Earlier in the week I was able to able to walk around on my short lunch break during work. Knowing I was going to have a break, I made sure to bring my Fuji XT-1 and 35mm 1.4. It's a super small, yet powerful combo. So, I wolfed down my lunch so I had more time to actually spend outside taking photos. I decided to just stay in the area and walk the back alley and streets like I usually do. For some reason, I always find more interesting things in the back lanes.
So with my camera in hand I set out to see what I could find. Most of the time when I am just wandering around aimlessly, I look for colours or contrast first. Then I sort out the composition. As anyone who reads these blogs (assuming there are a few of you out there) ... I absolutely love focusing on the details and isolating certain objects. It's not all about just shallow depth of field though, as just like my wedding photography, I'm always on the lookout for moments too. A lot of the times, at least with my style of 'street photography', I am simply taking photos of still objects but once in a while I stumble across moments. Case in point, I noticed a very tired and lazy dog on the steps on one of the houses I was passing by. As I stopped, raised my camera, he looked up for a split second, and then rested his had back down.
There you have it. With a little motivation and a camera in hand, even your phone, anyone can take photos as long as you are willing to get out and walk around a bit. If you have trouble finding inspiration, pick a theme. Choose a colour to photograph, use a certain focal length or simply just try to capture 1 really good image. Happy shooting!
