{"id":32986,"date":"2017-08-02T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=32986"},"modified":"2017-01-21T20:46:47","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T04:46:47","slug":"shoot-effortlessly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/02\/shoot-effortlessly\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoot Effortlessly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eric<\/p>\n

I love spontaneity in photography. Photography is the most fun when it is effortless, and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require for us to think, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153try.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I feel photography is the most enjoyable when we are in a state of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and we lose sense of the world around us. When clicking the shutter is like a hot knife cutting through butter. When you react to scenes, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to worry about being yelled at, or missing the moment.<\/p>\n

You lose a sense of yourself. You become integrated with the streets. Your brain shuts off, and you start to trust the intuition of your body and subconscious.<\/p>\n

Why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we think in the streets?<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

I see street photography as an almost Zen-meditative process. Street photography is about disconnecting your ego from your body. Street photography is a chance for us to practice self-therapy on ourselves. For us to connect with the streets, the environment, and society.<\/p>\n

When I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m shooting street photography, I lose a concept of myself. I no longer feel fear, anxiety, or stress from my daily life. I am focused wholly on making images, and seeking interesting scenes. And I do this in a way that is relaxed, without pressure.<\/p>\n

When you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting on the streets, of course you want to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153think\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but my suggestion is to not<\/em> think with your brain. Rather, simply trust your body\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intelligence. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Think\u00e2\u20ac\u009d effortlessly by following your gut and intuition.<\/p>\n

Easier said than done though, right?<\/p>\n

Many of us have brains that chatter on non-stop.<\/p>\n

How do we not<\/em> think while shooting? Some ideas:<\/p>\n

1. Think like a child<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

A child just does things without thinking much about it. A child draws for fun. A child plays on the playground for fun. A child doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t censor him\/herself, and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just their art as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Shoot like a child. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take your photography too seriously. The less pressure you put on yourself when shooting, the more in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you will be.<\/p>\n

2. Give yourself permission to make bad photos<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

The biggest reason we think too much when shooting street photography is because we think too much \u00e2\u20ac\u201d because we want to make \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos.<\/p>\n

Rather, think opposite. Give yourself permission to make bad photos. Better yet, the assignment is to make bad photos.<\/p>\n

Give yourself permission to make bad photos when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out on the streets, but edit your photos ruthlessly and only choose your best photos afterwards<\/em> when you go home.<\/p>\n

3. Walk slowly<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

I find when I slow down, and walk slowly, I feel more meditative, feel less rushed, and feel less anxious. This allows me to turn off my brain, and just feel the sensation of the environment around me. I feel the pavement against my feet. I feel the soft breeze of air in my face. I hear the sounds of the chatter on the streets, and the honking horns.<\/p>\n

Try to walk at a pace that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rushed. Slow down. Treat your street photography outing as a zen-meditative walking-practice.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

Of course our brain is important \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it has helped us from being eaten alive by saber-tooth tigers thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n

Yet in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, we use too much of our brain. We over-think and over-analyze our lives, our creative endeavors, and our art. Our brains screw us up\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbecause we no longer trust our own intuition, gut, and spontinaeity.<\/p>\n

I still remember as a child, the lesson I learned when taking tests was this: trust your gut<\/strong>. If the choices are A,B,C,D, and E \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and your gut tells you that it is answer \u00e2\u20ac\u0153B\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d choose answer B. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken a lot of tests when my gut told me one thing, and my brain the other. Most of the times when I followed my gut, I was right. When I followed my brain, I was wrong.<\/p>\n

Lastly, enjoy the process of shooting street photography. Enjoy the walk, the chance to talk to some strangers, and the chance to snap a few photos. Does your street photography add or remove pressure or stress or anxiety from your life?<\/p>\n

For me, street photography is about removing<\/em> and subtracting<\/em> frustration from your life. If street photography is adding<\/em> stress to your life, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re probably doing something wrong.<\/p>\n

Always stay positive, and follow your gut in the streets.<\/p>\n

Eric<\/p>\n

To\u00c2\u00a0learn more about street photography, check out\u00c2\u00a0Street Photography 101 ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love spontaneity in photography. Photography is the most fun when it is effortless, and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require for us to think, or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153try.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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-32986","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\/2016\/10\/93440004.jpg?fit=3087%2C2048&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32986","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=32986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}