thomas leuthard

Enter Thomas Leuthard’s “Street Self-Portrait” Photography Contest!

My good colleague and fellow street shooter Thomas Leuthard currently has a street photography contest running titled: “Street Self Portrait” running on Flickr. Some of the rules are below:

These are some of the prizes for the contest as well!

1st prize – 3 years of Flickr Pro
2nd prize – 2 years of Flickr Pro
3rd prize – 1 year of Flickr Pro

If you have any further questions about the contest, please post them in this thread on Flickr.

Good luck to everybody and excited to see the winner!

Enter the contest by uploading your photograph here.

“Headlines” Street Photography Contest by Thomas Leuthard

Thomas Leuthard (85mm) is putting together a fun street photography contest that is open to everyone in the world with the topic: “Headlines“. It is free to enter, and can be a great way to get more exposure in your photography. Below is more information about the contest:

Info

The contest is open to everyone around the world. There is no age or any other restriction. The genre is Street Photography and the photos must be taken in a candid way, so don’t setup your photos. There is a minor amount of post processing allowed. This is not a Photoshop contest and your photo will not be accepted, if there are too many changes made. The photos must be uploaded to the “85mm Street Photography Contest” Flickr group. A basic Flickr account is free of charge. There are no special requirements to enter the contest.

Rules

The photo has to be taken in the month of December 2011
The theme for the contest is “Headlines”
The format must be square
The photo must be in Black & White
The photo must contain EXIF data
The photo must not contain a watermark
Everyone can submit only one photo

The deadline for the contest is December 31, 2011 at the end of the day.

Contest Judges

Thomas Leuthard, Switzerland – Website – Flickr – Google+
Imad Haddad, Lebanon – Twitter – Flickr – Google+
Simon Garnier, USA – Website – Flickr – Google+
Mihailo Radicevic, Serbia – Website – Flickr – Google+
Jack Blundell, Scotland – Twitter – Flickr – Google+

There are also cash prizes for the contest up to $500 (enough money to finally buy that prime-lens you have always wanted!).

Check out all the contest details here

Download Thomas Leuthard’s (85mm) NEW Street Photography Book: “Collecting Souls: What Street Photography Means to Me” For FREE!

I am excited to announce that Thomas Leuthard (85mm) has just released his second book on street photography titled: “Collecting Souls: What Street Photography Means to Me“. This book is much more advanced than his previous book, and contains more of his personal thoughts and ideas when it comes to street photography. It includes more than 30 short chapters about street photography, and should help with your own story-telling and style.

As with Thomas’ other street photography book, it is totally FREE and available for download here.

If you haven’t checked out Thomas’ first book “Going Candid“, you can also download that here as well.

Show Thomas some love by leaving a comment below and telling him what you think about his book/generosity!

The Worst Street Photography Excuses

A while back Thomas Leuthard (85mm) put up a blog post on 500px titled “The Best Excuses On the Street.” He came up with a hilarious list of mostly bad (some good) excuses to use when people ask what you are doing. I was inspired by the list and thought I’d take a stab at using a few of them on the streets. I called up my friend Alex Lea and he recorded some footage of me from behind (while I recorded with a GoPro on top of my Leica M9). Yeah I shot the video a while back but didn’t have the chance to edit it until a few days ago ;)

My favorite one that I didn’t mention in the video (but took a stab at Thomas): “You should see Eric Kim, he is a creepy Korean tourist with a Leica M9…”

Although I made this video for fun, I was quite surprised to see that most people reacted somewhat positively to these excuses. Perhaps one could use a lot of these excuses and get away with it. Hope you guys enjoy the video :)

Alfred Eisenstaedt on Getting Close in Street Photography

The other day I was hanging out with Derriel Almario and we stumbled upon an old Borders bookstore that closed down and was converted into a $1 bookstore. When I saw it, I suddenly got giddy at the possibility that there may be some hidden photography book gems that we could find. Low and behold I stumbled upon a book titled, “The Camera” which was a photography book published in 1970 by TIME.

There was a chapter on shooting people that particularly fascinated me. Most of the photojournalists interviewed for the book generally agreed it was better to get closer to your subjects than shooting far away with a zoom lens.

Why You Should Stay on the F*cking Bus

Finding your own style in street photography is one of the most difficult things to discover. Everyone is influenced by the great street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Garry Winogrand, but to differentiate yourself from them can be a life-time journey. Personally I have been having difficulty finding my own style, with my earlier work relying more on juxtaposition and architecture. I have recently started to transition in getting closer to my subjects and shooting with a flash–a technique similar to that of Bruce Gilden and very controversial.

Download “Going Candid…” a FREE Street Photography E-Book by Thomas Leuthard

Hey guys if you haven’t heard yet, Thomas Leuthard (85mm) just released “Going Candid…” his FREE Street Photography E-Book. It is fill of great information about how to shoot strangers while getting really close to them, how to share your work, and truly tell a story through your images. It is fantastic information for anybody serious about street photography.

You can download a free copy here.

Make sure to leave a comment below and show Thomas some love for his generosity and great insights into street photography!

85mm and the City: Street Photography in the Big Apple

This guest blog post is from Thomas Leuthard (85mm) who is one of my dear fellow street photographers from Switzerland. Not only are we good friends, but we have taught two street photography workshops together–one in Beirut, Lebanon and the other recently in Switzerland.

In this blog post Thomas talks about his recent trip to New York City and about his experience shooting there. If you are curious to read what he has to say, read more and also see his great shots!

How Thomas Leuthard Shoots Candid Portraits

Watch Thomas Leuthard (85mm) in action shooting his candid portraits in his first video! Also you can read more about his street photography portrait technique here.

5 Things I Learned After Teaching My UK and Switzerland Street Photography Workshop

"Purple" - Shot in Brighton, UK with my Olympus EP-2

I am pleased to say after 4 jam-packed days of traveling and teaching a street photography workshop in Brighton, UK and Zurich, Switzerland I am back in Los Angeles. I had the trip of a lifetime and met some amazing people, ate some delicious food, and got some great street photographs as well. I also learned a great deal after doing this workshop and about Brighton and Zurich. Read more to see what I learned after teaching my UK and Switzerland street photography workshop!

Street Portraits vs Street Photography: What’s the Difference?

Eric Kim Street Photography Lebanon — Beirut, Lebanon. Click to read more.

Recently my friend and fellow artist Jacob Patterson asked me on Twitter what I thought the difference was between street portraits and street photography. It was a fascinating question, as there are many debates and inconsistencies on the web about the differences between the two. In this article I will outline my thoughts on the differences between street portraits and street photography. Not only that, but I encourage you to read on and chime in this debate as well.

Featured Street Photographer: Thomas Leuthard

Note: Every Wednesday, I feature street photographers with great skill and soul. For this week, I decided to feature amazing street photographer Thomas Leuthard. I first met Thomas online when he decided to generously donate a large sum of money to help support my street photography trip to Beirut, Lebanon. After meeting in Lebanon, he was my guest speaker for my Street Photography 101 workshop and we became great friends as well. His technique and vision is exceptional, and I am constantly inspired by his work.

Also feel free to check out all of the other featured street photographers of the week here!

1. How did you get started in street photography?

"Blue & White" - Zürich, Switzerland 2010

This is difficult to say as there is no real start “date”. I was shooting a lot of things when I started in early 2008. I was 3.5 weeks in Beijing during the Olympics and there I somehow got infected to shoot people in their everyday life on the streets. But I didn’t realize that at that time. On a trip to Hamburg Germany in October 2008 I take probably my first street photo on purpose, which I still like very much. A little bit later I got my Nikon D90, took another course in photography and I remember very well, when we went to Strasbourg, France, with this class. There was a beggar outside of the cathedral asking for money. I gave her 1 Euro and take some pictures of here. This was the moment when I started to shoot people’s portraits from short distance. But it really started when I bought my 85mm lens in May 2009. Then I decided to shoot only with this lens in the streets and call me 85mm.

Street Photography 101 Workshop Powerpoint and Outline

Hey everybody!

After having the time of my life teaching my Street Photography 101 workshop in Beirut, Lebanon with Thomas Leuthard, I thought that I’d spread the love to those of you who couldn’t make it! In alignment with my ideas on open source photography, I will be providing all of my slides as well as my outline to those who are interested. Feel free to use this information in any way you’d like–but all I ask is credit back to myself or to Thomas Leuthard (for his slides). I hope you guys enjoy and spread the love as well!

If you are interested in having me lead a street photography workshop in your city, please shoot me an email to erickimphotography@gmail.com. You can also contact Thomas Leuthard at photography@leuthard.ch.

Links:

Street Photography 101 Slideshare Link

Street Photography 101 Outline [.doc]

Street Photography 101 Powerpoint [.pptx]

Just landed in Beirut, Lebanon!

Update: Photos available here on Facebook.

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Hey guys,

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!

Heading to Beirut, Lebanon to teach my street photography workshop!

Hey guys,

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