One of the things I’ve been thinking about just lately is street portraits.
Don’t just ‘shoot, smile, and walk’. Instead, engage with your subjects. Directing them for shots.
For me, that takes bigger cojones than a simple snap-and-run.
I realise I go though phases, this appears to be the latest. And after reading an ebook by Eric Kim the other day, I realise I’m on a street portrait path right now. Kinda.
And I was out with my camera today (it’s been too long and I NEEDED to stretch my legs and flex my trigger finger). Wandering my local town. I find it uninspiring – because I live here and nothing’s new. But what better way to refine your eye?
And I’d tripped a few shots in town. Then wandered off out of town, laid a few panning shots of anti-ordinary motors on the bypass, and was heading back home when an opportunity arose.
Three kids walking towards me. Probably about 14 / 15 years old. And as we passed, one says “take a photo of me?” to which my knee-jerk response was “nope”.
I don’t shoot kids. If I had kids I’m pretty sure I’d be anti-some-rando-stranger photographing them in the street.
But maybe I should’ve made some portraits?
Aside: Funny thing is, I – literally – just realised where this hangup comes from. At least now I know the root cause, I can work on overcoming it – even funnier is it’s not rooted in photographing kids. Something completely different!
These kids were game to be shot. There was nothing sinister about it. Could’ve been a fun few moments, getting these kids to pose for street portraits…
“gimme your best moody look”
“now flip me the bird”
Because nobody needs “smile for the camera”.
An opportunity missed.
But also a new opportunity spawned for next time.
In the mean time, here’s a photo I made of a couple of peeps chillin’ in the local shopping centre.
See you on the streets.
Cheers, Phil.