As a Blind Photographer, I thought that I had a slight disadvantage with shooting street photography. Readers of this blog and my other site PhotographyBay.com will know that I like focusing manually for many reasons, one of them is that it allows me to show people the way I see. For those of you that don’t know, Street Photography is the art of documenting every day life on the streets. It is candid. New York City, where I live, is a prime spot for this. The following posting documents how I’ve achieved some of my shots in hopes that you will go out and try them out for yourself. Don’t let your vision hold you back.
Street photography is sometimes combined with photojournalism. They both document life but they do have their differences. What I try to do it search for the elements of photojournalism on the streets: the news-worthy, the unusual, the emotional and the intimate. This photo displays an old Asian woman going through garbage. Many of them in NYC are often seen doing this. Additionally, notice that she is wearing a mask. The media and society teaches us that when we see a person doing this that they are sick with some virus that spreads through the air. It started years ago with Sars was a problem. Then it was chicken flu and today it is swine flu.
To take this photo, I used my Canon 5D Mk II with a 50mm F1.8 II attached. I shot at a higher ISO and focused while the lady was going through the trash. When she was done, she turned my way and I snapped the photo. I wasn’t very far away from her while shooting but I wasn’t extremely noticeable either because I stepped to the side against a building to shoot it. Things like these are important to remember in order to keep the candidness of the photos and not to disturb your subject.
It isn’t all about capturing the dark and gritty nature of the streets that most people want to see. Sometimes there is beauty as long as we pay attention to what it around us. As Blind Photographers, we can use our other sense to tune into our environment and train our eyes to look for the things that no one else does.
The photo above shows a candid moment. During the Halloween parade in NYC, the lady above was dressed as little Red Riding Hood. A man was taking a picture of her (hence why her mid section is lit up) and the wind started the blow. She tried keeping her skirt down, but ended up making it look like a homage to Marilyn Monroe. All this is on the streets, you just need to anticipate and pay attention to it. Additionally, know your camera and how to use it quickly to get the image.
Kids are sometimes the hardest things to shoot. They’re always moving around or they don’t display the emotions that you would like them to. In the above photo, the woman on the right was taking a picture of the little girl dressed up as a princess. The princess made a face. This is candid street photography showing the intimate bond between subject and photographer/mother and daughter/these two females.
To shoot this, I used my 80-200mm F2.8 L “Magic Drainpipe” lens. I got a bit further away so as not to disturb the two. The camera was set to aperture mode so it was an easily snapped candid. The moment captures the intimacy between the two during the chaos that is the parade.
Events on the street always provide for interesting subjects and photographic opportunities. During things like these, you need to get close. Getting close enables your viewers to feel like they’re right there in the action with you. This allows for great content and will make people stare at your images longer. The above image is from the annual Pillow Fight in NYC. At events like these, people dress up and literally beat the living crap out of each other with pillows. It’s fun, it’s silly, it provides for great street photography and candid moments.
This was shot with a kit lens on an Olympus E-510. I literally got right up to the two brawlers as they duked it out with one another. It was funny but also paid homage to the old days where you might see two people fighting on the streets of NYC.
This photo was featured here before on Blind Photographers. There is a lot of meaning behind this shot. In NYC, lots of people do not care for the poor. Granted this shot was fired blindly by just pointing the camera over my shoulder and firing directly behind me but still. Notice how the lady begging is perfectly in focus and how everyone else isn’t? They’re all just fading away and don’t care. They’ll move on with their lives to do whatever they want, but this lady will still stay there asking for money so she can probably afford another soda.
Of course there is also fun subject matter such as this last photo above. The man was literally just standing there in front of the two statues at Port Authority in NYC. Why was he standing there? Perhaps he got the best cell phone signal there. We don’t know. However, it makes for an excellent candid. For something like this, the subject is too interested in his call to care that I took a picture of him.
Subjects enthralled in what they’re doing always make for great shots.
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