It’s been said that I make strange photos. To me they aren’t as strange as they may be to you. I think the jury is out on this.
I’m walking around the streets that I am very familiar with and then something attracts me and I see something that triggers my thoughts and feelings. If this doesn’t happen, I don’t make the photo. I guess that’s why I have always been a light shooter. That means that I don’t make many photos in a day. I’m trying to SEE my photo and not just look for it. The upper right of this frame is a poster on the glass and I’ve been looking at it for 3 days. Today, I was walking to the Veterans fair at Municipal Services Plaza and I stopped dead in my tracks. I said, hey shooter, that poster is a block down the street, lets you and I go check it out and see if we can make it today. Well, I thought, who the hell are you anyway but it was a good idea. Si as I walked and got close to the poster all the sudden this woman sits down and I was shaking and then I saw this gy leaning against the wall and I was really getting excited. The woman was looking to the left for the bus and I raised the camera. I framed tight and then as if all things would be right in the universe, she turns to me and stares at my lens….click!
I have passed thru the center of City Hall countless times thru my life. I love the light under there and it always brings the feelings of going to the light or the hereafter. There’s just something about the light that grabs me. I like the photo. It’s not a real winner but it represents how and what I felt at the moment of exposure. For that reason, for me it works.
I’m going to be starting the One a Shoot thing again and Olivier and I are getting the Forum back up and running.
More tomorrow……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Don,
Do you run into many other street shooters in Philly? I’m in St. Louis and am consistently downtown (the only place in the city where you’ll find people) and have only met one other street shooter. I do see other photographers, but they’re the ones shooting engagement photos or senior photos. Just curious what it’s like there.
Steve, sometimes I do see other shooters on the streets. I don’t look for them and if I see one, I kinda shy away. It’s not that I’m unsociable, it’s that I’m working and my time is precious. At the National Historic Park, I see hundreds of tourist every day with cameras and I find them more interesting then my local fellow shooters.
I know what you mean. When I go to the St. Louis Arch the tourists are always fun to watch. The Arch is taller than people realize and they try to either get a photo of the whole thing or with a family member standing in front of it, which means people are typically laying on the ground to get the shot. And that makes a good shot for me.
Many think they need to be someplace else to find the photo. I get questioned alot because I work the same area for well, decades. So how could I not get bored? The thing with tourist is that they are ever changing and that means you have fresh material to work with. You know this and I know this but some of the others don’t.
Thanks, for reading and posting, don
I don’t think you make strange photos, in fact some of them are darn inspiring. I’ve been away from shooting lately but I still get the emails from you and the Inspired Eye. They’re like a reminder to me to get my ass back out there.
Robb, are you my new shrink, you should be… thanks.
don
Going out looking for photos has always been a problem for me. Often I just wind up dissatisfied because I didn’t see anything interesting. If I had just gone out and photographed things that interested me instead of looking for *something* I’d probably come back with more than I thought I would. Great post. Very insightful.
Tina, I suppose that’s about letting your photos find you instead of forcing a way to find them. You seem to have that down so your a Street Master. I dunno what that means but your the first one.