Search results for: “101 street photography”

NEWSLETTER What are we lacking in today’s world as photographers? Pride. Pride in ourselves, and pride in our photos:

We are often told that to get into photography as a business is a very bad idea. On the contrary, it is the industry the most ripe for disruption and innovation:

This is the intersection of all I love and find interesting and fascinating to myself:

Hey streettogs, Just came back from Seattle after teaching my Seattle MASTERWORKSHOP, and some street photography thoughts:

Street thoughts on my mind:

Assuming that it is all about you, and you’re the end goal into yourself, then — What should we focus on in our lives? I say solo photography. Solo entrepreneurship. And out of all these types of photography, what is the highest and greatest? Simple, I say street photography.

Adrenaline is good for us street photographers. For example, how do you know if a scene might be an interesting street photo or not? Simple — if it gets your adrenaline up!

If I started street photography all over again, some thoughts:

How and why self critique in photography is good:

One of the benefit of having kids: You essentially ‘clone’ yourself, and that child can continue to pass on and continue your legacy. And the great thing about photography: With digital technology, and with your own self-hosted blog (WordPress.org), your information, ideas, and artwork are in theory infinitely scaleable.

Advice I would give myself if I started all over again:

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about: Zero waste. Truth be told, waste is just bad to me in terms of an aesthetic rather than environmental thing. I think the earth is powerful enough to withstand waste, but still — every time I have an unnecessary can or unnecessary packaging for things, it feels dumb,…

Advice I wish I could have given myself if I started street photography all over again: When in doubt, shoot 25% more photos than you think you should If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough – Robert Capa The Dutch angle (tilting your camera and forcing a diagonal composition of a scene)…

Low-key photography means: Extreme under-exposing of your photos (-2, -3 or more) to paint your images with as much black as possible, to make your photos as dark as possible … to make a ‘minimum viable image‘ in monochrome. We must go darker:

An amalgamation of everything I wish I knew about street photography if I started all over again:

No street photography, no life.

Our personal motive: To explore embodied reality, to test our courage when photographing strangers, the joy of interacting with strangers, and to discover new cultures, peoples, and compositions (street photography as compositional art with human beings and human bodies).

Yes, you can shoot street photography in the suburbs. Technically if you think about it, a suburb is still urban, just sub urban. As long as there’s human beings around, whether it be on the streets, in the neighborhood, at the local Costco, it is all street.

Human art:

A fun pursuit and photography assignment: Shoot high contrast abstract photos in monochrome. For example: Shoot under-exposed photos (as dark as possible). -1 or -2 or -3 exposure compensation. Photograph textures, light, interesting surfaces Look at the sky, or places with extreme high contrast Look for faces in gritty textures or beautiful decay (patina, wabi-sabi…

Street photography you shoot for yourself– street photography you shoot for the pure joy of the activity and the experience of shooting street photography.

To be quite honest and frank, nowadays with the global pandemic it is a success to even leave your house. Thus the new way to think about street photography: no good or bad street photos, it is all good. Any street photography to get you out of the house, moving interacting with people and shooting…

Photography captures, encapsulates and glorifies life.

Now that I have become a street photography OG, I have a lot of time to think, reflect and meditate on street photography. One thought — perhaps we should think of street photography as a practical practice, skill, and an active *doing*, rather than a ‘thing’ or genre. Some thoughts:

Don’t delay; shoot street photography now.

In today’s brave new world of street photography, shooting street photography while traveling (airport, etc) is a good way to shoot street photography now.

Why are stripes, dots and black and white great in terms of photography composition? Because it obeys musical theory — beats, rhythms (think about treble and bass in photography applied to musical and photo composition theory). In other words, think piano keys!

This is something I think about a lot: How to augment your life experiences, intensify them, make more sticky photos, and to live a more artistically productive life?

This means: Strive to position yourself in street photography in such a manner in which you enjoy street photography as an independent pursuit for yourself — to enjoy the process of going out and making photos, the joy of interacting with strangers, the joy of being on the streets, the joy of the chase, the…

A life with street photography is a better life. Why? My thoughts:

If story telling in your street photography is your goal, some thoughts for you:

Low-key photos are photos that skew towards the dark end and the darker side. The opposite of ‘high key’ photography (very bright photos). Low-key photos are more dramatic, dark, and mysterious. I say that a low-key photograph is around 80% dark, and 20% bright (80% black, 20% white). The benefits of low-key photos:

For more effective street photos, try to include the face of the subject in your photos. And as a plus– add your own photo into the frame too!

A epiphany I had while shooting with the iPhone Mini (one handed, in my left hand while walking): The most flexible form and the best technique in photography is having the ability and privilege to shoot one-handed. For example, most of the time when we are out living our everyday lives, we often have to…

The goal: To make more powerfully impactful images. Photos which elicit a strong and powerful emotional response within us. Stronger and more powerful aesthetics, stronger light, and stronger and more emotional subject-matter (for example, photographing your family, loved ones, or children).

The most fun composition you can shoot anywhere:

My earliest passion and interest in photography was specifically street photography. But starting off, how does one approach street photography?

The thought behind reflexive photography: The photos you shoot are a reflex (reflexive) of you. The photos you shoot are a reflection of you and in some ways, *are* you!

What are my favorite cinema films for inspiration and motivation in photography? Film noir. This style of composition when applied to photography — very enigmatic, interesting, mysterious and beautiful!

Now that I feel like a billionaire, what is my final end and goal? Simple — photography. Ever since the birth of my son, my priorities include Cindy, Seneca, and my photography — nothing else really matters to me. I will even let entrepreneurial matters go to the side.

Recursive photo editing — this means: As you shoot new photos and create new photo albums, every once in a while go back to all the older photos, and make a newer (tighter) edit of your old photos, and make a new album of them.

COVID and the pandemic ain’t going away anytime soon. Then the thought: How can I still shoot street photography through this pandemic? Some thoughts: Shoot socially distant (6-12+ feet away) and keep a face mask on. Socially distant street photography. Shoot around the block, in downtown areas, when you’re going to the grocery store, etc.…

When it comes to photography philosophy, there still isn’t enough introspection and thought on the matters: When should you *not* shoot photos of something and someone? When should you and should you *not* upload photos of something or someone … especially when it comes to matters of ‘permission’? If you find a photograph great, and…

A realization while walking around and shooting some high contrast black and white photos of the snow in the streets: This looks like calligraphy to me. Which makes me think: In order to improve and augment our creative vision for photography, is studying calligraphy a great idea? I think so!

If you’re stuck at home, quarantining or whatever — here are some photography assignments you can do from home:

Some simple street photography assignments to get you going:

I think I finally have this Henri Cartier-Bresson quote figured out: The beauty of photography is that you can reveal beauty in even the smallest thing. Or in other words: All things, no matter how small can be beautiful. Then it is simply your task as a photographer to strive to seek, discover, notice, and…

Perhaps the best way to become a “better” photographer is mostly through the negative (Nassim Taleb). For example: To make better compositions, best to *SUBTRACT* and try to get rid of the distracting elements. To be more motivated, best to GET RID of social media (delete your Instagram) instead of seeking more followers and more…

A thought this morning: Photography *is* painting. We get this intrinsic joy from painting. Photography as painting with light. Thus perhaps the more painterly thoughts we can have, the better?