I find street photography to be very therapeutic; A chance to flex my photographic muscles and release my creative juices without the strain of an expected outcome. I can hit the streets for a couple hours fire my shutter four times and still come away happy and energized.
Street shooting, for me, begins with a prime lens. Most often my favorite, a Rokinon 85mm 1.4 manual focus lens. Though the lens is manual focus only, a point many find limiting, the optics are so sharp and the background blur so beautiful it remains the de facto. With that lens, my camera color options set to black and white, and my contrast turned up I set out.
Most of the time I’ll shoot with my aperture wide open decreasing my field of view and adding that 3D look to the image. Often times I’ll focus on an image by feel keeping the camera at waist level and adjusting the focus ring as appropriate to avoid detection by those around me.
Here is a shot I took at Pike’s place market during a stereotypical rainy day in Seattle.
This image was taken through my car window as I was stopped at a light. The man in the photo seemed lost in another world as he crossed the street, smoking a cigarette, without a hat or umbrella to shield his head from the pouring rain.
Jesse White
Wedding and Portrait photographer for Captus Photography
No comments:
Post a Comment