Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]steve sed: >Along the way I was saying to Guy how I really envied Kyle and his ability >to interact with strangers, for example within 15 minutes of arriving in >Bucharest he was in a sewer shooting street kids (an exaggeration Kyle, but >you know what I mean), i feel compelled to point out that i don't have any innate ability to chat people up, it's an entirely learned/forced skill that i've only very recently dabbled with. i'm actually a dreadfully shy person (believe it or not) and walking up to strangers makes me wither. however. there are some times when you just have to grit your teeth and charge the cannon. (so to speak). the resulting photo will last for years and years, but the initial discomfort of walking up to someone and asking only lasts a few seconds. i learned this in a mary ellen mark class a couple of years back -- as you all know, that woman can talk anybody into letting her photograph them. she made me realize that, at least for certian styles of photography, being able to walk up to someone and fire up a conversation is 1000 times more important than the camera you're shooting with. especially if you're shooting in a new and unfamiliar place. meeting one person can provide you with an instant network of connections. i recommend reading "the vault guide to schmoozing" -- which is about $14 from amazon. it's basically a book about how to strike up conversations with strangers, largely written for business people, but it all carries over into photography. one great suggestion it gives is to always have a followup question. you start with "do you come here often" they say "yes" and unless you're prepared, the conversation dies there. so you ask "i've never heard of any of these beers before, do you know anything about them?" and your off. another key point that i learned from mary ellen is that with a few exceptions, everybody wants to be photographed. case in point. about five years ago, back in my wild days, i had purple hair about four feet long (http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/k&n.gif) and was in new york with linda and a couple of our more, um, dramatic looking friends (http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/can.gif). we were visiting the metropolitian museum of art and on the front steps these two people ran up to us and said "oh my god, we're from kansas, can we get our picture taken with you pretending that you know us?" because we were the punks on the subway that everybody was afraid of and you know what? it made our day. we were all tickled pink to be in photos with these two people from kansas. flip it around. what would you say if someone asked you? the key when asking someone if you can photograph them is to have a viable reason "can i take your picture" isn't necessarily the best opening line, "i'm doing a photo essay on this park and i'm wondering if it would be alright if i took your photograph" is better. (mary ellen says "never lie" but joan lupton says "oh, i lie all the time." it's a judgement call -- i stick with the truth myself.) better still if you have a couple of your images on your person. i recommend getting some postcards made from www.modernpostcard.com ($99 for 500) then you have something to hand out, people know what your work is like and they know you're not some random pervert. rather, you are a specific pervert with a post card. kc - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html