Street | Urban | Travel | Photography by Marcus Puschmann
Street Photography Quick Tip 19 – Shoot their backs
Here is the nineteenth edition of my Street Photography Quick Tips. Some short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets. Today’s post is about shooting the backs of your subjects
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I was very much looking forward to this, shooting with a 60 year old lens. My Dad gave me a vintage 90mm Leica Summicron F/2 for Christmas (thanks, Dad, for the awesome present). The beauty of the Leica M system is that you can attach any lens from the Leica (M)esssucher (=rangefinder) system introduced back in 1954 to modern Leica digital cameras with an M-Mount. And as I have acquired a (for digital camera standards also vintage) used Leica M (Type 240) about a year ago, the 90mm is a great addition to my small collection of Leica prime lenses.
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“Instant Inspiration” is my series for you 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.
Sunday late afternoon I took The Significant Other and her Mom on a walk on the Streets of Nuremberg to look at the christmas lights in the city. A perfect opportunity for some blue hour shooting.
Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (33) – Shoot in the Blue Hour”
It has been a while since my last episode of “Buy books not gear”. I firmly believe that, by reading good photography books, we can improve our own photography much more than by buying yet another new camera or lens. And with Christmas fast approaching, this post gives you a glimpse into a marvelous coffee table book about the photographic work of Linda McCartney, a life long avid photographer and first wife of Beatle Paul McCartney.
For the book introduction and a few of Linda’s photographs continue after the jump…
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It’s been literally weeks that I was downtown with a camera, but today The Significant Other an I visited the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, one of our last outings before Germany goes back into a 4 week Covid lockdown coming Monday. Nuremberg is already a hotspot with new cases spiking, so the city imposed mandatory mask wearing for everyone inside a public building or shop and out on the streets. After exiting the Museum, I used the opportunity for some street shooting around the entrance to the Way of Human Rights, one of my favorite photo locations in the city.
Continue reading “Rain and Rights”
“Instant Inspirations” is my series for you if you feel you suffer from “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried. Or at least not recently. Episode 33 is a Covid conform photographic activity and should inspire you to go out, properly socially distanced, and be creative. To find out what you can do with any camera that has manual controls, continue reading after the jump…
Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (33) – ICM in the woods”
I get asked a lot for advice on a low-budget entry level camera. I usually respond by asking for what kind of photography it is intended to be used. Because, frankly speaking, if people want to spend 300€ on a simple entry level camera for just some basic snapping of the usual holiday / people / travel photos, they should stay away and just use their smart phone. Because smart phones these days are also really good cameras, and one that you always carry with you….so the question is: Smartphone or entry level camera?
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Who would have seen that coming, the Oly fan-boy venturing out in neighbor’s garden. Even I myself never thought I might be exploring another camera system. But it has really happened. I bought a Fuji….
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Who would have thought that Covid has some positive side effects. And I’m not talking global effects, like blue skies without contrails, clean city air and coast lines that see sea life returning. To compensate reduced occupancy due to distancing requirements, the City of Nuremberg allowed restaurants in the Old Town to put tables out on the streets combined with blocking traffic and turning streets into pop-up pedestrian zones.
On the weekend, The Significant Other and I made use of it, enjoying a dinner together with friends in an excellent French Restaurant in a beautiful alley in the Old Town below the magnificent towers of St. Sebald Church.
I took this photograph of my beautiful wife with the Leica M and the Elmarit-M F/2.8 28mm. Image specs are 1/25 sec @ f/3.4 and ISO 3200. The Leica handles the ISO quite well, the only challenge was to manually focus the rangefinder to make sure her profile is sharp. Who says a 28mm isn’t suitable for portraits? There is nothing like the smooth rendering of the Leica lenses shot wide open.
Do you have similar positive side effects from Corona? Let me know in the comments!
Have a great Tuesday and stay safe!
Marcus
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Street Photography Quick Tip 18 – Layered Faces
In time for the weekend here is the eighteenth edition of my Street Photography Quick Tips. Some short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets. Today’s post is about adding interest to your street photography by shooting layered faces…
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“Instant Inspiration” is my series for you 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.
Covid-19 confines many of us to our homes. Travel is impossible, and in some places the lockdown rules even prohibit us to venture out with our cameras. But that is no reason to keep the camera locked away until the sanctions are lifted. With Episode 32 of my “Instant Inspirations” I want to motivate to use the camera at home, and to extensively shoot an object you love.
Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (32) – Shoot an object you love”
Shooting street photography with a Leica produces what I call “the rangefinder effect”. While people in the streets have a tendency to find it disturbing having a big ass DSLR pointed at their faces, their reaction is definitely quite different when they see the casually wandering photographer working the manual focus and the aperture ring of an almost anachronistic looking small black camera.
Obviously, shooting with other retro looking cameras like the Olympus PEN-F or the Fuji X100F is also much less intimidating than using a big DSLR with a huge lens attached. But those cams use autofocus and thus the process is often reduced to a simple point and shoot. The point and shoot approach would also work on a rangefinder using zone focusing (the systematic pre-focusing of a lens at specific distance and aperture to achieve a sharp image), but to get the hang of using a rangefinder I mostly take the time to set up the shots individually. Which, as totally unusual these days, draws curiosity and often a (probably pitiful) smile, the rangefinder effect. Especially when you are close to your subjects, what you have to be when you shoot street photography using a 35mm lens.
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around photography, be sure to check out my free Learning Center.
Wish you a great Monday!
Marcus
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Street Photography Quick Tip 2 – Another way to shoot inconspicuously
Street Photography Quick Tip 3 – Practice shooting “blind”