit of people signed up on Facebook. I am quite excited to do my presentation, and I am sure it will be a great learning experience as well. I already feel the warmth and love of the Lebanese people, and my stomach is already in love with the food here.
Also per the request of Piotr and a few others, I will be posting my slides online via slideshare or some other medium for you guys (who can’t attend) to check out. Stay posted and wish me luck! I hope to post some pictures soon as well!
I am excited to tell you guys I am heading to Beirut, Lebanon tomorrow! Through all of your generous donations and sponsorships, I am able to make this trip. My heart goes out to everybody in this community who has not only gave me so much, but has helped me support my journey through creating this street photography blog.
The workshop will be two days long, and will involve myself presenting tips & techniques regarding street photography. Not only that, but participants of the workshop will actually be given time to go out and shoot with me! In addition, I also have a guest street photographer, Thomas Leuthard, who will also be a guest speaker. I have never done a workshop or anything like this, but I have definitely put a lot of time, energy, and love into this presentation. Hopefully all goes well!
As with the blog, I will continue posting once I come back from my trip, which is next Thursday (11/18). Hopefully I will be able to blog while I am there, but in reality– I will probably be too preoccupied traveling, meeting new people, and of course–taking photos.
If you want to know more about the event, check out the Facebook event for my workshop here.
You can also check out my original blog post here.
Sponsors who made this trip possible:
-Raoul Marinescu
-Kay-Won Chang
-Pamela Mandeville
-Neal Bingham
-Bob Soltys
-Justin Tzou
-Amy Huang
-Shawn Murphy
-Graham Alderton
-Ziga Puh
-Juan Carlos Olivo
-Irma Jessica Salgado
-Jan Klomp
-Ziga Puh
-Aleksandr Bortnik
-Eivind Sandstad
-Don Crossland
-Matthias Mariacher
-Jim Kneuper
-Holly Pyon
-Stephanie Chiang & Kenneth Kim
-Pamela Mandeville
-Aldrin Gamos
-Lisa Kim
-Rosa Seo
-Justin Lee
–Thomas Leuthard
Let’s admit it–if you are a street photographer and not driving a BMW or Mercedes-Benz, you probably want the Leica M9. Trust me, I want it really badly too–it has been on my mind for quite a while. But honestly, can we justify purchasing a $6,900 camera just because the camera we have doesn’t pay an homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson and all of the other street photography masters? Mind that this is not taking into account the extra $2000 or so you need to purchase Leica lenses as well. So before you plunge yourself $6,900 deeper into debt, perhaps you should read this:
Note: I got this email from aspiring street photographer named Tasos. It was quite inspirational and eye-opening. I thought I would share it with you guys!
"Hey this guys shooting us!" - Tasos
The other day I was out, and as usual I had the camera with me.
I took a photo of 2 gentlemen. It was a great learning experience.
I shared my thought with another member on flickr who was kind enough to comment on my photo.
Here is my letter to Mary (fellow flickr(er)):
Hi Mary. Thanks for your comments.
You know this photo is very important to me. Not because of the subjects, composition, lighting etc. I am hoping to take much better photos than this one. The reason why this photo is important to me is because it taught me something about shooting “street”. I am getting my courage up shooting with a wide angle lens, and getting close to people. I think that it is important/necessary when shooting street. So I think I’m getting comfortable with that part. I practice even when the camera isn’t to my eye, by trying to hold eye contact with strangers for as long as possible, seeing if the other will turn away first (something that was hard for me because I’m normally not that type of personality). Sometimes the other person looks away first, sometimes they smile, and sometimes they scowl (that’s when you have to break a smile). Having said this, here I am in this parking lot. I get out of my car, full of confidence, and I am walking up to these guys. At first they are unaware of me and I snap a couple of photos. Nothing special. but then on the last shot, the man on the right takes notice. He didn’t seem all that enthused. I had my shot, and I moved on. At that moment I thought highly of myself as I had the shot, wasn’t timid etc.
When it came time to leave I got into my car.
The man on the right had left. The man on the left was still sitting there.
As I drove by him. He was looking at me, with a sort of questioning look, and at the same time kind of upset. I didn’t break eye contact, and he looked away first. This time I felt very poorly of myself. It was as if I had broken him. As if I had taken something from him that he wasn’t willing to give.
It was at that moment I learned my lesson.
You see, street photography (I am learning) walks a thin line. On one hand you are documenting the human condition, and you want people to be natural and unposed, unaware of you. But what happens when you get noticed (like I was)? My reaction (just walk on by), at least in this case, wasn’t the right one. I should have approached them, made some small talk, and let them know what I was doing. Instead, I felt as if I had been caught taking something that wasn’t mine.
Later that night I came home and found a link to this article titled: “People Like to be Honored.” It clarified what I had experience earlier that day (almost as if fate had it waiting for me).
Links:
Add Tasos as a contact on Flickr and follow him on Twitter!
Have any of you guys had an epiphany or lesson you learned about Street Photography? Leave a comment below and share your story with us!
“Buy a good pair of comfortable shoes, have a camera around your neck at all times, keep your elbows in, be patient, optimistic and don’t forget to smile.”
Some may argue that posed portraits of people on the streets is not “street photography” per-se. However regardless of all these definitions, I still feel that there is merit in taking portraits of people you might encounter on the street who have fascinating stories to share. There have been many occasions in which I have randomly started talking to people and wanted to simply take their portrait as it interests me as a photographer. However one problem that many people have is that they feel “awkward” doing so. Therefore I will teach you guys some practical tips how to take street portraits without being awkward.
1. Use a preface
Shinji - An amazing hot-dog chef I met in Los Angeles. He had an incredible life story he shared with me.
Asking to take somebody’s portrait is a bit uncommon in western culture, although not everybody is totally opposed to it. To break the ice in asking a person for their portrait, using a preface is always a great way to make the other person feel relaxed.
My favorite preface to use when asking random people on the street to take their portrait is “I know this might seem weird, but would you mind if I took a photo of you?” In saying “I know this might seem weird,” you are acknowledging to the other person that what you are doing is against “the norm”, but it reassures the other person that you have no malicious intent. When asked this, most people shrug their shoulders and say, “Sure I guess so–why not?” Granted that you will get some people who say “no,” but I would say I find much more people who say yes.
Every street photographer needs to take more photos. Street photographers (and many other types of photographers) don’t go out and shoot photos nearly as often as we should. In an ideal world, we should be outside every day, trying to capture the beauty of everyday life. Whenever photographers say, “I don’t have enough time” or “I’m too busy”–it is all just excuses. If there is something we care about enough, we will make excuses to go out and take photos. To help you get out on the streets more and shooting, I will outline some quick and practical tips that could help you be more on the streets and shooting photos.
1. Carry your camera with you everywhere you go
The master, Henri Cartier-Bresson with his camera always close to his eye. You know he never made any excuses not having his camera with him.
This got me wondering, what exactly differentiates a good street photograph from a bad one? People say that art is subjective, but when it comes to st reet photography (and other forms of photography), I find it uncanny that there is a general consensus in the street photography public what constitutes a good and bad street photograph.
"Man with bread pillow at The Golden Mile, South Africa" - Michelle Sank
Recently in the news, the British Journal of Photography recently awarded this image, “Man asleep on the Golden Mile, Durban, South Africa.”, by South African photographer Michelle Sank as the best single image category of its International Photography Award.There was a ton of unrest on the internet with some people calling the piece “a joke” and others calling it “rubbish.” Honestly when I saw the image, I was a bit turned off too. I didn’t see the strong merit of the image, when there were tons of other great photographs that were submitted.
In searching for the truth of what makes a good street photograph, I will chronicle some of the aspects that I have noticed of all award-winning and inspiring street photographs.
Recently I have started a Flickr group titled “Aspiring Street Photographers.” Here are the 5 most inspirational photos that I chose (although there are a lot of other great images in the pool). Check them out and hopefully they inspire you to continue taking great street photographs as well!
"Untitled" - Exi87
"Move!" - lempkin
"Fakes and Ladders" - chad^michael
"94/365" - Eugene Lum
"Paris" -
Want to be included in next week’s post? Join Aspiring Street Photographers and add your best images! Also remember to not just add photos to the pool without commenting on others! We are a community, not view-whores :)
Recently I asked on my Facebook fan page I asked the members of the community what tips they had for aspiring street photographers. They gave some quite insightful/fun answers that I would love to share with you.
Note: I love making lists, as I feel that they are fun ways to learn and gain more insight about street photography. Please do not be offended by this list, as they are some of my own personal opinions about street photography. However I feel that these “rules” are broad enough to apply to most street photographers. If you don’t agree with any of the points below, leave a comment and tell me otherwise!
Never carry your camera with you
Be “too lazy” to go out and take photos
Only keep your batteries charged half-way before you go out and shoot
Some of you may not know, but I am teaching a digital photography class to a high-school class of 25. The school is located in Los Angeles (near Venice) and is called “Phoenix High.” The majority of the students are from lower socio-economic status neighborhoods and under-privileged backgrounds, and struggling to make it through school. Although their lives are tough, they find a lot of inspiration and joy in photography. Therefore, I am currently trying to get donations for old point and shoot cameras (11 to be specific) for the students to use.
I have always looked at many great street photographs and have always wondered what the story was behind them. Interesting enough, I also get many questions about what was going on in my head when I shot certain photos of mine. Therefore I thought it might be a good thing to show you my 5 best street photographs of all-time, and explain a little more about the backround story as well as what was going on in my mind at the time.
1. “The Conductor” – Downtown Los Angeles
"The Conductor" - Downtown Los Angeles
This is actually one of my first street photographs that I took. I was in Downtown LA with my girlfriend Cindy, and we went to go watch a show at the Ahmensen Theater, which is right next to the LA opera house. In the courtyard, there is this beautiful fountain that shoots streams of water at different intervals. Cindy exclaimed how beautiful it looked, and I ran over with my camera in hand, and snapped a few photos. I recall seeing the near-perfect silhouettes of the two people, and waited for the moment where either the man or woman would do something interesting. My wish was blessed, and the man on the left raised his hands as if explaining something to the woman. I snapped the photo and recall thinking, “It almost looks as if the man is conducting the streams of water to shoot up”. I then thought of the title, “The Conductor” and it has just stuck.
About two weeks ago, I was playing basketball and when I went up for the rebound, I landed on someone’s foot and fell my entire weight roll onto my left ankle. Then I proceeded to hear the cracks (like cracking your knuckles, except times five) and then the final pop at the end. It was a pretty serious sprain.
I then went to the doctor the next day and got an x-ray. Although I didn’t break any bones (thank God), I was going to be in crutches for at least 2 weeks. This meant going 2 weeks without shooting any street photography.
As you guys can imagine, I got pretty antsy staying at home all of the time. I felt that the streets were calling my name–and longed to go shoot.
Fast-forward 2 weeks and now I am walking with a slight limp (thanks for all the words of encouragement + prayer). I took the liberty the other day to shoot street photography, and I gotta tell ya–it was pretty damn painful. Every step forward felt like a thousand needles piercing into my ankle, and it was hard to even walk the distance of a block or so.
But as I like to think, “Everything happens for a reason.” I then noticed that although it was difficult shooting street photography while still injured, there were some learning points that I got out of it. This is what inspired me to write this post. I will therefore tell you how being injured helped me realize some points that helped me
1. Walking slower helped me capture moments I might have missed.
"After the Rain" - Santa Monica
Due to the fact that I was injured, I walked extremely slowly while shooting street photography around the 3rd Street Promenade. Although at first this was incredibly frustrating, I started noticing things I might have missed while healthy. I started to see more “interesting characters” I might have missed if I were walking at full speed. In slowing down, I started to “see” better as a street photographer.
Note: Remember that great poem that my student Edward Lim wrote about my photo, “Midnight Dining“? Well he is at it again and this poem that he wrote is on one of my favorite photos, “The Conductor.” Show him some love and leave a comment below!
"The Conductor" - Downtown Los Angeles
Eyes blind in concentration,
Hands perched in the air,
The barren floor, waiting,
Instruments ready.
Hand and baton descends
Liquid notes leaps up,
Graceful with rhythm,
A grand Forté.
From the ground,
The baton leads a river
A gossamer cascade
Glistening gold
A dance of light,
Symphony of water
In harmonious key
The midnight waltz
Note: One of the incredibly talented Sunday school students I have at my church named Edward Lim saw my “Midnight Dining” image and was inspired to write a poem. Not only am I humbled that he decided to write a poem based on my image, but I am also impressed by his fluency in the literary arts. Show him some love and leave him a comment below!
"Midnight Dining"
Walk home late at night
A day of toil done
Amid the chaos of chores
And thus night meal, forgotten
A midnight vendor
A hearty greeting
A snack before the halfway
And thus sat down
Midst of city light
The narrow strip of sky
Sets glow to nigh
And thus the dim alley
Not quite Christmas
Couple of months ’ till so
They hang above, those light
And thus a starry sky
Tom Kaszuba is a very talented street/architecture/landscape/HDR photographer based in Norwich, Connecticut. He is a photographer that I look up to highly, as he was one of the first people who gave me a ton of support and love when I was starting off my street photography. We originally met at the Black & White Vision forum at Fred Miranda, and our relationship has been solid after that.
Recently on Twitter, I asked why people loved street photography. Out of all the responses I got, I loved Tom’s the best:
@tomkaszuba: My fave thing about street photography is making art out of real life.
To show my gratitude for his guidance through my photography and just having awesome insights into street photography, I sent him one of my favorite prints, “The Mime at St. Pancras.” He was even awesome enough to send me some photos of it hung up in his house! (That lovely lady in shot #1 is his wife btw)
Keep posted to see if you can win more photos from me ;)
As of late, film has been having quite a comeback. Many photographers enjoy the “look” of grainy analog film, and many people even say that they enjoy the experience of shooting with film as well. In an article published by Wired, Charlie Sorrel states:
“Kodak’s US marketing manager of professional film, Scott pro film Scott DiSabato said that sales of color film are steady, and that black and white film is ‘doing extremely well’ He sees it as a mini-revolution, adding that ‘it almost feels that there is a very real resurgence for film.’”
Many places such as Urban Outfitters have caught upon this trend, selling Holga cameras, which are toy-plastic film cameras which give images an interesting cross-processed look. Sales for these types of cameras are strong within the young demographic, and it almost seems to be a rebellion against digital.
A Holga 120s on the left, and an example photo on the right.
This leads to the question, what is better for street photography, film or digital?
This is definitely not an easy question to tackle, as both sides of the debate have their own valid points and refuse to give up any ground. However for the purposes of this post, I will try my best to give an un-biased view to both sides of the argument.
@faireunvoeu on Twitter sent me this quote from film photographer Simon Watson on digital photography:
“There is a smoothness that is so ugly & slick, it looks like a gimmick.”
In my own personal experience being born and having grown through the “digital revolution,” digital photography is the only thing I have ever truly known. Sure I remember when I was a kid and having to wait for the film from my mom’s old camera to get developed, or waiting on prints from my old disposable camera from field trips. However other than that, digital has been everything to me. My first camera was a Canon Powershot SD600, and the other two cameras after that (my Canon Rebel XT and Canon 5D) have been digital as well.
It is quite ironic, because I have been attracted to the “film look” as well. I use Nik’s Silver Efex Pro to add grain into my images as well as strong vignettes in my black-and-white workflow. There is something that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I feel that it pays homage to the old “film look” of the street photography masters.
"Wine by the Seine" - Paris, France 2009. Note the grain I added to give the image a more "moody" feel
Digital definitely has its pros when it comes to street photography. It is no secret that it is much easier for photographers to learn photography on digital cameras as opposed to film cameras. First of all, digital cameras allow you to instantly see the results of your photos on the back of your LCD screen, to check for exposure, framing, focus, and even sharpness. This takes a lot of guess-work out of photography, as with film it takes much more time to develop and process images. Therefore when shooting street photography, an aspiring street photographer will thus have an easier time learning from his or her mistakes, or even learning how to better compose when shooting from the hip.
However recently, I have inherited an old film rangefinder, the Contax IIIa. Although I have only shot a few rolls with it, there is definitely a much different experience shooting with film. I feel that when I am shooting with film, I feel much more calm, and that there is some sort of inner-peace that I get shooting with it. Due to the fact that I am not able to “chimp” and look at the back of my LCD after shooting every image, I focus more on the experience of shooting on the streets, rather than focusing my efforts on the outcome of my images.
Me shooting in the streets with my Contax IIIa. Shot by John Golden
Furthermore, due to the fact that I can only shoot about 24 exposures or so from each roll of film, I am much more selective with my shots, which makes me focus more on my framing and composition of shots, so I don’t “waste” any of my film.
However I think in the long run, the convenience of digital trumps film by far. Being able to take raw images, edit them on your computer, and directly upload them to Flickr or online is much better than having to purchase film, send it to get developed, wait, download your images to your computer, then upload it online.
The way in which we share photos has fundamentally changed. Remember back in the days when people actually shared physical photographs with friends and family, and even made duplicates for them to have? Such an experience is now foreign to the modern person, as Facebook is much more convenient.
The Leica M9 - The First Full-Frame Digital Rangefinder
Getting back to the subject at hand, I feel that digital is still much more advantageous to the modern-day street photographer than film. I do not discount the merits of shooting film, but with new digital incarnations of even “classic” cameras such as the Leica M8,8.2, and 9, there is a huge shift toward shooting digital. Even Chris Weeks who wrote a book on street photography “Street Photography for the Purist,” he was initially turned off by digital cameras, but upon getting his Leica M9, he is starting to embrace it much more, as said in his more recent film documentary, “Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition.”
Street photographers–what is your opinion on digital vs film photography? Leave a comment below and leave your 2 cents!
I thought about writing this blog post after receiving many questions regarding street photography. I saw it as a great opportunity to help clear up some misconceptions about street photography, as well as answer questions from many aspiring street photographers from around the world! If you have any other general questions, feel free to leave a comment below and have either me or some other street photographer from the community answer your question!
1. Do I need a model release form when shooting people in the streets?
"3 Men"- note that although the man's face is visible, he is not identifiable. Thus I do not need a model release for this if I wanted to sell this print. Also I have no restrictions in posting this online.
No. As long as a person is in a public area and not on private property, you are free to take their photo without having a model release form. However the tricky part is when it comes to selling images of people shot in public areas. If the photo you are selling clearly defines a person’s face, then you need a model release form.
Edit: In the US, you are allowed to sell a recognizable photo of someone on the street as a work of art. What you are not allowed to do is to sell it for commercial photography — that is to say, photos being used to sell a product. This would prevent the sale of photos of a recognizable person to (let’s say) a stock photo service, but not as a work of art, or photojournalistic purposes.
Apologies for talking a bit quiet, as well as the squeaking (it goes away after the 25 second mark)– but thank you again for the love and support in helping me achieve my dream of going to Lebanon to teach my street photography workshop! In this video I give a quick shout-out to everybody who has helped me in my photography journey. Words cannot express my gratitude to you guys!
For those of you guys who have no idea what this street photography workshop in Beirut, Lebanon is about–read more here.
One of the questions that I often get from aspiring street photographers is, “How do I not look like a ‘creep’ when shooting in public?” I believe that this is one of the main factors which bars many photographers from getting their feet wet with street photography. In many societies, taking photos of strangers on the street is definitely not the “norm,” and can be interpreted as offensive to many. However although a photographer may feel like a “creep” when shooting in public, he most likely isn’t.
Street photographers try to capture the beauty in everyday-life, and attempt to journal their life through their lens. The term “creep” implies that the person is shooting strangers for some ill or mischievous reason.
In order not to look like a “creep” in the streets, you must first change your mindset that you are not a creep. In thinking that you are being “creepy” by shooting random strangers in the street, your body language will show it as well. Your movement in the streets will be erratic, your eyes will be shifty, and you will make other people feel uncomfortable. It is sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy in this way, therefore it is important for you to shift your frame of mind.
If you constantly tell yourself, “I am a street photographer there to capture the beauty in the mundane and I mean nobody ill will,” thoughts of being a creeper will disappear over time. Granted that every street photographer will have a difficult time doing so, the more you do it, the less awkward it will be.
In order to help you get over that feeling of being a “creep in the streets,” I will give you three quick tips on how not to look like a creeper when shooting street photography.
"Sacred Light" - St. Peter's Basilica, The Vatican.
Whenever I ask people want to do before they die, it always seems that traveling is on top of their list. Yet, so few people travel—why? Sure there are the default answers, “It is too expensive”, “I have no time”, “Isn’t it dangerous?”, “I have ‘responsibilities’ that I have to take care of” and the list goes on. However when it comes down to it, all of these statements are truly nothing but excuses.
For the longest time I have always wanted to go backpacking in Europe. However I faced the problem that many other people faced, regarding money, time, confusion, etc. All I knew was that it was a burning passion and aspiration of mine, and that no matter what—I wanted to go.
I can fortunately say that the last summer I was finally able to make that dream come true and I backpacked through Europe for 30 days. I started off in Paris, flew to Rome, took a train to Florence, took another train to Cinque Terre, continued to Venice, and then Prague, and finally flew out to London where I spent the rest of my time. How was my trip you ask? It was the trip of a lifetime. Words cannot express the breath-taking sights I had, the cordial people I met, the aroma of the wine I had, the taste of the local cuisine, the awe-inspiring architecture, and oh yeah—the copious amount of photo-opportunities.
Now let’s get back to the issue of “practicality.” I’m sure all of you are thinking, “I would love to go travel to _______” but I don’t have the money for it. Honestly, I believe that to be nothing more than an excuse for most people.
Are you a student in college?—you truly have no excuse. You have the best time of your life to travel, when you have nothing truly “tying you down.” There are tons of study-abroad opportunities, and you still have summer breaks! Can’t afford it? Take out a loan—(that’s what I did). Sure you probably have no to little money right now, but what you don’t have in money—you have time.
Do you have a full-time job? Take a vacation and even travel for a week. Most jobs in the United States give you at least two weeks of vacation time a year. Don’t get any vacation time? Well you should probably quit the job you have right now and get a new one. Don’t have any money and a load of debt to pay off? Stop spending your money on things that you don’t need (cars, clothes, eating out, etc) and invest that money into saving for a trip. You probably have a half-million things lying around that you could probably sell on eBay or Craigslist as well.
Are you married and have kids? Take them with you! The last thing that you want to do is use your kids as an excuse. They will have the time of their life as well.
If you died tomorrow, would you have any regrets on not traveling? Where have you always wanted to go, but always made excuses why NOT to go instead of making excuses WHY to go. Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Korea, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Africa, the Middle-East, Paris, or India? Or can you see yourself on your death bed, regretting not going because of
Considering that people always make reasons why NOT to go traveling, I will make some reasons WHY you should go traveling:
What goes on in my head when I am doing street photography. (Yes, that is a penguin version of me with a Canon 5D)
Stumped for ideas, I recently I asked to the members of my Facebook Fan page what I should blog about next. These are the responses that I received that inspired me to write this post:
Eric Houng: “What prompts you to snap a picture of someone? is it cuz you see a story about that person? stuff like that :] (inspiration… that’s the word i was looking for hahah)”
Mithun Kumar: “Do we apply brains or just go with the instincts when photographing on Streets?”
Yvette Murphy: “Related to above requests– how much of it is planned, i.e. you see the possibility of a shot ahead of time and wait for it to happen and, simply, spontaneous, i.e. the right place at the right time. For example, I had seen the possibility of a great shot, I waited for the right time…and perhaps I lost patience, but it never happened.”
Rick Heath: “What does one need to do in terms of mindset on the street….I would love to do this but do not want to be threatening. How do you be forward in a nice way. Does this make sense? In other words, what does your mindset need to be…..frame of mind, etc.”
Therefore I will try my best to explain my “workflow” of my thoughts when shooting in the streets. The scenario I will explain my thought process when I went to shoot on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica (during my lunch break yesterday). I tried my best to record and write out my thoughts as candid as possible.
UPDATE 9/30/10! Thanks to your kindness and generosity, I have raised enough money to finance my plane trip to Beirut, Lebanon! Huge thanks to everybody who contributed, especially to Thomas Leuthard who paid for a large percentage and will be presenting at my street photography workshop as well! I will keep you guys informed with more updates soon :)
Peace and love,
Eric
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Hey friends and photo buddies,
After my “101 Things I Have Learned About Street Photography” post went viral, a project coordinator of this art group named Spearminds in Beirut, Lebanon contacted me, asking if I was interested in leading a street photography workshop there. More info here.
The email I received from the Project Coordinator:
Click to Zoom
Of course you guys could all image how excited and giddy I was hearing this news. For the last few months, I have been dedicating so much of my time and energy in spreading the love of street photography for the rest of the world. I cannot say how grateful I am for YOUR support (and the rest of the community) in contributing your thoughts, spurring interaction with other individuals, as well as spreading the word. This blog and my photography has grown faster (and bigger) than I could have ever imagined possible in my life.
Excited about this opportunity, I went to Kayak and I discovered that a round-trip ticket to Beirut is ~$800. As a recent college student heavily in debt, this trip is not exactly within my budget. This is where I ask for help of you, my friends and the photography community to help achieve my dream of traveling to Beirut, Lebanon. Not only could I lead a street photography workshop that can inform and inspire the lives of others living somewhere halfway across the world, but I can also capture some amazing photographs there as well.
Cheapest flight on Priceline:
Round-Trip Ticket to Beirut, Lebanon (via Priceline)
Not many of you know, but in my free time I have also been teaching a photography class at a continuation school in Los Angeles named Phoenix High School. The 25 students in my class are mostly from low socio-economic backgrounds, and have never had the opportunity to take any photography workshop. You should see their faces when I teach them the fundamentals of photography, and even take them on “photo outings” where they go out and take photos for themselves! You can see more information on a site I set up for them here. You can see how serious I am about teaching photography, and the true love of it I have.
So please help support my dream and make a donation today via Paypal! You are free to donate however much you want (Suggested Donation of $5 or more). Also, I have also recently opened a store for prints, and you can support me by purchasing some of my prints as well.
Thank you for the love and support! Please spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, and your blog! I will be forever grateful — and I will bring back some amazing photos too! :) If you do not have any money to contribute, please join my Facebook Group and invite your friends to join and help out!
In holding to my mantra of open source photography, I have decided to give away all of my presets that I use in my street photography for Lightroom 3 for FREE. Feel free to share these presets with anybody/everybody you know.
This post was originally posted here by Neal Bingham, but I thought I’d repost it here to share it with the rest of you guys. A great resource for any aspiring street photographer. Please pass it on! Also follow Neal on Twitter!
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I thought it would be useful to create a topic where people can share links to resources – whether that’s tips for beginners on how to get started, interesting articles found elsewhere on the web, or just amazing examples of street photography to give us all a bit of inspiration.
For starters:
Websites:
In-Public – collective of modern street photographers: www.in-public.com/
Photographer Not a Terrorist – a movement dedicated to defending the right to photograph in public – find out more about your rights here (UK only) photographernotaterrorist.org/
Magnum Photos – legendary photo agency founded in 1947 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and others: www.magnumphotos.com/
A view from photographer Nick Turpin on the relationships between street photography, fine art photography and photojournalism: www.sevensevennine.com/?p=429
In street photography, one of the popular techniques that photographers employ is “shooting from the hip.” To sum it up, “shooting from the hip” it is holding your camera at wait-level, and shooting upwards without looking through the viewfinder. One of the reasons why this technique is widely popular is because it allows you to take much more candid images of people, as they do not see you shooting them with your eye through your viewfinder, and assume you aren’t taking images. Another thing is that when shooting from the hip, you often get a much more interesting perspective as you shoot from a much lower perspective.
Although there are some individuals who are opposed to shooting from the hip and consider it as the “easy way out,” simply disregard their words. As you will soon find out, framing while shooting from the hip is very difficult when starting off. For every 100 shots you take shooting from the hip, you will probably only get 5-10 or so “decently” framed images.
Although I do not use shooting from the hip as my primary type of street photography, I will try my best to walk you through how you can effectively shoot from the hip and get amazing candid images of people.
Lately on the web, there has been a ton of buzz about the phobia that people are having about street photographers. We have been called creepers, pedophiles, and even in some cases, terrorists (as the TSA would like the public to think). Is all this anti-photographer sentiment leading to the death of street photography as we know it?
I don't wear hoodies when doing photography in public.
I recently created a Flickr page dedicated to all of your awesome street photography titled: “Aspiring Street Photographers.” Feel free to join and contribute your images (as well as inviting your friends to join as well!) I hope to build a well-knit community of street photographers of all skill-levels to share their photographic insight with one another, while giving constructive criticism and feedback on images. Please join and hope to see you there soon :)
In lieu of the popularity of my last post about the “100 Things I Have Learned about Photography,” I decided to make a new list that pertains to street photography specifically. Also if you don’t know, I am currently writing a book titled: “Street Photography 101,” and the excerpts are being posted here. This new list is a homage to the Street Photography 101 book that I am writing.
Note that there is some overlap of some of these points with the previous list that I wrote, but I thought it may be essential for new-readers to note. Also, feel free to critique, comment, and share this list with anybody you want. I would love to hear your feedback.
So after my guest post on Digital Photography School for my “10 Tips for the Aspiring Street Photographer,” I have been getting a lot of love from the online photography community. In order to get to know you guys better (and for you guys to get to know one another better as well), why not leave a comment and introduce yourselves? Let me know where you’re from, how you found out about my site, and what about street photography appeals to you? Looking forward in hearing from all of you :)
When it comes to street photography, everybody has their own style and techniques. What interests one street photographer may not necessarily catch the eye of another street photographer. However in order for you to get a better grasp of what kind of styles there are in street photography, I have compiled a few elements that street photographers like to use to their advantage when constructing their images.
Play with Juxtaposition
"Skating" - Paris, France.
Juxtaposition is a big and fancy word that artists love to use. If you are not familiar with the word, it simply means drawing a stark contrast between two elements in an image. One could use juxtaposition in his or her favor by creating an image that is interesting, ironic, or just plain uncanny.
For example, if you were to see a sign that says “get fit” and you see a woman eating an ice cream, that makes for an image with great juxtaposition. Or you can see a sign that says “get big” with a small person standing next to it.
I love typography. I played around with some new free font I picked up at Smashing Magazine and playing with color schemes from Colour Lovers and mashed this little piece up together. Leave me a comment below and let me know what ya think!
Whoever is looking for a bike, take this advice from my friend Miles’ step-dad. He was a competitive biker back in the day, and he still fixes bikes for a living. An amazing period, with a great wealth of information. Big thanks to him for helping me purchase my first road-bike, a Nishiki Prestige (pictured above) for only $175 (I talked the guy down from 200) ! It runs like a dream, and is in mint condition. Also it looks pretty sweet with the red tires and all.
Here is the original E-mail he sent me. Hopefully this will help other people who are looking for bikes themselves.
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Hi Eric (I’m Tom),
I think we can do this, I’ll scour Los Angeles Westwood craigslist and send some ads to you so you can go out and look at bikes. The best deals are the late 1980s Japanese bikes, the ones you want have aluminum alloy wheels, but a steel lugged frame. I highly recommend Centurion “Iron Man”, Nishiki ‘Prestige”, Miyata 600 and higher to 1000, Fuji “Team”, Shogun “1000”, Univega several models with 700c wheels, Schwinn “Tempo” and a few other models made in Japan like”Prelude”
In the mid to late 1980s, the dollar was strong against a weak Yen, the Japanese were producing world class bikes and selling them in the U.S. at prices that other manufacturers couldn’t touch. This ended about 1990 and started about 1985 so you want to look for bikes from that time period only. After 1990, bikes became overly complicated and the frame quality declined as the Japanese economy was pulling ahead.
Another possibility is an American bike like a Trek, or a British bike like a Raleigh, but the chances of finding those (a good quality one)for $200 is slim. (keep in mind that all the companies made low-end or junky bikes during this period as well as fabulous bikes, so here are things to watch for.
#1 Frame tubing, The best Japanese steel was Tange #1 and Tange #2, there will be a sticker under the seat on the frame tube saying whatever the tubing is, Tange 1 and 2 are double-butted chrome-Moly and that is the lightest and strongest. Double butted means the inside diameter varies, towards the ends that need extra strength, the tubing walls are thicker because that’s where the stress is. The middles of the tubes are thin. You don’t want to buy bikes where the tubes are dented at all or repainted, original finish is a must. Paint scratches are O.K. but dents are a deal breaker.
At 5’11”, depending on leg length, I’d recommend a 56 to 60cm frame, the measurement is from the centerline of the crank axle up the mast to where the seat-post drops in. People selling bikes often give false measurements so you need to bring a metric tape measure.
Avoid bikes with 27” wheels, if the bike has 27” wheels, it means the bike is either cheap or too old. Make sure you get 700c wheels, on aluminum rims, with aluminum hubs, bring a magnet if you can’t tell the diff.
The deraillers should be Shimano, it’s possible that they could have SunTour, but those are most likely older than the time period we are looking for.
Bikes of this period have a head sticker, not a headbadge, (unless it’s a Schwinn)
#2, spin the wheels, there should be no wobble or hop, this is important, the wheels should spin for a long time, if the wheel stops after a couple seconds, something is wrong.
#3 don’t worry about bad handlebar tape or worn or rotted tires, those should be replaced anyway when you buy a used bike, you never know where the last owner’s hands have been and you don’t need gross stuff on yours.
#4 bring a 5mm and a 6mm Allen wrench, loosen the seat post and make sure it is still adjustable, same with handlebar neck, bikes left in the rain often get alumi-ferric corrosion in those areas and get stuck, and you don’t want that. The seat post clinch bolt is usually only turnable on the chainwheel side remember, one side does NOT spin. Sometimes people put the clinch bolt in backwards though, so carefully try the other side if the bolt on the chainwheel side does not spin easily.
Lately I have been trying to contact a bunch of Los Angeles art magazines to have them feature my work. One of the magazines that contacted me back was Juxtapoz magazine. I was lucky enough to get featured as their “pic of the day” on their site. Hopefully one day I could get featured in their paper-back magazine. Below is a screenshot of their site.
Eric Kim "Dots" - Juxtapoz Magazine Pic of the Day
Hope you guys had a great weekend and are ready for the rest of the week!
Anyways recently, I had the great pleasure to write a guest blog post for a photography site called “7×5.” I wrote a somewhat easy-to-read post written very colloquially how a beginner can get started with street photography. Definitely not the most eloquent or comprehensive guide, but an interesting read I still think anyways! I got lots of great feedback on Twitter about this post at @erickimphoto as well!
So on this day, I decided I would do something fun with my street photography, which was to ride around on my road bike and take photos. I have never done this before, but I thought– hell why not. I then pondered where I wanted to go take photos, and I settled upon going to Hollywood to take some photos. I then packed my Timbuk 2 Commute 2.0 messenger bag with some water and my camera, and hopped on my bike, not sure where this journey would lead me.
When heading toward Hollywood, I decided to ride down Westwood Blvd, and headed up Santa Monica Blvd toward Century City. The first thing I passed was this awesome wall on the side of a liquor store. I hopped off my bike and took a couple of snaps.
Love these Stripes. Sick color combo.
In front of the store.
I then headed to the back of the store (where there was more dots), hopped off my bike and thought it would be a great thing to model. It is a 1980’s Nishiki Road bike and it rides like a dream. Here it is lookin all purty with the awesome art in the BG.
A vertical shot.
Another mural I saw while riding by. Discrimination? HELL NAW!
I then headed into Beverly Hills, where I saw this awesome portrait of who I believe to be, Kobe Bryant.
As I kept on biking, I came upon a car rental in Beverly Hills. Supposedly it’s “Black and White” (ie full of ballin cars)
FERRARI ENGINE!
SICKKKKKK
Some cool street art I also saw:
I love the dystopia-like look of the below image.
Man, American Apparel is getting more and more trashy.
Self-Portrait
Checked out some of the stores near Fairfax.
Lots of fun.
After biking around and taking so many photos all day, I was getting pretty damn hungry. I asked one of the locals where I should go to eat, and he highly recommended “Canters,” a local deli that has been around for more than fifty years. I went, and took a seat. The waitress asked me what I wanted, and I told her what was popular. Without even flinching, she struck my menu with her stubby and muscular pointing finer, which was aimed at the Pastrami Sandwich. Quite shocked, I jumped back and said I’d get one. She asked me what I wanted to drink and I automatically said “Coke.” Little did I know that Coke was going to cost me $2.50 (damn).
Anyways, the bad boy came out. And OMG… it was the most amazing pastrami sandwich I have ever had in my life. Perfectly juicy, and so soft and meaty. This photo just makes me drool thinking about it.
Oh yeah– I also wrote an essay about “Street Photography in Los Angeles.” I still gotta type it up and post it here.
After a bomb ass meal and getting a ton of writing done, I headed down Fairfax and came upon the Supreme store. Pretty sweet stuff in there.
Kewl decks.
Biked some more, and got my favorite image of the day below.
After a long days of biking and shooting, went back to “The Lab” where the magic happens. I still have so many photos to process…but stay tuned for more fresh street photography from Los Angeles.
An old image taken by Charles Choo while we were shooting street photography in Seoul, Korea last summer. I had tons of fun with the guy, and this is an image of us drinking a beer in the middle of the day in public outside a Korean “7-Eleven.” Got to miss the good times in Korea…
About a weekend or two ago, on a lazy Saturday morning, I decided that I was going to take photos that day–although not sure where or how I was going to get there. I therefore planned that I was going to check out the LA MOCA, and then took my stuff and jumped on the first bus that I could find.
However while I was on the bus, I saw something interesting on the side of the street, and got off my bus way too early. After taking my photograph of what I wanted to, I realized that I was lost in the middle of nowhere. However I just walked around the streets, meandering where I wanted to go next.
I then jumped on another bus and got off on the metro stop in the middle of Korea-town. I never took the subway in Los Angeles before, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Therefore I jumped on the subway, still not quite sure where I wanted to go. I looked at the map, and Chinatown was on the list. I had heard lots of interesting things about Chinatown in Los Angeles, yet never had the opportunity to go. I then thought to myself, “Why the hell not” and headed toward there.
I had never been to Chinatown before, so I kind of followed where the streets lead me. However I was quite pleased to say, it was a great opportunity for street photography. The Chinatown area was very quaint and quiet–with a few people strolling in and out of the area. If you look at the below images, you will also see they have an interesting “film” look to them. I recently made a new preset based on one that I downloaded online, and I quite like the look. I feel it gives that “dreamy” look that I felt when I was experiencing the place.
Hope you enjoy this little mini-photo essay of Chinatown in Downtown Los Angeles, through my eyes.
My full-series of Jacob Patterson, a Los Angeles based artist who specializes in graffiti, shoes, and street art. A truly amazing and inspirational artist and person. I look forward in collaborating with him more in the future.
I got in contact with Jacob, and he gave me a tour of the “ThinkTank” in Downtown Los Angeles, an art warehouse he is currently building up with fellow artists. We talked, chilled, grabbed a burrito (thanks Jacob!) and I told him that I would snap him a few photos before he left. This is the product of literally 5-10 minutes of shooting.
Jacob Patterson, Artist. Take one.Jacob Patterson, Artist. Take two.Jacob Patterson, Artist. Take three.Jacob Patterson, Artist. Take four.Jacob Patterson, Artist. Take five. "Shock 9000"
Serendipity. One of the most beautiful things about street photography. Stumbling upon something totally unexpected, but so intrinsically unique and beautiful it cannot be put into words. All of your sensations tingling, giving all of your sensory features a feast from a thing or a place that you have never known existed.
Serendipity. A reward for being adventurous and daring. Taking the road off the beaten path. Not being a dumb tourist and following everyone else like sheep. Being a nomad; thirsting for new sights and adventures.
Serendipity. Being in the present and on the prowl, like a jaguar in the streets. Disregarding your “common sense.” Taking the “scenic” rather the quickest route.
Serendipity. Your own little jewel. Taking it and forever keeping it in your box of memories. Taking a photo of it for a keepsake and making it immortal. Wanting to share it with the world, and wanting others to experience a small slice for themselves as well.
Serendipity. Living life without a map. Spinning around in a circle while closing your eyes, then throwing a dart on the map—determined to go wherever the hell it lands.
It is not the destination, stupid. It is about the adventure.
Serendipity. Taking your time and being patient. Not rushing to the nearest attractions but appreciating the beauty in the mundane. Looking for ordinary things, rather than the large and glamorous.
As a street photographer, you must jump into experiencing serendipity. Grab nothing but your camera and storm out into the streets, and letting your curiosity lead you.
