This month’s Share Six theme is Street. Oooh, it’s a good one!
I have appreciated the art of Street Photography for as long as I have appreciated art itself. But since I have been able to call myself a photographer, Street Photography is not an art I have mastered. So I want to take this theme as a chance to encourage anyone reading this who is new to photography and/or new to street photography in particular to say this:
“Get Out and Explore”
You may think of Street Photography is an artsy black and white image of a busker on the subway or moving depiction of homeless man sleeping in a shop doorway. Yes, but Street Photography is that and more. Street Photography is capturing passing moments and freezing them in time. In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we all need to stop for a moment and look and you don’t need to be a photographer to do that!
Whatever and wherever your “street” is, you don’t have to label yourself as a “photographer” or an “artist”, you don’t have to shoot in manual or even own a fancy dSLR, to open your eyes to your surroundings and give street photography a try. The images I’m sharing with you today are from 2014. I had an entry level dSLR and I was only just learning how to use it properly. I was a tourist in Italy, documenting our trip. I was just starting out.
You too can capture images like this, simply by getting out of your house and allowing yourself time to explore. Whether it is somewhere you’ve never been or somewhere you go all the time, whether you’re taking a break and being a tourist, take these simple ideas to view it in a new way:
#1 Soak it in: how does the place make you feel? If you were a tourist, what would you see? What would stand out as different to anywhere else?
#2 Observe: watch the flow and movement of people, of traffic, of birds or flowers in the breeze. How do they enter your view, how do they move across the frame?
#3 Position yourself: think about angles and architectural leading lines, textures and framing, light and shade.
#4 Include people: don’t wait for a gap in the crowds. People give you a frame of reference. They give an image life and scale and perspective. They tell their own story.
#5 Details: if you struggle to narrow down you vision, focus on finding a particular colour or type of texture. A colour story is a wonderful way to get started and explore.
I hope these little tips help you in some small way!
Please click HERE to see how the talented Tori of Roots & Twigs Photography interpreted this month’s theme.
Join us for this month’s theme by posting your {street} images on our Facebook page at Share Six and to our Instagram gallery, by tagging #sharesix and #sharesix_street. A new theme will be posted on 6th June.
