Waiting paid off
Edward Steichen was one of the early photographers that did so much to transform photography into an art form. His images were always in his newly created magazine called Camera Works. Which incidentally
I have several original issues.
A prolific photographer who was so influential in changing the way the people in that era thought of photography as more abstract than realistic.
One of his quotes has always been one that I have passed on to my online classes with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops. He once said, “Always be ready for the unexpected to happen.”
Just how do you do that?
Well, there are many ways, but here are five that I’m always thinking about when I’m out ‘street shooting’.
1) In my workshops we invariably are shooting in the middle of the day, a lot of time in narrow streets in some small village. Half of the street might be in shadow, and the other in full sun. Regardless of what side I’m on, I will shoot several exposures to get the one I want and set that reading in my camera…that’s set on manual. That way, I’ll be spot on when something unexpected happens. I wouldn’t want to have a reading based on the full sun when whatever happens, happens on the shady side and I’m too far away to help later in post-processing.
2) One of the things I’m constantly seeing when I’m walking down the street with a fellow photographer is that he/she almost always just looks straight ahead. What that means is that person only sees twenty-five percent of the possible photo ops that are taking place all around. If something does happen and he only sees it in his peripheral vision, by the time he can look at it and react, whatever it was is long gone.
3) Whatever you do, don’t keep your camera in a pouch on your waist, backpack, or camera bag. When you get to your desired location, decide what lens you want to use FIRST and put it on. Whatever you do, don’t decide when whatever it is that you’re excited about is happening. That might open an entirely different can of worms…like feeling rushed and drop something you didn’t want to drop.
Having said that, if the location is one that might offer a landscape, or something that isn’t constantly changing, you have the opportunity to look at it (and shoot) with a different focal length lens. Of course, that depends on how much of that really good light you have left.
4) Now that you settled in with the lens you want, keep your ears and nose open to noises that might offer a photo op. For instance laughter, the smell of hotdogs, or pizza, sounds of the city, as in construction noises, commotion, etc. I have often followed those noises leading to a ‘keeper’.
5) Pay attention to any action and try to anticipate the same action that would happen again. For example, the photo I’ve shown above. I saw the wonderful late light hitting an intersection and people walking through it. Because of where I was standing the light was completely unexpected, and I just knew that it was going to be the place to stand.
I got my exposure set as far as what shutter speed/aperture combination I wanted and took a few exposures to get it to where I wanted it…doing all of this in the camera instead of in front of a computer.
I waited and waited and after fifteen minutes this woman came walking down the street. It was a great photo op and because I was ready for something, I was excited but not to the point of rushing my one or two exposures before she was out of the light.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot the unexpected with me sometime.
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JoeB
