{"id":23642,"date":"2015-05-03T15:48:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T22:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=23642"},"modified":"2015-05-03T15:48:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T22:48:38","slug":"dont-be-a-street-photographer-just-be-a-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/dont-be-a-street-photographer-just-be-a-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a Street Photographer, Just be a Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"London,
London, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I often have a hard time going out and making \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photos\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I have a lot of other friends who face a similar difficulty. A lot of street photographers disdain their busy lives, and how they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever able to make time to go out and hit the streets and shoot \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

But being really inspired by my friend Josh White<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I realized that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, you just need to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Or better yet, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, be a human being with immense amounts of curiosity about the world, with the passion and drive to document it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I think once we shake off the definition of being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, it takes off our creative shackles. It allows us to explore different genres of photography, and makes us not just be restrained to taking photos in the streets.<\/p>\n

Some of us live in the suburbs and areas where there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot of foot traffic. In my neighborhood in Berkeley, there aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too much people walking around. So instead of shooting just purely the typical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of people, I started to shoot more urban landscapes of the interesting industrial buildings in my neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Another thing I learned from my buddy Josh is that at the end of our lives, we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to care about all these photographs we took of random strangers. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to value the photographs of our friends, family, and loved ones.<\/p>\n

So when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not out shooting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, I put in a lot of effort making the most beautiful photographs of Cindy at home. I think at the end of my life, these are going to be the most meaningful photographs.<\/p>\n

Josh made another point in the past: Why do we use expensive cameras to take photographs of strangers, and only use our iPhones to take photos of people who are really meaningful to us?<\/p>\n

So my challenge to you is this: don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like you need to label yourself as a street photographer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Try to find opportunities to photograph whenever you have the opportunity.<\/p>\n

Take photos of your kids at their sports games. Take photos while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out grocery shopping. Take photos when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re stuck in traffic and have nothing better to do. Take photographs when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re having a nice dinner with your partner. Take selfies of yourself in a mirror when you have nothing else to photograph.<\/p>\n

Whether you are in the streets, in a mall, in the park, or at home\u00e2\u20ac\u201d always be a photographer.<\/p>\n

Shoot everyday<\/h2>\n

I think it is really important to make photographs everyday. We talk, listen, walk, eat, drink, and shit everyday to stay healthy. Why not shoot everyday as well?<\/p>\n

I also do believe that our visual senses are like a muscle. If we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t giving ourselves visual daily exercise (or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153visual push-ups as Jay Maisel calls them), we will become out-of-shape.<\/p>\n

Here are some practical tips I have used to photograph everyday, regardless of how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inspired\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I am:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Always have a camera close by<\/strong>: If my camera is far from me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m too lazy and won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go and grab it. I always have a camera close by, so I can easily pick it up whenever I have an urge to shoot.<\/li>\n
  2. Every shot doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be a work of art<\/strong>: Photograph because it makes you feel alive, more engaged, and more excited. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel obliged that every photograph needs to be perfect. It is okay to take shitty photographs. Just shoot.<\/li>\n
  3. Photograph your friends, family, and loved ones<\/strong>: If you love to photograph people, photograph those closest to you. And try to photograph them with as much artistic integrity as you would do for your street shots. Focus on your framing, composition, light, and gestures. Better yet, try to photograph them candidly<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d when they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looking.<\/li>\n
  4. Use your smartphone<\/strong>: Honestly I think a smartphone is the best kind of camera, because it is literally always with you. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any other camera with you, use your smartphone (and process afterwards in VSCO). Sure the image quality may not be as good as your other cameras, but I think capturing the moment and emotions is more important than how sharp it is or how megapixels it has.<\/li>\n
  5. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel obliged to upload everyday<\/strong>: I admire people who do 365-day projects and stuff like that, with a caveat: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you should feel obliged to upload every single day<\/em>. I think it is a good practice to shoot everyday, but if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like you have anything worth sharing, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t share it. Just keep it for yourself. I have thousands of photographs I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t uploaded because I know they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good shots, but they still have sentimental value for me (therefore I keep them for myself).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are your thoughts on being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d vs. just being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? When people ask you what kind of photographer you are, how do you respond? Share your ideas and comments in the comments below<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I often have a hard time going out and making \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photos\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I have a lot of other friends who face a similar difficulty. A lot of street photographers disdain their busy lives, and how they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever able to make time to go out and hit the streets and shoot \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23644,"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":[],"class_list":["post-23642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/88920014.jpg?fit=800%2C531&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23642","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=23642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}