Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Rob, The theme is the magic! To just wander around aimlessly will take years of wandering before one starts to find images the likes of HCB and other "street photographers of the past." A nd quite frankly unless the wandering photographer has an "eye for the moment" he or she may never find anything exciting and yet have walked by a several wonderful photographic moments. The theme makes you look for one thing and to concentrate on a fixed subject. I still do this after all my years of plinking away and if I just go out to roam looking for "images on the street" I end up completely peed off because there wasn't anything around. The truth is, if you don't have a theme you don't concentrate, nor do you find anything, well OK rarely something that is truly magical. By the way, this rarely happens in your home town, no matter where that is in the world do you find something right away . A home town is the worst place to have to shoot, you've seen it, been there a dozen times, everything looks the same and it all becomes bbbbbbbboooooorrrrrrriiiiiingggg! You pack up and go home with either junk on film or pissed off! Or worse, usually both! :-( A theme or a "self project" should be a part of every photographer's life, pro or amateur, as this creates a personal challenge to do something for yourself and not because some editor hired you to shoot some dumb ass thing. ted Robert Appleby wrote: > >>>> > Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 09:32:42 -0700 > From: Tristan Tom <tt@tristan.net> > Subject: [Leica] How to get comfortable with my Leica? > Message-ID: <p05010403b639bbb0aea9@[10.5.13.32]> > References: > > I am still trying to figure out how to get comfortable with > using/carrying my new M6 TTL. On several occasions, in an effort to > do more street photography, I have carried it along on outings with > friends, only to discover that during the course of the day, I did > not even take the camera out of the camera bag. Either I didn't feel > I saw any photo opportunities, or I felt like I would be too > conspicuous with a nice expensive camera on the streets. > > I'm not really at the point of being comfortable been seen taking > pictures. I guess I'm shy and even afraid to take pictures of people > in the street... > - -- > > T r i s t a n T o m - <http://tristan.net/> > <<<<< > > Tristan, maybe the problem is not so much the camera as what you want to be > doing with it. I say this because I think this "street photography" thing > is vastly over-rated. But even so, the impotant thing, IMO, is to have a > photographic project or subject you're working on. Then it takes over. > > I used to wander about looking for things to take pictures of and soon > found that it was a futile endeavour. Now I only ever take pictures as part > of a project of some kind I'm interested in. I don't believe - in my case, > anyway, other people may well be different - that pictures just pop up in > front of you, I think you have to have a powerful interest that motivates > you to look at or for a particular kind of thing. Even Friedlander, for > instance, one of the kings of street photography, was always working on a > particular theme, such as his own shadow, car mirror reflections, etc. > > One advantage of this is that when people ask you why you're photographig > them doing somthing, you can say, well I'm really interested in > photographing half-empty beer glasses, which is what I was snapping in this > case, or whatever your theme might be. Then they'll just think you're a > loony rather than a threat. But in any case, you'll have a reason to be > taking the picture. > > Just a thought. > > Rob.