Margaret Bourke-White ( June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and the first female permitted to work in combat zones) and the first female photographer for Henry Luce’s Life magazine, where her photograph appeared on the first cover. She died of Parkinson’s disease about eighteen years after she developed her first symptoms.
#01
Try to find geometry in everything. At the end, that is what makes the image.
The Holistic Photographer
Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times…I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. – Elliott Erwitt
Philip Jones Griffiths (b. 1936) is a Welsh-born photojournalist known for his coverage of the Vietnam war. Griffiths studied pharmacy but started as a freelance photographer in 1961, traveling to Algeria in 1962. He arrived in Vietnam in 1966, working for the Magnum agency.
Holistic Guide To Photography - We are collectors
One thing amateur photographer always asks himself is Have I improved? That’s hard question to ask yourself. One good thing about photography is that you can track your skill improvement through your photos. But how are you going to do that, when you always shoot everything, everywhere? OK, some technical progress can be seen, but what about the thought process that goes into every photograph? That kind a improvement doesn’t come in days or weeks like technical does. One lightning workshop and you’ll know how to set 2 strobes and get descent portrait light.
But for IDEAS and VISION there are no workshops. You’ll need to figure them out by yourself.
So how to practice ideas and vision? For starters I’ll suggest you find a theme. I’ve chosen Bicycles since they are everywhere. Interesting shapes, colors and textures. Match it with environment and you get amazing number of interesting combinations that will never let you down. After you find a theme, start COLLECTING! First you will shoot everything, cause everything will be interesting. As time passes by, you’ll find it harder to get something new and you will have to look for new ideas and approaches to get something new and exciting to satisfy your collectors need.
Important tip: Often as amateurs we can’t produce strong enough photos to stand on their own. It’s the truth. But if we can get couple of them on the same theme, they immediately make stronger impact to audience and have bigger value.
Positive thing about this approach is that it will develop you into a photographer that always want to try something different and will make your ideas more diverse in time.
Holistic Guide To Photography - Waiting game
Many street photographers talk about decisive moment and a lot of beginners (amateurs) think that a photographer is always in the right place at the right time … he is, but sometimes for hours.
It happens every now and then that you are walking casual, something magical happens and you get the shoot. In order for this to happen, you must have your senses tuned up, cause you need to predict the event. But you are not psychic are you? That’s the part where experience kicks in. Observing. After all, you are the director, the one that creates story.
Example: Took this shoot from a balcony. Was on it for hours. Shadows are directed by sun, so in order for this shoot to happen I needed right subject at the right time. But I knew what I wanted … it was only a matter of time. Vision is everything.
Example: You see an interesting wall, light falls beautifully on it, creating nice shades but something is missing. So a good idea is to wait for something to happen there, right? It’s a good practice. A man can walk by, couple … and sometimes you can get really beautiful stuff.
One important thing to know as a beginner is that you can’t always get back home with bunch of good shoots. Sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the right time or right place at the wrong time. And it should not bother you, it should push you more.
Photography is about time … years, decades.
But practice makes better. Go out and direct.
#17
Don’t just take photos standing up, from your eye level … get down, show us different points of view!
The Holistic Photographer
Harry Morey Callahan (October 22, 1912 – March 15, 1999) was an influential twentieth century American photographer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he began teaching himself photography in 1938. He formed a friendship with Todd Webb who was also destined to become a photographer. A talk given by Ansel Adams in 1941 inspired him to take his work seriously. In 1941, Callahan and Webb visited Rocky Mountain State Park but didn’t return with any photographs. In 1946 he was invited to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago by László Moholy-Nagy. He moved to Rhode Island in 1961 to establish a photography program at the Rhode Island School of Design, teaching there until his retirement in 1977.
Street portraits - Technique
Ok, so we figured out the approach thing. If we get the approval, we need to focus on subjects expression and how we want to portrait the subject.
In order to do that we must leave all the technical details behind us. We can’t worry about depth of field (aperture setting), shooting mode, white balance or stuff like that. Of course there are times when you need to adjust on the spot but I suggest to prepare everything, test exposure before approaching the subject. After that if some changes are need and subject is calm enough to wait, you can adjust.
Important tip: What I do first when I walk out, since I know I am going to shoot faces mostly in shade I set my camera to A, check if exposure is OK and then continue the walk. If light changes, I just check if I have enough shutter speed to get clear shoot and adjust the ISO to get what I want from shutter speed.
For me, the main thing for a succesful portrait besides obviously expression and interesting face is creating a good separation of subject from the background. One way, the easiest one is using shallow depth of field (aperture opening from 1.4 to 2.8 or more on telezooms) to separate face and leave blurry background.
If we don’t have large aperture openings we can use textured walls or clear walls and place subjects against them if they are willing to cooperate. That will give us clear separation.
Important tip: It’s not a big deal but sometimes it can ruin a shoot. Be careful when selecting background when you compose. Look for any lines, pools, trees behind subjects head and avoid intersection with their head.
In the next post I’ll tackle the light issue … most important thing in photography. From the amateur viewpoint of course.
Street portraits - Approach
Wanted to start with techniques first, since they are 50% of your street portrait, but will leave it for the next part.
Negative answer (amateurs biggest fear)
Wanted to get this out of the way first. It’s not a big deal. You can’t expect the everyone is in the mood of having their picture taken by a total stranger. Some don’t even like to be photographed. It’s a game of statistics, some people are up for it, other’s are not. It’s not the end of the world if you get couple of negative answers.
Self confidence (spread the positive energy)
You must be self confident and it must look as if you know what you are doing. I say this cause most people don’t want to be bothered by a guy who is clueless at first sight. Self confident look will give you 70% chances for a POSITIVE answer then looking clueless. Displaying your emotions is great too. Smile a lot, look excited that you’ve meet them and it will boost their felling’s as well.
The Talk
I usually approach them with smile and hello. Ask them where are they from, see if they are interested in talking … make sure they see that I have camera and I just ask them after couple of lines if I could take a photo of them.
Important tip: What if they asked you why do you shoot? For what or who? You can tell them that you are doing some kind of project that was gave to you by your photography teacher or something similar. This works most of the time, cause if they are good people as they mostly are they will want to help you out.
The first one is usually to break the ice. In most cases they open up, start talking about things. I ask questions, they ask questions and I shoot all the time. Sometimes I spend 30 minutes with them, enjoying the conversations and getting shoots you just can’t get when you talk to someone for 10-15 seconds.
Important tip: Sometimes they are indecisive and you need to tip the point to your side. That means that you need a little more persuasion with smile of course and they will agree. Couple of words from your mouth and you can get an awesome subject and great photo.
Many times we walk together and talk, of course I shoot :) You need to get them to open up. If seniors (that I mostly shoot) I ask them about their grandchildren and other happy times subjects … that’s when they truly shine.
Sometimes you meet a guy with sad story. He tries to look tough, but eventually will break and open up and there it is again … priceless emotion. Focus the eyes. They will tell you everything.
So, that’s it for the first part. Need to keep them as short as possible, will continue soon.
Percents in this article are purely fictional! :)
#36
I don’t know how I first started doing photos in my From Above album … they are mostly from the balcony where my mom lives. It’s a 5th floor and I know I was always amazed how people look from different perspective and decided to start taking photos of them. Sometimes I used shadows as counter weight, sometimes curves of sidewalk to separate the frame … most of the time it’s about shadows, not people.
Standing in the balcony, watching people for hours … for me it is a unique feeling.
The Holistic Photographer
#23
During my visit of village called Stari Račnik, near Jagodina I’ve meet this lovely old lady that welcomed us with a big smile and kind words. Living a life in villages is not a easy task these days … they are far from the city, need to relay on themselves for most of the stuff. It was never an easy life but now they’ve grown old and it’s getting tougher and tougher. Newer generations moved to the city, so I am always on a look out to capture photos like this … people and houses they grown in. Decades of country life embedded in their faces, cracks on the wall … textured doors & windows that tell so much …
The Holistic Photographer
Why do I shoot people?
As much as I love to present stories with my photos I love to hear stories from people I meet on my walks!
Having the ability to approach a total stranger, start a conversation and get to know them, even for a brief period of time … it’s priceless!
It’s a human relation thing. Lot’s of people think that interacting with your subjects will affect your photos and it does. They are right! But it affects them in such a positive way. You are able to give your subject that personal element that will get viewer closer to them … it will make viewer start asking so many questions about face on the photo.
When you talk to them, you can catch those tiny tells about how they feel about certain subject, what makes them happy or sad …
If you want to catch best smiles and emotions ask them about their family, grandchildren or anything that you think will make them shine. In the process they are starting to trust you and they open up.
I meet one guy sitting on the bench, smoking cigar and having a beer. He was looking tough and I was looking for a challenge. I said hello, took a seat next to him and started to make a small talk. My camera was in my hands so at one point my intention was obvious even if I wasn’t photographing. We talked for 10 minutes about everything and then I asked does he mind if I take some photos while he talks … he nodded and I started shooting.
You want to approach with best intentions in mind and get it off slowly so you don’t scare them or something. Yes, they are like those little birds … :)
It really depends from subject to subject. That’s why there is no solid plan on how to do it. It’s your inner radar that you need to follow.
Most of the time they want to collaborate with you. It’s the curiosity thing.
For me, it is the best thing that happened to my photography. To relate to other kinds of photography, talking to people and getting them to open up is like looking for the best Point Of View in landscape photography. It’s there, you just need to find it.
And it doesn’t have to do anything with your courage … it has to do with how you connect with people in your surroundings.
If you pass that barrier, you are in for an awesome ride.
One more thing. Don’t rush. You have time. Even if they stop for a brief period of time, you owe it to them to take the best possible shot.
Mihailo
#30
I don’t really know why I shoot bicycles. They always draw me to them. Circles, triangles … all the details. I prefer to shoot old ones. They seem to have some kind of soul built into them through many years of existence. The roads they traveled, things they have seen … who owns them? Do they have their favorite mechanic?
The Holistic (bicycle) Photographer
To crop or not to crop, the question is now?
Let me make it clear. If a crop will make your photo better in terms of effectiveness, you should do it!
I personally crop … a lot! Often they are small crops that allow me to position subjects more precise.
As with all things concerning photography, it’s better if you do it properly when taking a photo. What that means is that you need to try and frame as best as possible on the spot rather then relay on cropping in post processing. In reality that is often not the case.
Sometimes you have wide angle lens and you can’t get as close as you want to … so should you leave the frame original because you don’t want to crop? I don’t think my photo is what I see in viewfinder it is what I imagine in my head.
With today camera you don’t even see a full frame in your viewfinder so you can’t exactly frame 100%!
There are people who are for cropping and ones that are against it … it’s the same as with any other thing in photography … at the end it’s on you as a photographer to decide how you want to present your photos.
Mihailo
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