Intended to spend the day walking Toronto’s financial district… but Toronto’s subway stations are so much fun to explore, I never made it past Dupont Station. All shot with the Q3 43:
Image of Paul's Cathedral reflected in the glass of an interior stairwell and elevator shaft of a large shopping building in London. I liked the light and the juxtaposition of a super modern structure mixed with the historical architecture of the cathedral.
As I haven’t done any street photography for a long time, I was thinking how most people’s work in this genre, including my own, often fails because there is no engagement with the subject — and sometimes when there is engagement it’s that of the subject showing annoyance at being photographed. In this case, I didn’t have any visual interaction with the driver of the motor scooter, who’s about to turn left and is looking behind me to see whether any vehicles are approaching. My feeling is that the engagement in this image is of a different type: the interaction of the bright machine, the posters at the right of the frame, in two perpendicular planes, with driver. Maybe that’s enough, but I’ll see how I feel about this in a month or so.
Leica M10 | DR Summicron 50 | ISO 200 | f/4.0 | 1/500 sec Chiang Mai
I think the colors in the image work really well together… the soft pink, yellow, and blue colors blend nicely. I think where you’re feeling a bit unsure about the image overall is in the composition… it’s tough with street photography to get a composition that’s visually interesting… which is what, I think, often makes a good image into a great one, and involves a good bit of luck in terms of being in the right place at the right time.
As for getting the subject to engage, many street photographers try at all costs to avoid disturbing the scene, instead focusing on documenting, rather than creating or participating.
I remember watching a video by Jay Maisel, a famous NYC street photographer, and he talked ad nauseam about the importance of gesture… I think gesture is primarily what draws a viewer into the scene, without the photographer needing to be a part of the action.
A gesture can be a look someone’s giving someone else, a turn of the head, or the angle of someone’s arm… it can even be the shape of a tree branch or some other inanimate object. I try (and mostly fail) to capture some sort of gesture in as many of my images as I can… because I think that’s what gives a photograph life, and what elevates a street photograph from a snapshot to something else.
Best regards,
Ben
Mitch Alland wrote:
As I haven’t done any street photography for a long time, I was thinking how most people’s work in this genre, including my own, often fails because there is no engagement with the subject — and sometimes when there is engagement it’s that of the subject showing annoyance at being photographed. In this case, I didn’t have any visual interaction with the driver of the motor scooter, who’s about to turn left and is looking behind me to see whether any vehicles are approaching. My feeling is that the engagement in this image is of a different type: the interaction of the bright machine, the posters at the right of the frame, in two perpendicular planes, with driver. Maybe that’s enough, but I’ll see how I feel about this in a month or so.
