Do-Overs in Street Photography
The last time I shot street photography at any place other than the approximately 3 square blocks of Nashville’s entertainment district was in January of 2020. (Well, that is not totally true. I did take a short trip to NYC in September.) It is hard to believe that it was almost two years ago. The adjustment to “the same old, same old” type of shooting in a relatively confined area was a big one for me, but it was not necessarily an unpleasant change. I like the familiar and being able to see when I improve. When a shot was missed in Guatemala, for example, the chance was gone forever. When a shot is missed on Nashville’s Broadway, it gives me something of a goal to look forward to the next time I go out. Maybe I can get a better shot of the same thing.
It started with the Broadway regular in the photo above. I would see him almost every week last fall walking the streets all glammed up. His signature move was a flip using a building or a bus to act as a wall he could push off from. It did not appear that he was trying to raise money with this feat. He just seemed to like to please people.
I did not get the picture of him in mid flip that I wanted. It was a technically difficult picture for me to take. Week after week I worked through the issues of guessing where and when he would flip. There was a predictability to it. I was working on what shutter speed would be needed to completely stop the motion. The absolute biggest problem was how to separate him from the background. I do not usually use a wide-open aperture, but I finally figured out I was going to have to do that in this case. It seemed there would be unlimited time to take his picture, but when the new year came, he was gone. Just like that. I still harbor a little hope against hope that he will magically reappear. That would be a good day.
My goal was to get a certain kind of picture of this Broadway regular. Using an analogy from sailing explains a method to reach goals. Tack toward the solution. In the photo above some progress had been made. I had found him and gotten into the right place to take the picture. The timing was good. It would have been better if the shutter speed had been a bit faster, but it was good enough. He is just all mixed up with the background. I had a plan for the next time I saw him, but there was no next time.
I go back week after week for do-overs of places, also. This walk-by is an example. First of all, it was my friend, Youchun Yao who first noticed this wall. Youchun took Vineet Vohra’s virtual street photography workshop with me. He got a great picture of it when he visited Nashville. There were various challenges to getting this picture. Sometimes there were rental motor scooters in the scene. Honestly, they are the new black trash cans or white plastic shopping bags that are the bane of street photographers. A vendor selling guitar string jewelry often sets up shop there, so there is no opportunity on those days. I am happy enough with this picture, but I will stop each week, just to see who else might come along. Maybe it will be a better photo.
I keep returning to shoot certain kinds of activities. There are often skate boarders out and about. My shots of them as they speed by on the street have not been particularly successful. There has been no attempt to get them as they practiced their sport. But the opportunity finally came last week. The photography gods even smiled to give me separation of people in the background.
I also return to a site to improve exposure or composition. This previously posted photo above has been accepted into the December JCC gallery showing in Nashville. Believe me, it took multiple visits to settle on a good shooting angle, workable exposure settings and having the right people in the right place at the right time.
The photo on the left above is an example of the first cut of a scene that has promise. The window was an accidental find. A friend had called me while I was walking on Broadway. It was so loud that I had to duck into an alleyway which led to the discovery of the window. The photo on the right is the second try taken at a different time of day. Some of the interest of the window was lost, because if it was included, my reflection would have been in the image.
Last week while listening to a podcast, I discovered a new term that perhaps better describes my street photography strategy. I am relentlessly incremental. After 8 years of using intensive travel to take street photography, it is not clear if I will ever even travel again. But I do know there will be plenty of street photography to keep coming back to in Nashville.