Incoming - A New Street Photography Album
I would have to say that street photography is not going perfectly right now for me. The good news is that I am still hopeful and motivated. I am going out two to three times a week, which is definitely more than I have historically gone out. My bottom line goal is once a week. Keep in mind my travel time is anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours per round trip. Parking varies from $5.00 to $20.00. I actually do not mind the more hefty rate. It means something special is going on, so my chances of getting an interesting picture increase.
The other good news is that I can imagine a reason for this rough patch. I am using a new camera. I was hoping that I would make a super fast adjustment. I apparently have not. My new Ricoh is a fun camera for street photography but it is definitely different from my Olympus.
I am moving toward only using a fixed focus. Most often, I used the touch screen on the Olympus. The autofocus on the Ricoh is just not fast enough. I need to get really good in measuring metric distances. Two of my steps equal about 1 meter.
The interplay of ISO, shutter speed and aperture also varies a little between the two cameras. At least, it seems like it does. I am often not getting the proper exposure on the Ricoh. I certainly hope this is just a matter of practice.
What is most surprising is that it is a whole lot harder for me to be a stealth photographer with this tiny little camera. When you raise it, everybody knows why. I have fallen back on Vineet Vohra’s advice on being brave when you are lifting a camera to your eye. Just do it and keep going. I am not lifting the Ricoh to my eye. It has no viewfinder! The principle is the same. Raise it. Take the picture. Move on.
A lot of my pictures are experimental. I go back to known places to shoot and try again, which was the case for the picture above. It took three trips before I got it together. Generally, I am improving in getting the correct exposure. I also take a whole lot of just random street photos, mostly of people approaching me so that I can understand the vagaries of focus and exposure in the Ricoh. I guess that is Street Photography 101.
Admitting that I take random photos is not without some personal cost. I have had my share of photos rejected by one of the street photography groups because they are too random. Ouch. So it was with gratitude that a member of my Instagram community made this comment on one of my posts, “I continue to admire your head on shots.” Thank you, Helen Sampson on Instagram at @sampson_sees.
After I did a little victory dance, you know, to get those steps in each day, I created a new album in Photos on my iPad. I think it is fair to say that I like to slice and dice things more than most people, so I am at 30 albums and counting. The name of the new album pleased me, “Incoming”. As I collected photos to go into it, I realized that they were not especially random. They reflect my curiosity about the world. They reflect that I am drawn to people who are different from me. They can be examples of things that are compositional pleasing to me. They are sometimes a study of expression and body language, which I find endlessly fascinating.
I am pretty happy that I can go out to practice with the expectation that I might bring something home that will take its place in an album.