{"id":1099,"date":"2010-10-22T16:40:30","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T20:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2010-10-22T16:41:08","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T20:41:08","slug":"3-ways-how-being-injured-helped-me-become-a-better-street-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/22\/3-ways-how-being-injured-helped-me-become-a-better-street-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways How Being Injured Helped me Become a Better Street Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But as I like to think, “Everything happens for a reason.<\/em>” 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<\/p>\n

1. Walking slower helped me capture moments I might have missed.<\/h2>\n
\""After<\/a>
"After the Rain" - Santa Monica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2. Being injured helped me be more creative<\/h2>\n
\""Drain"<\/a>
"Drain" - Santa Monica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I was “disabled,” my shots certainly were not. I used this limitation of mine to force myself to be more creative with with my shots. This meant that I could not run over to a scene that I thought was interesting while shooting it from multiple different angles. Rather, I visualized the shots I had in mind when seeing a certain scene, and tried my best to force a strong composition. This argument could also be made when comparing prime lenses to zoom lenses. I would definitely say that prime lenses helped me become a better photographer–as well as being injured.<\/p>\n

3. I no longer make any excuses for not<\/em> shooting.<\/h2>\n
\""Strung<\/a>
"Strung Up" - 3rd Street Promenade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As street photographers, our feet are our most valuable asset. Being able-bodied helps us explore the urban jungles, and without them, it makes street photography incredibly difficult. To find interesting characters often requires one to walk over a semi-large distance, which is incredibly difficult while being injured. Now that I am on my road to recovery, I can no longer make any\u00c2\u00a0excuses\u00c2\u00a0for not going out and shooting simply because I am “lazy.” I have realized how important my health is, and while it is still good– I need to embrace my duty to keep taking my street photographs.<\/p>\n

On the same note, I wanted to mention a photographer named Timothy Agee<\/a>. He is a fantastic photographer and a professional as well. What makes him different from the slew of other photographers out there? He is photographer who currently shoots from a wheelchair, in his Canon 60D. He never makes any excuses for not going out and shooting\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand neither should you.<\/p>\n

Have you ever learned anything about\u00c2\u00a0photography\u00c2\u00a0while being injured? Please leave a comment below and tell us your story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[343,408,409,62,265,21,410,407],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","tag-3rd-street-promenade","tag-everything-happens-for-a-reason","tag-injured","tag-santa-monica","tag-street-photographer","tag-street-photography","tag-timothy-agee","tag-words-of-encouragement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/20101017181341_trail.jpg?fit=950%2C633&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}