What I Am Learning in My Virtual Workshop
I am taking my second street photography workshop, and let me tell you, the second time around is so much easier. I am sure it does not hurt that it is with the same teacher, Vineet Vohra. It is online, and I am super comfortable with an online community. There is an immediacy that engages me. I have to have 6-8 pictures ready to send in each week. Plus, Vineet gave each of us a personalized homework assignment this week, which is week two of four. I do not have a good track record on “street photography home schooling”. Some photographers purchase camera equipment. I sign up for photography courses. I never even get one fourth of the way through them. So, yes, I need the immediacy.
One of my photography friends asked me what I have learned in the last two weeks. Good question. Here is what I have learned so far. Please keep in mind that it is not necessarily what Vineet taught, but rather how I internalized it.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.
A snapshot.
I completely understand the Gestalt Principle of Figure to Ground. As photographers, we are working with two dimensional images. If your heroes, which Vineet calls the subjects, overlap other subjects, your viewer will not be able to see them in three dimensions. They will see them, instead, as a single, messy conglomeration. Then what you have is the dreaded snapshot instead of the photographic image. It does not matter how good the moment is. Now, I was inclined to give myself a bit of a “by” on this rule. Nashville’s Broadway is incredibly crowded. I am talking Times Square crowded, but maybe not Rockefeller Center at Christmas crowded. There are no “bys”, by the way. In the incredibly helpful discussions of the pictures submitted, Vineet would point out where the photographer could stand and get separation. I think I have got it! I may not succeed, but I have to try because I am not looking to take snapshots.
I got pretty good separation here, when I went out determined.
Get closer.
When I took Vineet’s in-person class, the majority of my photos were shot at the equivalent of an 80 mm Focal Length. This should give you an idea about how hard it is for me to get close. But from the first day of the class, I changed my ways. I now shoot at the equivalent of a 28 mm Focal Length. For 11 months I have practiced, week after week, to get close. I am always gauging, where do I stand to get my hero’s entire body in the frame? More often than not, I get what I am hoping to get. I have added a nuance when I am shooting fixed focus at chest height, to increase the odds even more. I click the shutter twice. If I am too early in the first click, I am usually about right in the second. It is kind of like insurance. If the second one does not have my subject in the frame properly, well, I still have the first one with the help of a crop.
This is the out of camera shot in the native aspect of 3x4. In this case I chiefly erred in the vertical. I think there are too much brick expanse in the frame at the bottom.
This is cropped to 4x5. Right now I crop most pictures to 4x5, but the goal is to stay in the native aspect.
This practice has helped me get close to the subjects that are walking toward me. But I still have a fundamental problem with getting close enough at all other times. For example, I cannot determine if I really want that guy on the edge of the composition to be in the frame or not. In fact, I am not even batting 50/50 on guessing what I want in the frame. If you had asked me which would be easier for me, simplifying the figure to ground relationship or getting close, I would surely have guessed getting close. But getting close means understanding what composition you ultimately want. I have my work cut out for me. I need to learn to take the picture I want in-camera. I have no plan, at this point, on how to achieve that. At least the problem has been identified. That is always the first step in finding a solution.
It is always good to expand your photography community.
Photo by Youchun Yao. Used with permission. You can see his gallery on Flickr at Youchun Yao.
I knew that, but I am reminded again with this virtual workshop. One of the workshop participants, Youchou Yao, who is from Washington D.C., has been visiting Nashville for the last two days. We met for a photo walk on Sunday. It went really well. For the first time it was easy for me to shoot with someone else. We got to talk shop over bottles of water at the Assembly Food Hall. Just look at this great picture he took.