A fair number of photographers I have come across, both within professionals and hobbyists alike will stick to a single subject and rarely ever sway from it. Some do this because X type of Photography is their Profession (IE a Wedding Photographer) and they don't have Photography as a Hobby IE they don't take their work home with them, which is understandable.
Others however will be dedicated even as hobbyists to be proficient at taking photos of only one thing. Two examples I run into a lot is Train Photography and Automotive Photography.
I've seen plenty of photographers who will only take photos of cars or trains and absolutely nothing else. Internally I am going "Nice photos, but have you ever tried to take a photo of something else?".
One could argue that Nature Photographers can also put themselves into a niche, however I feel that Nature photography as a whole is a lot more diverse of a subject since there are billions of different animals and plants out there. Now a photographer that only took photos of one animal, say Bald Eagles I would lump into the same category as dedicated RailFan photographer however.
The big draw to Street Photography to me is that you never know what you are going to see or even focus on for a subject when you are out and about and I find this prospect the biggest draw. One day you may be focusing on candid portraits. The next day Architecture shots, then Signs, old cars you see in town, domestic pets or even urban wildlife such as pigeons fighting over a piece of bread.
I will dabble in doing more focused photography, for example if I go to a Car Show I will obviously take a lot of photos of cars. However as a mindset of a street photographer I won't solely focus on only the car details themselves or only taking photos of the car if no one is around.
Having a photo of an owner of a classic car showing off what is under the hood to a few curious onlookers is a great and amazing story piece. Sure, I may also take a photo when no one is around as well, but to me having a great story in a shot is great to have. That is where the mentality of a Street Photographer comes in.
Street Photography is all about focusing on capturing a photo that captures the essence or a story of the moment. Putting together a diverse range of subjects in a set also tells an overall story of your entire day. It's the same mindset used in Vacation Photography. If you take a week long vacation to Rome you aren't going to just take one photo of the Coliseum and then call it good.
Instead you are likely to take photos at any tourist destination you go to. All the artwork you see, food that you eat, photos of the family and friends you went on vacation with and maybe a photo or two of how insane the crowds or traffic was to document the trip.
Travel Photography and Street Photography share this common element, the difference is that Street Photography is something that doesn't need to be done on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to some exotic place far far away.
To me, Variety is the spice of life. I have taken photos at everything from Non-Profit fundraisers to photos of my dog playing in freshly fallen snow. I don't pass up any excuse to take photos and document my life and the world around me.
I have thousands of photos of my street photography on my Flickr; and most of them tell a story vs "Here is another static photo of the frontside of B&N's Engine 5474".
Don't get me wrong, I have seen some amazing Railroad photography pics. But I have always prefered that my "filler" content is of many different subjects and would quickly get bored of searching through 1000 photos of the exact same subject to find the one that really makes me go "wow".
Not every photo outing is going to be exciting, and not every photo is going to be an incredible shot you are going to say to yourself "Man this would look great as a print on my wall". Those moments are going to be few and far between.
However, I feel that the "filler" shots in-between these great pieces tell a story of themselves especially when they are diverse and put together. Nothing makes me smile more then going through a set after a day of street photography and picking out a set of photos to upload. Not one, not two but ten, twenty, or a hundred.
With that, I will leave you with a small sampling of some of my "filler" Street Photography taken over the last few years. Some of these shots are nice and well composed but nothing really dramatically amazing. Put them all together and you have one really cool story and look into what I've seen out and about.
To me it is really amazing that I can share these experiences in my life, even those that seem mundane to me with other people from all over the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment