It’s been a while since we have posted anything and so I decided to clean the dust a little. Here’s a fun little nerdy photography story.
Have you ever attempted to take pictures of people while trying to have them in natural and candid situations, but instead every time you raise the camera all eyes are on you (usually making goofy faces)? Ever wonder how people get those nice natural portraits. Easy, don’t lift up the camera. It’s a technique called shooting from the hip. It’s a hard thing to master, shooting wothout looking. It’s not just luck getting good photos though. You must manually focus your camera and set the exposure. Walk around with the camera around your neck and rest the hand casually on the shutter button. It’s unintrusive and nobody is any the wiser. The trick is to make sure that your subjects are at the distance you focused to, that can be hard to estimate! It’s a good Idea to find a trick to estimate the distance. I know it’s strange, but the way I estimate is by focusing at about spitting distance and usually if I think I would be able to spit on my subject they’re in focus! On top of that it’s intertaining to think about. If your camera has a loud shutter (as mine does) you may be noticed, because people will hear the camera fire and that sound catches peoples attention more than most other things. The old pros used to use certain models of cameras like the Leicas specifically because of thier almost silent shutters. So, keep moving or people will become aware. And then Practice practice practice and you’ll get it… after hundreds of bad shots. I went on a stroll the other day down by the river in Ft. Lauderdale and here are a couple of the ok shots I got. I’ve always been intimidated by shooting people, they are the trickiest subject as far as I’m concerned. However, people can be the most rewarding photos too so it’s worth it to get over the portrait gitters. Happy snapping!
I love the fact that the sign is in this image! It makes the photo. Look for juxtapositions, like this (healthy/sick). They make for great content and stories.
You can almost hear the conversation.
I love seeing people interact with each other and their environment, it shows you the people’s personalities when they are comfortable. Pointing cameras at them will just make everyone look like deer in headlights.
This is my favorite… yellow letters that say blu, blu shirt on a yellow guy. Enjoyin work! Wish it was true everyday.
Happy Trails,
Dennis
