Blog category: Street-photography
Street-life in Mea Shearim (Jerusalem)
It is not the easiest thing to capture the street-life in the Mea Shearim (מאה שערים) neighborhood, I somehow managed it. The walls are plastered with Pashkevilin (announcements) by the Haredi Jews. The Pashkevilim are sometimes distributed anonymously; however, many are posted with rabbinic endorsements or the name of an activist group appended to the bottom. The medium is often used as an anonymous means of publicly attacking a person or group, and even those that bear the names of leading Rabbis can be fraudulent.
Capturing the paparazzi feeling
While visiting Ethiopia some fellow travelers joined me on a walk in the streets of Harar. Soon they found out that for me photography is serious and not just in for tourist snapshots. They asked about the camera I am using and what type of photo’s I produce. They looked how I make photo’s and became inspired. Soon they started to take also photos with their cameras and smartphones. When I saw something and made a photo they took same spot and tried to imitate my actions.
Making portraits became impossible for me, I asked for a photo and then they also took the same photo. I started to feel like in the zoo or being a guide that says “take a photo here, it is an amazing spot”. So I had to give up on portraits for that afternoon. I thought the only thing left was Street Photography.
When I waited for the right moment at a promising spot, the travelers where doing the same. With their behavior they more or less forced me to leave and continue to look for another subject.
In Street Photography I not very often make photos from people walking in front of me, it is just not interesting enough. This woman and the color combination was unique but the travelers still where with me. With some frustration I pressed the button.
The resulting photo visualizes the paparazzi feeling that accompanied me that afternoon. Maybe it was not the most productive afternoon but considering the constraints I made an interesting photo that captures that special feeling.
I know, there are organized photo-walks. I’m not sure if I am going to feel well during such an event but maybe someday I’l give it a try and challenge myself to come home with something unique.
How about you? Do you have any experience with photo-walks?
Street photography from Spain
See also the Decisive Moment gallery on this website.
A brief encounter
Dance tango with me
Late night Jazz session
A while ago… I was working on my pictures in the working room, the window is open… suddenly, some saxophone tones came from the street. At such a moment you have to decide quickly: I rushed down and took these portraits just in front of my apartment in France.
Déjà Vu – Cuba vs. Oman
Sometimes at places far away from home a DéJà Vu feeling shows up. I see a scene very similar to a photo I made at another place. I collected have several sets, today the first two images from Cuba and Oman.
Manual mode and DOF
A few days ago I posted a tip to motivate to use the manual mode. A comment in dutch, was that sometimes one want to play with DOF (Depth of Field). The video in the post post is staring with shutter speed then the f-stop. This method works very good street photography and allows to create a consistent look for series of images made in various directions.
Of course it also is possible to start with the f-stop, then shutter speed and if needed ISO, this might work for static subjects where image composition is important. I however think that the benefit of manual mode is not that high. For photos where DOF is important I prefer to work in automatic mode with aperture priority (A Mode) and then use exposure compensation to play with the light.
Conclusion from my side is that manual mode is perfect for street photography.
Manual mode
As promised in the comments on the previous post today another photo taken in manual mode. After some practice I now remember the things I had to do 30 years ago, maybe it is like riding a bicycle, if you try it again after years you instantly manage it.
