I am delighted that the BBC have just used this image in their England Big Picture Series
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I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
John Gough Photography
by John Gough
I am delighted that the BBC have just used this image in their England Big Picture Series
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
by John Gough
Norfolk is a photography location with beautiful beaches, wonderful seascapes, the Norfolk Broads and seaside resorts. However, I headed for Great Yarmouth with street photography in mind.
I went there to add to my Square Nation portfolio. This is street photography in Great Yarmouth with my Sony a6300.
Usually, I stride about a location looking for scenes to photograph. However, I am learning that rather than walking about looking for opportunities, find a location, stop wait and let the opportunities come to you. This is street photography standing still. It is all about some planning in advance and exploring the space around you. Finding a location where the action is, and having enough confidence to stay put even though you may think it is kicking off somewhere else.
Being stationary does not draw attention like going up to a stranger and poking a camera in their face. The photograph above, I love because it is natural, and up close. I would normally never dare to invade space so intrusively. However, I sat on the pier at Great Yarmouth and tried to blend into the background. This is ambush photography. I have seen wildlife photographers do the same, but they sit in a hide on the banks of a watering hole in the Serengeti, waiting for a crocodile to lunge forward and grab a wildebeest. Street photography standing still is less dramatic but requires the same stealthy skills.
I was on a workshop with Matt Hart earlier in the summer. Matt was on a frenetic search moving quickly through the streets of London, and this approach worked well, we found some terrific situations. However, I wonder whether Martin Parr’s Last Resort included some street photography standing still because there is in his photography, that sense of our inclusion in the scene.
I am excited and off to try this technique again. Watch this space.
I buy my equipment from Wex because I have genuinely found that they offer great advice and customer service.
by John Gough
by John Gough
What is happening in the world of street photography?
I found a film on Amazon Prime called Everybody Street, which has street photographers from New York, including Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, Elliott Erwitt, Ricky Powell and Joel Mayerowitz, talking about how and why they take pictures.
I have since sourced the film on YouTube:
As I watched the film I jotted down some insights from these iconic photographers:
Why do some photographers go to the street and others go to the studio?
Learning to read your culture is a great fascination for photographers
Capture what might be of interest in the future. When its gone, you realise that you missed taking a picture of it
There are too many bad photographs, but the good ones illuminate and entertain and get some sort of emotion, laugh or cry or something in between
Invisibility, a little camera makes you look like a sneak
Definition of public and private is smashed, so objecting to having a camera in your face is obsolete
You make the picture in the moment, turn left you have a picture, turn right and you don’t get one
Rendering the human condition, sharing the world as it is, recording life my way
More and more I want to take pictures, because I have less and less time left
Photography is about description, that is what a camera does. However as human beings we learn to understand minute little exchanges. It is down to us believing that this slice of a moment will present its self. There are a lot of people that don’t believe that the world is going to present itself in that way, so they don’t see it because they don’t look for it.
If you have a spare hour and a half and you love street photography you will love this film.
I recently saw Damien Demolder talk about street photography
Damien is an interesting speaker. He was editor of Amateur Photographer for around fifteen years. He is now a journalist, photographer, reviewer of kit and a judge on some big photography competitions. I recently saw him speak about his photography. Street photography he defines as people and architecture. His work is here
This was just some of the learning I took away.
Photography and especially street photography is showing ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
Light is important. Our subject is light. Wait for light.
Photographers are more observant than other people. Look for that decisive moment.
Shoot with a standard lens. Need to be involved with the subject not standing far away
Holding a viewfinder to your head cuts you off from the world. 98% of pictures are taken from head height. If you have a flip up the screen then shoot from the hip. It is a different view and you can see the picture coming next.
Hold your camera in front of you. Use the screen. You look like an idiot but not like a photographer.
Here is Damien talking about street portraiture:
by John Gough
I went along to the 2017 Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition at Printspace in London this week. The exhibition is organised by the RPS Documentary Group. It was a bit thin to be honest, probably twenty five images, thirty at most. However, it was interesting to see how photographers had tackled a documentary subject in just five pictures.
Particularly impressive was the winner David Fletcher who’s photographs follows Ann, a New Forest commoner, and her purchase of eight calves in December. After a few weeks the calves began to fall ill and despite her efforts, and expense of the vet, only two calves survived the winter. The photographs were very moving, in just five images you sympathised with her plight and felt in there with her. See here.
The Documentary Photographer of the Year exhibition was at Printspace in Hoxton London. So it was an opportunity to walk through the east end of London, down through the City to Blackfriars to catch the train home. The image above is just one of two keepers, from the 200+ shots taken on the trip with my Canon 6D. Still that 1% rule. If I take 100 pictures I am lucky to get one that is worth sharing.
Last night I listened to a talk by Tom Way a truly amazing wildlife photographer. His pictures were fabulous, because in my opinion he was not a naturalist taking pictures, but a photographer taking pictures of nature. He advocated putting your photographs away for two months and coming back to them to critique them. He put critiquing your own work as the number one photography skill. He looks for just twelve images a year! If I did that however I would probably be down to just 0.01%.
( Tom Way sells his work as fine art prints. This is just a note to myself about the paper and frame he uses)
by John Gough
Ever wondered how to take photography portraits of strangers in the street? You could be furtive and point a long lens in their direction, or you could be cheeky and like Dougie Wallace point a camera in their face and quickly walk on. It is one of the dilemmas of street photography.
I have to admit to discretely taking this picture, by pointing my camera to the left as I sat on the next bench. By the look on his face, I think he guessed that there is something going on!
The other alternative is to be like street photographer Kevin Gilper. This is a man who is on a mission, to take one thousand portraits a year. He calmly walks up to his victim and asks politely, “Excuse me, may I take a picture of you for my portfolio?”. A few say no but the majority say yes.
Kevin is not out to make money, he just feels that everyone deserves a good picture of themselves. He share his pictures on Instagram (@kgilper).
by John Gough
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.