January 27th, 2014 ….. Street Shooting with The Eye, Heart and Mind.

01-14-0498Regardless of how we think or even with what we try, we are polluted with the history of our very being. Don’t get me wrong….yeah you in the green jacket….be cool dude….the idea of personal history is a very cool concept if you know what it is and how to deal with it. When it comes to ex-wives, nah I can’t deal with it. When it comes to missing a camera I used many  years ago, I can kinda deal with it.

These are not the history we need to discover and work with on the streets. Say we are walking down Market Street….go on say it…..ok…..

Maybe I’ll just explain how I do things and then if you want to figure out your own stuff, ya might get an idea from this post. Ya might not but then it’s your issue, not mine.

I’m walking down Market Street and it’s kinda funky light. In one area about 20′ in front of me it’s shade….then 20′ more and we have that harsh winter sun, ya know the kind that doesn’t even add warmth. So the issue of light has to be resolved. Of course light is what makes the exposure reading from the meter in the camera tell us what to adjust to get the photo recorded in proper exposure. Well, technically that’s kinda what happens but not for real street shooters.

See, street shooters are very fast in seeing because every one that has ever been borne or that will be borne is working at a super higher rate of consciousness then the people walking the streets without a camera. See, it’s because they, the camera toting people known as street shooters are in touch with their Eye, Heart & Mind.

A couple of pointers here. I use Auto ISO because I shoot in Manual Mode. This means I set the shutter speed and the aperture that I want and I trust my camera to set the proper ISO. Why do I trust the camera to do this and to do it well. Because I test my camera and the way it thinks. You can change the way a camera works but you can’t change the way it thinks. 01-14-0509So what I am getting at is simply difficult. When we SEE something we want to make a photo of, at that point, there can be absolutely no intrusion from the camera. So we would get the camera at the ready and the exposure WE want is already set and the CAMERA will make the exposure work. If the photo works, it’s because we were in the EHM zone of photo awareness. If the photo doesn’t work, it’s because we were distracted by something and hopefully it’s not the camera.

01-14-0510Maybe for the casual shooter this stuff sounds boring and or to deep for what it is. For the serious shooter, especially on the streets….it’s just the beginning of understanding the journey and finding one’s way on the street.

I’ll do more tomorrow….. Make sure to grab a copy of the Inspired Eye Magazine….it’s a great issue.

 

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