Journal — Tristan Parker Photography

So I have sort of covered this in a round about way in a couple of other posts. I will reference these at the appropriate points below. Im currently sitting at home as we start to enter the Winter months in Melbourne. As a photographer I search out light for my work. Granted we have high tech gear these days, and even with film of old, that allows shooting in very low light conditions. So, based on this, when is the best time to shoot on the street.

I would argue that any time is a good time to shoot on the street, but some times will prove a lot more challenging that others for various reasons.

The Masters and Street Photography: Not what you think

So there is a wealth of information out there on the classics of street photography, and what you can learn from their work. I thought I would take this tried and tested, well read blogging formula and perhaps have a look at some of the masters of photography in general, and what we can still learn from them from a street photography perspective. I have blogged on the rules of photography applied to the street, and I think that my aim with this initial blog will be to take some of those rules and contrast them with some work from some of the real greats of our art. Not just street greats, but landscape, studio, and fine art greats, surrealists... What can we as street photographers learn from them?

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change

I work in a big organistion and the other day one of the many newsletters went around... This one is issues by the guys in the design team. Its one of my favourite as far as the corporate messages are concerned.The design newsletter focuses on design from a business sense. Its the space that I work in professionally. The last page of the newsletter often contains a quote that they grab from somewhere, and is usually something that I dont really connect wwith. However, this month was a little different.

The quote for the month was:

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"

The Golden Hours and Street Photography

What is the golden hour? Its that first and last hour of light each day when the light is at its best. If you are a photographer you will know what I mean.

There is a glow in the light, and this will be reflected by your subjects.

How does this impact artists when they are working on the street?

There are other things that happen during these hours in the street that need to be take into account as well. For the golden hour of the morning there will likely be less people around, and the same could be true for the afternoon as well depending on where you are in the world. This does impact the street work, I for one would find this to be a positive at times. I have written a blog post on shooting street photography in crowds from my perspective, and its something that I find a challenge.

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The Rules of Photography Applied to the Street

As street photographers I think we all like to think that we are working in a medium that many of us would consider art. It may be that some people are doing it for different reasons. They could be only interested in documenting the area that they live in. It could be a social thing that they do with a group. It could be that they are a hipster and just like the look of carrying an old camera with them, and they feel that every now and then they should use the bloody thing... Who knows....But by in large, I think that a majority of the people out there are driven to document their world around them from an artistic perspective. They reference the great Cartier-Bresson, Winogrand, Erwitt, and Maier. These greats of the genre would likely not have considered themselves artists at the time that they were working, but they have grown to become considered greats in the art of photography.

My Photographic Inspiration - Dad

Where do you draw your inspiration for your photography from? If you cant answer this question clearly, then youre in trouble I tell you. It might not be a simple answer to convey to others, granted, but it is an answer that you should be eager to provide to anyone who would ask such a personal question.

I am lucky. I have a very personal source of both inspiration and knowledge for my photographic journey. My Dad... He isnt the single source, and I dont think that any artists would ever claim to have only one influence in their work, but he is an important one.

Is There a Direct Correlation Between Focal Length and Confidence in the Street?

There are a heap of posts on the net discussing what the optimal focal length is for street work. There is a mass of other discussion around the use of prime vs zoom lenses. I fall squarely on the Prime side of this fence due to the fact that you should be able to see what your lens sees, and this requires the use of a standard and fixed focal length to enable you to get used to how this will look when searching out images.

Faceless Project on Urban Picnic

So I was recently involved in a joint project with Rob Hill who is the Art Director of Urban Picnic Gallery and run the Urban Picnic Street Photography site. I had a great time working on this joint project, and I think that Rob would also say the same. Some of our thoughts on the process we undertook can be seen in the Q&A section of the Faceless series web post. This is a process that we are building on as an ongoing process where I will be acting as Editor for this section of the site. The aim of the group collaboration section of the site is to display the disparate methods, and end results that can be achieved when two photographers from very different cultures, and from different sides of the planet are brought together to work on the same project brief.