I’m not entirely sure how we measure success, in any field of endeavour it’s tricky to absolutely define. I suppose it depends upon who you are and the situation you’re in that will ultimately decide. If we think about War, Politics or even Sport, it can be difficult to say who the winner is or was, being the winner can’t always be associated with success, it a grey area. In street photography it’s a very grey indeed, there’s no black and white (so to speak), though you’ll see plenty of that in this blog post. Good or Bad photos don’t enter into the equation of the street success formula, there’s no Right or Wrong, no correct answer, it’s personal.
Photography consists of many elements. Light, shadow, form, content, composition, cameras, lenses, exposure…for a large part it relates to creativity. What makes a successful street photograph or photographer? That’s anyones guess, but I know it’s not about gear. Can I be honest here? Of course I can, it’s my blog after all. I find discussions about cameras and lenses dull, mind numbingly boring and actually totally irrelevant to photography. That sounds ridiculous, cameras are an essential part of making a photograph, I know that much, but they’re really just a tool to create an image. If a novelist writes a book we don’t ask what make of pen they used. Get Microsoft Word and that’s all you need to become the next Bill Bryson or Terry Pratchett. Besides, I don’t know enough about gear to have a meaningful conversation in any case, I do appreciate that gear is fascinating to some and more power to them if that’s what they like. As long as we have a thorough knowledge of the settings, what they will produce and crucially we’re completely comfortable with our chosen tool then that’s all we need.
Exposure, composition, form and content, well, they just are and almost unimportant once you’re aware of them. After a while are subconscious takes over and we deal with them without too much thought. That’s a good thing otherwise we overthink it all. I get bogged down with worrying about content, it’s good to just let it go occasionally. With light and shadow we get what we get. We live in the moment, monitoring and watching for nuances and changes, but we can’t control ambient or natural light. The best we can hope for is to be prepared and act quickly.
So, the photos in the blog post were taken over two days. One session that was purely for me to get out after a long break from the streets. It lasted for around an hour and a half which seems to be about my limit over the last couple of years. The second was for 40 minutes whilst my youngest daughter was at the orthodontist having braces fitted to fix a minuscule overbite. She’s practically perfect in every way and so I sincerely don’t know what they’re talking about! Actually if we’re talking about success then she’s one of mine. All my children are in fact.
The other shot in the lift/elevator is from a completely different day and pretty much sums up all that I’ve been shooting since Christmas. There’s only so much of that I can take, I desperately needed to break free. Let’s get back to these two sessions of Street and you’ll be able to see that one day we had beautiful sunshine and the other was a much duller and drab affair.
It really didn’t make any difference to me. I’ve spoken before about how much I love the process above all else. I enjoy looking through the resulting images, but truly my happiest times are walking around, watching the people and clicking when I think I may have something. Sometimes they’re simple compositions, others are more complex. I like the challenge of spotting and framing the latter, I’m unsure as to whether the more complicated frames work better than the basic ones, but it sure is fascinating trying to find out and more interesting for the viewer. The first shot below is one of those busy, more complicated shots, you might need to look twice to see there are two “babies”. The outstretched arm causes my eyes to scan left, up and right covering most of the frame. The two below are simple, but definitely an improvement on photos of “just people walking along”.
For the most part I paced it out on these two sessions. Not hanging around if I could avoid it. Though clearly I stopped for the pigeon photos and the opening shot. I like the shadow of the tree and wanted someone in the frame. It really is an easy shot, but all the same enjoyable to make. I liked and noticed when I clicked that her eyes were shut. Here’s another two of the same scene. The first has a little green theme going on, the window, the coat and the bag handle.
I covered a lot of clichés on these sessions, a little formulaic possibly. There were pigeons, light and shadow, low perspective, cafe windows…not sure what that guy in the cap was reaching for, but the other two were fascinated. I clicked what I saw and I saw a lot. Did I feel that I’d succeeded?
The answer is an unequivocal yes. I did exactly what I set out to do and went home after those two sessions with a different feeling. Often I can’t help but think that I left something behind, I might have failed to get the most of what was available to me. Missing opportunities that had there been other photographers with me they would have said “There’s your shot John, to the right. Oh what a shame, you just missed it”. I’m confident that I got everything that was available to me during these sessions, by that I mean what my eye could see and my mind compute quickly enough. I’m not in any way advocating that the shots that I’ve shared with you are the pinnacle of Street Photography and therefore I am a success. No, far from it. I’m stating that for me it was a success and as we all know success breeds success, I hope that feeling repeats itself on my next outing. It was time to meet Amélie at the dentist, just as I approached the door I turned. On that dull and grey day a momentary blast of light as the sun made an extremely brief appearance. Blink and it was gone. I looked up to see a workman taking a break from his labour. If you’ve had a good day, a successful one, you might just decide to grab a coffee, slip on your headphones and sit on the pavement allowing a lamppost to take the strain. I nodded at him, felt sublimely happy and content, recognising that success comes in many forms, I released the shutter and made my way to collect one of my other successes.
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 made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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