There is no other way to start the photographic new year than with a new edition of my “Instant Inspirations”, something for you to try to overcome photographers block or if you simply want to give your photography a new angle. This eight episode might be tough on some of my readers, as it is about shooting Street Portraits. For a bit of how-to, more examples and links to previous episodes 1 through 7 continue reading after the jump…..
By popular demand here is the seventh episode of “Instant Inspiration”, something for you to try to overcome photographers block or if you simply want to give your photography a new angle. This epsiode is about using ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) for creative effects. For a bit of how-to, another photo and links to previous episodes 1 through 6 continue reading after the jump…..
What drives my Street Photography is my genuine interest in people and life. The desire to capture a genuine moment of everyday life and preserve it for the future. A snapshot of a fleeting moment of a person’s life that exists only in the very moment I press the shutter and will never repeat itself again. Physically maybe, because the old man I photographed here might actually always be sitting in this very church bench. But how he felt and what he thought in this exact moment was genuine to it.
What was he feeling, what was he thinking in this moment? This is not a photo that I look at and think it is a nice and photographically pleasing image. And then move on to the next. This is a photograph that whenever I look at it I ask myself the same questions over again. Why was he there? What was he feeling, thinking? Why was he alone? Was he sad? Was he tired? Was he just seeking a moment of contemplation and calmness in the buzz of a Saturday morning in the city?
This is why I love Street Photography. How many stories can an image tell?
It’s finally weekend again and time for another episode of my “Instant Inspirations”. As we approach Christmas these December weekends are usually filled with power shopping. But why not take your camera along and try something creative while your significant other is inside a shop? Also, if you suffer from “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried or at least not recently, try using storefront windows as a free and ready available prop. For a bit of how-to, a few more exemplary photos and links to episodes 1 through 5 of “Instant Inspirations” continue reading after the jump…..
Following up my last post “Rainy Streets” I’m presenting Episode 5 of my popular Instant Inspirations. Don’t use the dull and wet November weather as excuse to not go out shooting. On the contrary, this weather provides for great opportunities to bring new creativity to your photography – go out and shoot puddles! To find out how and see more examples, continue reading after the jump….
In a follow-up to my first post about “Studio Anywhere” I’m once again venturing far away from my usual posts around Street- and Travel Photography to try my luck at some portrait photography, this time using my daughter Sarah as my model. To see more of our “shooting” and learn how this studio-like portrait was taken on a 1m stretch of white wall inside our rented apartment’s bedroom continue reading after the jump.
Instant Inspiration (4) – Juxtaposition (you can find all past and future episodes in my free Learning Center) is about a photographic composition technique that for the casual shooter seems as complex as the word that describes it: Juxtaposition. With Juxtaposition you bring together two or more objects in a photograph that attract the viewer of the image either through their similarity or their contrast. In each case, the photograph works because these elements combine to a joint visual story that the image carries in addition to the visual weight of the individual objects.
To find out more about how you can bring Juxtaposition into your photography and for more visual examples continue reading “Instant Inspiration (4) – Juxtaposition” after the jump….
In time for the weekend here is episode 3 of my “Instant Inspirations”. Why not try to take an image that features silhouettes, if you look for something to overcome “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried or at least not recently? For a bit of how-to, a few more of my silhouette photos and links to episodes 1 and 2 of “Instant Inspirations” continue reading after the jump….. Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (3) – Silhouettes”→
After receiving so much positive feedback for the kickoff of my “Instant Inspiration”series (link to episode 1 at the end of this post) here is episode 2: Go out and shoot a motion blur image. These two photographs I took in the Munich subway with my Ricoh GR II. I used Shutter Priority to set a low shutter speed of 1/6 sec (top image) and 1/8 second (image below), both were shot at f/11 with ISO 1600. What also works in these images are the complimentary dominating colors blue-green and red-yellow. The photo above I shot out of the train window as it arrived at a station. For the image below I stood at a platform shooting the arriving train with a waiting commuter in front. So next time you want to do something against your photographers block go out and shoot a motion blur photo using slow shutter speeds. You are invited to show your results by posting a link in the comment section. Go out and have a blast!
It just happens once in a while, to me as probably to all of you as well. We don’t have the drive to go out shooting, we feel like our images look all the same, lack creativity. It’s called “Photographers Block”. What we shouldn’t do (and I’m very much guilty of this) is then to go out to buy new gear, a new camera, another lens, because we feel this motivates us and will take our photography to the next level. This trap, commonly called G.A.S.(Gear Acquisition Syndrome), will only help the camera manufactures make profit and won’t make us better photographers. Because most of us already own perfectly fine cameras.
Sometimes all it takes to get over “Photographers Block” is to look for a different view point, a fresh angle in our photography. When I suffer from”Photographers Block”I look through images from fellow bloggers or through my Instagram contacts to look for fresh ideas, inspirations. Photographs that “turn me on”, that have contents, perspectives that I find appealing, that I’d like to try myself. Not copying it, but using at as new fuel for my own creative variations.
For that reason I decided to start a new series on “Streets of Nuremberg”, where once every while I post an image where I think that might serve one or the other as inspiration to try something new, find a fresh angle to his or her photography and overcome “Photographers Block”. A sort of little “bump”towards new creativity. I call this “Instant Inspiration”. If you take up on this little inspirations I invite you to share the results in the comments, post a link to your image, as sharing ideas between us could be fun for everyone.
So the first “Instant Inspiration” is to shoot the streets from a very low angle. I took the image above with the PEN-F and the 25mm f/1.8 lens (a “nifty fifty” in full frame equivalent). The legs are those of my wife, I didn’t sneak up to a stranger ;-).
In a follow-up to my 
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