What do YOU look for when "Street" shooting?

[melissa_eiselein]

<i>"I cannot tell you how many times I thought I had a real winner of a shot as I pressed the shutter release only to print up my contact sheets and see my shot lost due to freshman mistakes like over/under exposure, camera shake ect."</i>

<p>Marc, you just described my last vacation! Photography is not my forte. But that's OK, really enjoy it regardless of the mediocrity of my pictures.

 

<p>Let me see if I can remember how to do this without going through the steps. Click on "Contribute answer" then type a short blurb...or I use the space key once if I have nothing to say with my upload. Then hit submit. That will take you to the "confirm" message page. DON'T confirm yet! Scroll down just a bit and you'll see a browse button. Hit the button and search for the file on your computer. Select the file and click "open". That will put the file source in the formerly empty box. Now, type in a short caption and hit confirm. Voila, an uploaded photo. Mine is of some little girls getting made up in a Mervyn's parking lot.<div></div>

[chris_waller]

I've just finished a set of pictures entitled, "Bags, Labels and Logos - Consumer Culture and Identity" - subtitle, "Tribal emblems and totems in the Age of Retail Therapy". I've been chasing around photographing people shopping and their armfuls of bags and clothes sporting 'top-end' labels such as French Connection, Calvin Klein etc. I'm fascinated by the way people can be persuaded to part with money for something just because it has a particular name attached.

 

I do photograph young girls - indeed my last two submissions for the National Portrait Gallery/Schweppes Prize included young girls. Mind you I'm very selective - I prefer to shoot pairs of girls in the 14/15 age range to try to capture that special and fleeting relationship that exists. My aim is not to impress them but to capture them at that moment, that all too brief moment which comes and goes like cherry blossom. This year I also photographed a young (15/16-ish) boy who was very good-looking (sort of longish blonde hair, West Coast/Australian surfer) who was dressed in this ankle-length black velvet coat and shredded jeans.

 

I'm just fascinated by people and fashions. I do look for the 'out-of-the-ordinary' - I'm trying to arrange a shoot with the local 'Goths' at a large Victorian cemetery, but organising teenagers can be a nightmare, you know, trying to get four of them to arrive at an agreed place at an agreed time, doesn't sit well in the teenage mind.

 

And then there's the general defensiveness which seems to have pervaded society. When I was in my teens being photographed was seen as a great caper - but then I grew up in the sixties seeing the work of such as Bailey, Snowdon, Lichfield, Donovan, McCullin and the other greats.

[chris_waller]

P.S. - Brad, love that picture! Who is that character?

[lex_jenkins]

I often look for shapes and forms in the arrangements of people in public places. Sometimes it's geometric and easily recognizable. Other times it's abstract but recognizable after some consideration. Sometimes it's a sort of tableau that seems apparent only to me and perhaps no one else.

[gary h sp]

Or, a mall rat's eye view.

[andy e]

I look for famous old people.

 

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2629167-lg.jpg"></center>

 

Oh, this is Studs Terkel.

[jrl]

I look for views, I look for stories. Sometimes I look to the street it's self. The archetecture. Sometimes, I get the charicters of a story when I develop that I haddn't seen through the view finder.

This shot was just a shot of the street, but looking at the people there is a story. The old guy in the mac seems like a visiter from the past next to the bright young things out in July shopping.

[sliu]

<img src="/bboard/image?bboard_upload_id=19171584">

<p>

I look for geometry.

[lee park]

Light, angles, people thrown into the mix...

[kris]

Mellisa, to your question if I waited for a woman with an umbrella to take the shot, the answer is no. I was walking and saw the woman with umbrella and the empty wet chairs and grab the shot without much thinking. If you look carefully, the focus is on the chairs rather than on the woman. Whether or not that's good for the photo is questionable.

[Uhooru]

I look for Starbucks<div></div>

[randy_skopar]

<<However, personally I prefer photos of pretty girls. If you are going to photograph people doing nothing they might as well be young, pretty and hopefully wearing low riders :)>>

 

Sam, you like it; you got it.<div></div>

[andrew_somerset1]

Hey Randy, did you shoot that with an 8x10 to give yourself some sort of false air of legitimacy?

 

Just wundrin.

[randy_skopar]

What makes you think she's underage?

[Spearhead]

Since you don't seem to be able to shoot people from the front, we'll probably never know.

[andrew_somerset1]

Well, as long as she's at least one day over 18, then I guess it's okay to treat her as a sexual object.

 

My bad.

[randy_skopar]

But, Jeff, if I post one of the shots from the front, someone will get on my case for invasion of privacy. You, perhaps! Besides, trust me, this lady looked best from the back. :-) And Andrew, yes, she was too old for the chicken hawks. A butt like that isn't built in a day.