iJourneys

John Gough Photography

Dougie Wallace Street Photographer

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I love the work of Dougie Wallace, here is a street photographer that works right on the edge.  This is a series of shots is from his project photographing stags and hens in Blackpool.

A rich seam he says is the kebab shop late at night.

This is from another project documenting the rich, in what he calls Harrodsburg.

Notice though how fast he moves, and how little time there is to get the shot.

I like his use of colour and flash.

Lastly a lot of us budding street photographers head to Shoreditch, the street art and the mix of people make it a great hunting ground.

However we don’t all get shots as good as these.


Respect.

Link to his web site.

What is Street Photography?

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Street Photography

I have always defined street photography as ‘taking pictures of strangers’, but I was interested how others defined it. These are my notes:

Street photography, also sometimes called candidphotography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Wikipedia

The definition of Street Photography is actually extremely vague. The most accepted “term” states that it is a conducted art that features unmediated and randomness in public places. Something like “serendipity,” so to speak. phototraces.com

‘the decisive moment’, ‘when form and content, vision and composition merged into a transcendent whole’, Cartier-Bresson 

‘When I’m photographing I see life. That’s what I deal with’ Garry Winogrand

‘To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them’. Elliott Erwitt

‘Seeing, looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life is all about’. Don McCullin

‘To me, street photography is just documenting human life. Period. Candid or with permission? I don’t care. Colour or black and white? It doesn’t matter. Street photography is about capturing the essence of humanity’. Imran Sahid

What is street photography? You don’t need a dictionary to define it. Study the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz, David Seymour (Chim), Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Brassai, Walker Evans, Elliott Erwitt, Mark Riboud, Garry Winogrand, Helen Levitt and Robert Frank, who are only a few of the masters of street, and you’ll have a much better appreciation for what street photography is than words can give you. The Luminous Landscape

This particular genre of fine photography is probably best explained as an opportunistic moment in which a photographer captures a candid public scene in front of him. …. – in order for a street photo to be genuine, it has to feature an unposed situation within a public place, regardless of where that place may be.  Openwallsgallery.com

Now I understand that ‘Street Photography’ is just ‘Photography’ in its simplest form, it is the medium itself, it is actually all the other forms of photography that need defining, landscape, fashion, portrait, reportage, art, advertising….these are all complicating additions to the medium of Photography, they are the areas that need to be defined, ring fenced and partitioned out of the medium of ‘Street Photography’. Nick Turpin

There is nothing more inspirational and satisfying that a day on the streets with your camera. The definition of Street Photography has many different interpretations depending on what photographer you speak to. Personally, I like to take the simple approach and don’t like to curtail my picture taking in any way. To me if I take a picture on the street or any urban environment then it is street photography; this will include urban landscape, candid shots of people, portraits and still life. Ronnie Cairns

A recent article in the Huffington Post was entitled, ’Street Photography Has No Clothes’. As the author clearly intended, it sparked a lot of controversy. In it, he decried the lumping together in one category, of the work of time-honoured masters with the ‘hundreds of thousands of dull, hackneyed candid images of random strangers by hopeless photographers.  olafwilloughby.com 

I met an old friend the other day who I had not seen for years. He asked what was I doing. I told him that I was into street photography.

‘Does that mean you are a nosy parker’, he replied.

I guess that about sums it up.

Five Tips for the LRPS

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The LRPS or Licentiate of The Royal Photographic Society is an internationally recognised photography qualification. The RPS has three levels of distinction: Licentiate, Associate and Fellow, and although the LRPS is the entry level qualification it is not easy to achieve and to quote the RPS, “requires images of a high standard of photographic execution”.

You will need to put ten images together, which are different and technically excellent. Different not necessarily in subject matter but in approach, showing different techniques e.g landscape, macro, movement, shallow depth of field etc.

When the ten images are ready, send or take them either as PDIs or prints to an assessment day, where they will be judged by a panel of top photographers. All the details are on the RPS site

Here are five top tips for success:

1 LRPS Advisory Day

Go to a LRPS Advisory Day where the ten images can be critiqued by the judges that actually do the assessments. It may be daunting to have your work discussed in front of an audience, but what is blindingly obvious to them, you may not have noticed or thought it important. Whether it be sharpness, blown highlights, lack of detail in shadows etc they will spot it. You will get good advice on whether your panel of images is ready for submission to be assessed, or what work you have to do to achieve that.

2 Technical Excellence is the LRPS Secret

The judges are not looking for beautiful outstanding photographs, they are looking for technically perfect images. Yes, the composition must be reasonable, and there should be no lamp posts growing out of people’s heads. Have a look at the LRPS distinction successes online for the level of technical competence required.

3 Print or PDI

I am told on good authority that more people pass with prints than with PDI’s (screen images). This is because the judging panel can view the images as a whole rather than individually. When the images are judged, the prints will usually be arranged in two rows of five prints. It is up to you to number your prints and provide a hanging plan showing how the prints are to be arranged.

4 Hanging Plan Tricks

Put your best images in the centre of the rows at positions 3 and 8. Then try to balance 2&4 and 7&9. At the end of the row the image should stop the eye and bring the gaze back to the panel of images. Judges maintain that the images hung together like this make up the 11th image. See my effort here. 

5 Your Favourite Pics

You may have a fantastic image of New York at night, but unless it is flawless technically try to resist the urge to include your favourite images in the panel. Try to avoid any technical issue, a picture of a bike shed that is in focus and processed correctly is going to tick the box better than a fuzzy but stunning shot of crocodiles attacking wildebeest on the Masai Mara. My advice is to setup a project to take technically supreme pictures. They must be interesting, show a varied approach and have no technical flaws. When you have twenty try to arrange into a hanging plan. If it looks right then it probably is right, and time to book that advisory day.

Where to Buy Your Equipment

I buy my equipment from Wex because of their exceptional customer service. I once returned a camera after 30 days, and the next day they called to return my money to my account. Their prices are always competitive and they offer good prices on the trade in of your used gear