In my continuing quest to develop my street photography skills I decided to venture out again with the sole purpose of catching people doing what they do. I tried my best to just take my time and have no real destination. I did have to catch myself a few times though as I started to pressure myself into finding a 'moment'. I am getting better and honing that in much more. So, with my Fuji X-Pro2 in hand I looked for interesting people within interesting compositions.
My education background is Graphic Design and I think that has always leant itself well to photography. Even when I'm not taking photos I am constantly looking the way things are framed or how, with a bit of movement, I can frame things better. I don't always follow the rules of thirds but I do try to create a place for the viewers eye to go.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 200 | F3.2 | 1/1600
I'm not always successful at this with my photography, but I'm always looking to become better. In a usual hour of shooting I could easily come away with well over 100 photos, but I may only really like 10 of them. Out of those 10, I probably only really love one - if I'm lucky.
So with this particular walk I wanted to focus on candids of people, from a bit of a distance. In another article or perhaps a gallery, I will show some 'street portraits' I captured which I can't wait to share. But for this specific post, I'm only going share candids. The benefit of photographing people from further away, is obvious. You don't have to interact with them. Sure, they might 'catch you' taking a photo of them, but I always either just smile, or play it off like I was shooting something else. Most of the time people don't really care.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 400 | F1.4 | 1/400
I have yet to get to the point where I'm getting those close up candid shots where people know you are photographing them. And to be honest, I don't know if I even want to do that. As of now, I find the street portraits, where I interact with people after I get their permission. That way I get to learn more about them. But, that's for another article.
For those gear heads out there, I mentioned I used my Fuji X-Pro2 which I paired with my favourite lens, the 35mm 1.4. This meant that I was able to be further away which was perfect for this style. Plus, the Xpro-2 is such a fun street camera. I used auto focus for all of these shots I believe and for almost every one, Some of the photos I waited for to happen, and others, I had to react pretty fast.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 250 | F4 | 1/250
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 400 | F2.5 | 1/800
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 400 | F4.5 | 1/300
As you can see from the above image, there are no people. It took a lot of restraint to not include some good still life photos but I did want to include this one main because I feel it had a human element. Just like the one below. You knew there was once a homeless person sitting there, but what happened to them.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 500 | F4 | 1/250
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 200 | F3.6 | 1/750
I'm not much of a selfie kind of guy, but when you see a huge convex mirror like that, you gotta lean in and take a photo. I'm sure I looked odd doing so, but who cares. I think it's every photographers' responsibility to do so.
This next photo was probably my most patient one. I saw the woman walking and I was hoping she would go into the parkade. She did! So I tried to time it where she was at least up a couple flights and viola. Wether or not it's actually an interesting photo is subjective, but I kind of liked it so there.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 200 | F3.6 | 1/750
The next photo of the sign I just took because I honestly just loved the sign. I'm sure I waited around longer, I could have worked the scene a bit more, but I kind of liked how the lady was walking off into the distance. I think she thought I was stalking here because I kept stopping and then I eventually passed her.
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 400 | F1.4 | 1/7500
Fuji X-Pro2 | 35mm | ISO 200 | F3.6 | 1/900
The last image is probably one of my favourites from the entire day, along with the photo at the top. I stood in that one spot looking around, and I saw they guy on his bike just down the side walk a bit. So I quickly focused on the side walk where he would eventually be and snapped the photo as came in front of the doors. I just took the one photo and that was it. Not to bad huh.
So there you have it. For anyone just starting out with this type of photography, just get out and explore and practice and experiment. Follow the rules, break them, who cares, in the end, create photos you truly like and learn in the process. It's 1:00am so I apologize for the deep thoughts here at the end. Good day.