Finally, some ‘quality street time’. I was going to title this post “Quality Street”, but there are problems with that. Firstly it might suggest that I’m showing off and if you’re a regular reader you’ll know that my opinion of the street photography I produce is pretty low, therefore quality street would be the antithesis of the general feeling. Secondly “Quality Street” is the name of a tin of sweets/candy in the U.K. and I don’t want people stumbling upon this blog expecting to find confectionary or anything remotely sweet.
I speak of quality street time because I’ve had the opportunity to get out in the past week. I might be waxing lyrical here, but it’s quite a beautiful feeling. To be where you want to be, to have your camera with you, no particular time constraint or restraint. Totally in the zone, releasing the shutter at whatever catches your eye. Those who seek ‘Mindfulness’ should pick up a camera and walk the streets.
Three short trips on the motorbike then, I set out for Bristol, Bath and Bradford on Avon…
Okay, Bradford on Avon was always going to be quiet and it was. It’s a small town ten minutes from my home and we need to put Street Photography to one side for a moment. I spoke to a guy crossing the bridge and as he pointed out, you can’t point a camera anywhere here without taking a good shot. Admittedly that may not be true for Street, or my efforts come to think of it. He is correct aesthetically speaking, it’s as though they laid out the town with photographers in mind.
My problem is that I see it all too often, therefore I just lift the camera and click, rather blasé to my surroundings. That said I do enjoy soaking up the scenery which is why I went there, a short break for twenty minutes. I’m sure a landscape photographer would be able to capture some fabulous images. Don’t panic, we’re going to Bristol and Bath after these couple of shots.
Right then, back to reality. Bath was and still is a ghost town, that Covid-19 is a total bastard. We’re not getting into any virus talk on this post, I think we’re all sick of it, figuratively speaking of course! My default position lately is to think of bigger things, like the universe for example. They’re still unsure why or how after the big bang the universe expanded, likewise they have not a clue as to when it may suddenly and violently rip apart. Now, if you’re a control freak or worried about anything give that some thought for a second. As my wife constantly says “worrying never solves anything”. What was I saying? Oh yes, Street Photography. A few blog posts ago we discussed that I would leave Bath alone for a while and concentrate on Bristol. I tried it again, just to make absolutely certain. Sadly it was confirmed to be a hopeless case, not quite terminal, but seriously ill. Please don’t misunderstand me, I enjoyed every second, but there literally appears to be nothing happening in the city.
That shot is about as busy as it got, well, that couple in the background certainly were. I hate to break it to them, but eventually they’ll end up like our couple in the foreground! I’m fairly sure that I could sit or stand around and people would eventually cross my path or viewfinder. I’m all for waiting for the shot, working the scene. However I also need to move around, walk, encounter some different scenery. Often have a chat with random people I meet.
I was a little unhappy with the results from my Bath trip, nothing that bad, but also something missing. I resorted to snapping easy shots, Light and Shadow, people walking by, essentially so that I’d have something to show for the time spent there. Actually it wasn’t very long at all, under an hour. I really don’t want to go back to the kind of Street Photography that is all Form and little Content. I know these shots have an impact, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, but they’re short lived in the memory of anyone that views them. Just my opinion.
Take that first shot above of the lady walking through the light. There’s no story at all. I quite like it, but that’s as far as it goes. I like the guys cap above too, but that’s all. I need more and that may not prove popular, but I’m not concerned with that. I wasn’t getting anywhere near what I was after photographically speaking in Bath and it felt as though a lot more time would need to be invested for me to find it. A few more from Bath (there’s a selfie in the bus shot) and we’ll move on to Bristol, my new best friend.
Compared with Bath then Bristol is the land of opportunity. It’s all there, it’s happening, it’s vibrant and as I said before my go to place for Street Photography at least for the foreseeable future. Every time I go to Bristol it’s a success in my eyes. I’m not producing ‘popular’ work, I am getting what I’m looking for with Street Photography though, at least let’s say I’m getting closer. The initial three shots of this blog were from Bristol. I’ll repeat them in the grid below to save you scrolling back:
Bristol is a much larger city than Bath. We know that people are what we need for Street Photography and a lot of them. Bath is reliant on tourism and office workers for the kind of numbers we want, coronavirus has ended it from a Street point of view. I spoke to a security guy at the Roman Baths, he told me that almost 1.5 million visitors visit annually. Peak holiday time, which is when I spoke to him, they’re getting over 8,000 per day viewing the Roman Baths and that has dropped to 600, keeping in mind that all the shops and facilities are now open. Bath has a population of just under 90,000, with getting towards 200,000 if we include the surrounding areas, whilst Bristol has 460,000 or 725,000 counting the wider districts. So, there are a lot more souls to see and a varied mix of them too.
We’re all creatures of habit. I park my motorbike in the same spot and walk familiar streets. You will have seen similar shots to those above from me before. Those advertisements always catch my eye as I stroll past. I wanted some layers, which is possible at this spot, however that queue you see is for Primark and makes it more tricky. Usually, in normal times, there isn’t a queue snaking around the building. I can stand there for a while and wait my moment. As you can see from that first shot my presence is noticed and it quickly feels a little awkward to hang around so I didn’t. Primark by the way is one of the few businesses that has taken very little assistance from the U.K. Government, paid it’s rents and is remarkably successful upon re-opening. If you listen to the ‘experts’ then the ‘High Street’ is dead, everything is online and any shop that fails to incorporate the internet in their business model is doomed. That was said before Covid-19. All I can tell, and I haven’t delved too deeply into this, is that Primark doesn’t have any sort of online presence and their business appears to be booming post Lockdown #1, without the need of endless grants. I digress, again. So, I walk past Primark, around the back of their building and then down the steps (where I always try to catch something through the railings) to what is is known colloquially as ‘The Bear Pit” apparently because of it’s fearsome reputation. I wouldn’t say that was true any more, despite appearances it’s perfectly safe:
Essentially it’s a network of underpasses which run underneath a huge traffic roundabout above. Again I always take a shot as I walk through, unfortunately they always end up being one of those shadow/light at the end of the tunnel shots which are devoured by Social Media. That said, I still like the light and I continue to release the shutter, I’m not dismissing them totally:
I’ve now chosen the underpass I need which is leading towards Stokes Croft, an area of Bristol renowned for its Graffiti ‘Art’, Banksy (Mild, Mild, West) etc. I didn’t bother walking very far into Stokes Croft because at the exit from the subway is an area that constantly draws me to make some photos.
The strange thing is that I never quite get it right. I miss an opportunity, or my exposure has been set wrongly or the focus is slightly out. These are the joys, or not, of manually setting everything on your camera. Stranger still is that the more I don’t quite get it then the more I like the challenge, the greater that challenge becomes the further it drives me to keep shooting. I suppose really I’m speaking about Street Photography as a whole and not just this particular small area of Bristol. Sometimes I think perhaps I’m subconsciously doing it on purpose, as though I want to slightly fail and thus enabling this obsession to continue indefinitely. I headed back towards where my motorbike was parked, looking mostly at the colours.
I’m all for black and white photography, but sometimes I like to freshen myself up with some colour shots. In those first three shots you will see one with some layers taken at a bus stop. Always a good spot for some Street Photography, but again the natives become restless if you loiter too long. I once tried pretending to be waiting for a bus. It felt wrong somehow, like I was cheating the people around me. So now I briefly stop, grab some photos and continue on my way. In the case of the following shot you might be able to notice it was next in the sequence from image 3 in the grid that began the Bristol section of this post. I’m shooting as I walk by and unintentionally get a selfie, I try to avoid that if possible because no one wants to see me in a photo, least not me. It can be annoying especially in the example below because I wanted that guy in the background in the part of the frame my ugly mug is occupying.
A few more from a bus stop, just to demonstrate that if you’re struggling to find anything on the Street it’s always an option.
Another bloody selfie. You can see a technique here though, camera preset for focus and exposure pointing sideways as I pretend not to look. Not much of a technique, but there you are, if you’re looking to learn then I suggest there are far better blogs than mine that will attempt to teach you. Personally, and this is why I could never be involved with a workshop or teaching, I’d say “Teach yourself, go for a walk with your camera. You’ll learn more from the mistakes, the crap shots, way more than you will from the good ones, that’ll be £500 please”. Now you can see why I’m not an educator or come to think of it very educated.
Further more, I might add, it’ll go wrong a lot. You’ll have so many more misses than hits. Often you’ll come home with nothing. Don’t be tempted to give up, we never ever do that with anything, especially not photography. Having said that I did get a little frustrated when I briefly stopped near to my parking space to get what I thought might be useful as a header for this blog. There’s some of that aforementioned graffiti, some pseudo construction workers sat upon a girder emblazoned with the words Welcome to Bristol. Plus there’s currently a construction site next to it. Perhaps a construction worker walking past and someone in the foreground for some layers. Well, that didn’t happen, what I got is one worker too far away to make any contribution, then a couple of girls walked by just afterwards which would have made a good shot with our construction guy in background. One of them fell over in front of me, or stumbled. Next along came a couple. So nothing and that often is the case with Street Photography. I post them here merely to document my experiences and as an example that it’s difficult to plan with Street. Here’s the shots:
I was in Bristol for about an hour and a half, I took plenty of images. I could post endless photos from that trip, not anything spectacular, but it was quality time spent on my Street Photography. Bristol is the new normal, the new Bath. I arrived at my bike and took three quick snaps. I rode home thinking about which area I’d concentrate on for my next visit and that’s the thing, it’s not restricting, Bristol has plenty of them, different districts that offer lots of opportunity.
I’ll leave it there and if you’re only interested in Street Photography then I wouldn’t bother with this final very quick part.
Of course in between these trips I’ve taken lots of photos of the children and my grandchildren. I don’t really want to write up another blog titled “Quality Family Time”. Essentially we’ve done the same things, not a lot to tell. Louis has become obsessed with Fortnite. I told him about some 15 year old who had won a million dollars in a Fortnite world cup. “Oh yeah” he said. “The other day I beat Ninja”. I looked unimpressed, obviously, until Amélie told me that “Ninja” has a zillion youtube subscribers and is one of the best players in the world, she said Louis had about 400 friend requests instantly after beating this gamer. He’s not allowed friend requests by the way, nor a youtube channel which he pleads for constantly. I don’t think any of this is any good for him…although a million dollars could be very useful! Anyway, no words, just some photos which I hope covers our recent activities before I sign off.
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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