Dance of Light and Shadows | Morning Street Photography
Good to see you all again! I'm starting to get back in the groove of doing street photography regularly and what I found that helps me the most is going out very early in the morning. Temperatures are extremely high here in this time of year. So for the experience to be enjoyable one has to leave the house with the rising sun or wait till the evening. I want to make it a regular practice again and for that I need discipline and hopefully some cool shots to boost the motivation.
Since I am an hour drive away from the city, it's hard to get there very early and catch the sunrise but I'll work towards it. So for this photoshoot the sun is relatively high in the sky and shadows a bit harsher than I prefer. The interplay of light and shadows in the morning is very interesting and emphasized.
Each corner has different light situation depending on how it breaks between the buildings. In fact the situation changes every minute. So I do a mix of "fishing" and "hunting". If you are not familiar, in street photography these terms refer to whether you are finding the spot and composition then waiting for the subject, or roaming around looking for interesting subjects.
Waiting too long at a certain spot - it might lead to missing out something else nearby that has more potential. Like I said, light changes so quickly so I have to hope for the good subjects to come by. Usually it's 5-15 minutes per spot where I try to work out different perspectives and compositions.
Sean Tucker recently made a great video about what makes a good street photograph which I completely agree with. Great image needs to have many different layers, it can't be one-dimensional. But those kind of images happen only few times in a year. The rest are visual stories, composition explorations etc. They are valuable as well as they move you towards something better.
Next time I'll talk about how I use light and shadows to create interesting compositions. Photos taken with Fuji X-Pro2 and 35mm F/2 lens.
I wonder how you take photographs and make it look so natural. It's like the people are completely themselves. Street photography looks so interesting. Looking forward to the post on light and shadows.
Yes, the photographer needs to become one with the environment, to completely blend in. That's when results are the best. :)
The lighting is perfect, and I can't wait for you to discuss how to set it up, maybe I can implement it when I have a camera later
Amazing shot
Glad you enjoyed it! Post about light coming soon. :)
Glad to hear