Challenge Yourself
There must be something to it. Pat Kay, my favorite street photographer on uTube recommends it. Vineet Vohra encourages the practice. What practice am I talking about? Use narrow shooting parameters when you go out to take street photography.
When I am at an airport, I tend to look for light and geometry. I am shooting with narrower parameters, but less to challenge myself and more to help simplify an overwhelming experience.
On the first day of his NYC workshop, Vineet asked us what street photography meant to us. I am not absolutely certain I gave the most considered answer, but in the moment, I answered that street photography was finding universal moments. I like to both look at and take pictures of people who have expressions or gestures or who are in situations that cut across socioeconomic groups or even across cultures. Had I known what was coming, I would never have been that specific. My assignment the next day was to take pictures of universal moments.
The problem of working with narrow parameters like finding universal moments is that it is entirely possible for me to come back with nothing, except regret that I did not take the pictures that did present themselves. I do not find universal moments very often. This challenge was a recipe for disaster.
For sure, if I start getting tired in Nashville, I will start looking for gestures. They are plentiful, so I am guaranteed some success. I suspect that looking for gestures helps me find them.
The next workshop challenge for me was to take pictures head on. I have fallen into a habit of taking pictures from the side. Some of this has to do with taking pictures on Broadway. If you take them head on, you will very likely get bright light on one side or even a blown-out sky. A friend of mine, who is a truly excellent photographer in NYC, suggested that I stand on the outside of the city sidewalk and shoot inward. That works, but you sure take a lot of pictures that are not head on. I was able to take pictures when the challenge was to take them head on, but they were hardly great pictures.
This is a classic example of how I often do not shoot head on. In this particular case, I was working on getting a crowd in the picture, with some reasonable separation. I will continue to work on this because the Nashville entertainment district is typically one crowded place.
The last challenge I got was to take only horizontal pictures. It would have been much easier if I had been asked to take only vertical pictures, but of course, as a practical matter, I already was doing that. Vineet cryptically added that it was hard to take good vertical pictures. That went right over my head, but I do not doubt there will be an ah-ha moment when I understand what he is talking about. It is easier for me to understand what is going to be in the frame when I take vertical pictures, so I naturally prefer that. However, I can make that change.
Here are some of the street photography challenges that I have come across:
Shoot only one color or color harmony.
Limit yourself to a certain number of shots.
Require yourself to take a lot of images.
Shoot for a photography competition.
Shoot only scenes that have layers.
Recreate an old photo. This is how I learned to take pictures of both silhouettes and pictures that looked good in black and white with no mid-tones.
Shoot only in b&w if your normally shoot in color or in color if you normally shoot in b&w.
Choose a theme like shapes, shadows, or an emotion.
Practice a skill like finding diagonals.
In NYC I have used the narrow parameter of having a bicycle in the scene. Again, I am not so sure this is a challenge as much as a way to cope with a challenge.
If you are shooting most days, I think it makes sense to regularly challenge yourself with very narrow shooting parameters. If you are like me, and get out, at most, a couple of days a week, maybe you need to compromise. I will go out on a general street photography shoot with a specific challenge in mind. It actually helps me clear the clutter from my mind. I do tend to find what I am looking for, but I am open to any opportunity. Shooting time is too limited to do otherwise.
The value of shooting with narrow parameters is that it gives you practice in identifying and shooting one type of thing. It has the potential to make the identification and taking of those kinds of shots more automatic. Let’s take the example of shooting only scenes with strong diagonals. I believe if you do that once a week for a month, you will definitely get better at seeing and taking shots that are more dynamic because of the diagonals. Finding scenes with diagonals might even become second nature.
Now imagine if you chose a narrow parameter each month and practiced it once a week, or if you have a boot camp frame of mind, every day for a week during the month. I can imagine your skill set growing so much during the year that a “different photographer” would be showing up at the end of the year