Tag: learningphotography

Street Photography Quick Tip (14)

Like my hair
Like my hair | Berlin | 2017

Street Photography Quick Tip 14 – Shoot upwards and tilted for more dynamic street portraits

After a race across the nightsky (our flight arrived a whopping 70 minutes ahead of schedule) I’m back in Europe at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and waiting to board the plane for the last leg of this trip back to Nuremberg.

But as we came in early, this gives me time for episode 14 of my popular Street Photography Quick Tips, my short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets.

Most people shoot their portraits from eye-level. And if you get the eyes sharp, have the subjects turn their heads slightly upwards and to the side, you should get great results. But if you want to get your street portraits a more eye catching touch, shoot from a lower angle, and you can even tilt your camera a bit to give your image even more dynamic.

Talk to your subjects, ask them an open question, like what they wanted to become when they were a child, or what would be the destination of their dream, vacation. When the start talking, they relax, which can give you the opportunity to take great candid shots.

Obviously, this tip applies not only to street portraits.

For more Street Photography Quick Tips and inspirations around photography in general check out my free Learning Center.

I wish you all a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Street Photography Quick Tip (12)

I conquered my fears

A Street Photographer’s Dialogue

Street Photography Quick Tip (5)

 

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Looking forward to the weekend

Thinking Out Loud
Thinking Out Loud | Berlin | 2017

It was a very intense week in the Pacific Northwest, that I amazingly managed to get through without any significant jet lag from Monday’s flight across the big ocean to Portland. Unfortunately, there was also no opportunity for any street shooting, as apart from a very nice dinner with a new colleague and his wife last night (if you ever read this, thanks for a very nice evening, Pauline & Tom) , I didn’t manage to sneak away into downtown of the Rose City with my camera. The glory of business travel ;-).

Right now I’m sitting at PDX airport ready to board my return flight via Amsterdam to Nuremberg, where I hope to arrive in time for a late breakfast Saturday morning. Then it’s a week and a half at home, before I head back to Portland for a short 3 day trip.

This street portrait was taken with my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 25mm F/1.8. Image specs are 1/80 sec @ f/2 and ISO 200.

I wish you all a great weekend, where I hope to catch up with all your comments and own blogposts!

Marcus

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From the Streets of Portland into the Cloud

Inflight Polar Lights

Around the World in 12 Days – Rose City Waterfront

Willamette Blue Hour a 

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The End of a Friend

End of a Friend
End of a Friend | Nuremberg | 2018

They grow to serve us for just two weeks. We select them with a lot of attention. We decorate them with a lot of love. They brighten up our lives for two weeks. Families gather around them on Christmas. And then we throw them away. Isn’t it a bit crazy?

While walking to a doctors appointment I saw a bunch of disposed Christmas trees laying at the side of the road, waiting for the city to collect them. I had the PEN-F with the Lensbaby with me, and took this shot with 1/100 sec, f/3.5 and ISO 320, focal length of the lens is 28mm.

The photo is out of camera, no postprocessing. Sure, you can create this effects artificially with Photoshop, but isn’t it more fun to get it right when pressing the shutter? Walking around with a Lensbaby forces you to see differently.

Have a great Saturday!

Marcus

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My first Lensbaby photograph

End of the Holidays

A window in the sky

Namibia Explored – Quiver Tree Forest

10

End of the Holidays

Moody Waters
Moody Waters | Luzern | 2016

All around, no flowers in bloom
Nor maple leaves in glare,
A solitary fisherman’s hut alone
On the twilight shore
Of this autumn eve.

Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241)

This morning I read this beautiful, almost nine hundred years old Japanese poem in the (most interesting) book “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers”. And somehow it reflects the mood of this day at the very end of our two week Christmas break. Tomorrow it is back to the job that pays the bills.

I took the photo on a gloomy day at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. I wanted to capture the motion of the dark, fast moving clouds, so I dialed in the lowest native ISO on my PEN-F, the narrowest aperture (f/22), with resulted in a shutter speed of 56 seconds. Obviously, the cam was sitting on a tripod. It resulted in a kind of Zen-ish image, a creative genre of photography that I want to explore a bit more this year besides my usual street work.

Have a great Sunday!

Marcus

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Stay Interested !

A Sunday Haiku

Instant Inspiration (16) – Dusk at the Ocean

Instant Inspiration (2) – Motion Blur

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Weekly Photo Challenge: 2017 Favorites

Fetish Designer

For all my free tips and inspirations around Street Photography visit my Learning Center

The last WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge (WPC) of 2017 was probably also the hardest one for this year . At least for me it was. With the title “2017 Favorites” it calls to post your most meaningful photo of 2017.

Now we all are passionate about our photography, and I’m quite sure, that when you look at your archives of this year, there are at least a dozen great images looking at you, screaming “I deserve to be in the 2017 Favorites!!!” And aren’t all those beautiful photographs, that each mean so much to you, your creative children? And don’t you want to treat all your children equal? So you are tempted to post not only your most favorite landscape photo, but also your best macro shot, portrait, street photo, monochrome image, and the one image you are most emotionally attached to and you just can’t leave out. After all, this is a great opportunity to show off a small selection of your best work. And Ben Huberman even left the door open for us to post several photos, if we can’t decide which is the absolute best (or meaningful) image of 2017.

When I joined a street photography workshop with Eric Kim back in November, one of the lessons I took away is that as photographer you need to be able to “kill your babies”. In order to distill out your best work. And to make you hungry again to take more photos, and make you better.

So even if it hurt, as I think I had great year where I really advanced my photography and got many pictures that I think are really good, I took the challenge by the word and post only my most meaningful photo of 2017.

This is my best image from the mentioned workshop. And it was the image that broke the spell around “interactive” street photography for me, where I discovered how much fun it actually is to walk up to interesting looking people in the streets and ask if I could make their portrait. So this is my photography of the year 2017!

Have a great Thursday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

My little Portland Christmas miracle

A Street Photographer’s Dialogue

Beauty and the Beast

I conquered my fears

33

Wait and shoot

Contraflow
Contraflow | Portland | 2017

As I wrote in a previous post, there are two ways to approach Street Photography. You can actively “hunt” for an interesting image to happen, for example following an appealing subject until it enters the right background scene. Or you come across a background that catches your eyes first. Then it is a matter of you waiting for the right subject to enter the scene to get the photo you are after. I call this the “gathering” approach.

This was the case when I saw this colorful mural in Portland. I loved its shape and dynamic, and its colors that really came to life during the blue hour of this late Saturday afternoon. I really wanted to capture it in a street photo, but taking a photo of a mural by itself is a bit lifeless without a foreground that adds interest.

I was with my PEN-F and the 12mm F/2 prime lens, which limited myself to this composition, as I had to stand between to parked cars half on the street to have mural and sidewalk filling my viewfinder. A frontal position would not have been possible as due to the lens being very wide angled, I couldn’t stand behind the car parked in front as the roof would have blocked the lower part of the mural.

Then it was a matter of waiting in the freezing cold wind for passing people, and there weren’t to many around. The first that passed came in groups, blocking the mural, then people passed on my side of the sidewalk, with only their top half visible in the frame, also blocking the mural. I needed someone to pass close to the wall, so I could capture the whole person in front of the big face behind him.

With this guy I finally got lucky (after about 15 minutes and a few unsuccessful shots), as he passed close to the wall, and I managed to capture him in full stride, always something I look for when pressing the shutter. Perseverance paid off once more.

Have a great Tuesday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

My little Portland Christmas miracle

Around the World in 12 Days – Rose City Waterfront

Street Photography Quick Tip (10)

Instant Inspiration (14) – Car Reflections

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Abandoned or Alone

Solitude
Solitude | Cremona | 2016

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge for this week has the theme “abandoned or alone“. Frequent readers probably have already seen my entries for the challenge, but what I find kind of fascinating is that these themed challenges allow me to revisit older photographs and group them together in a new and different way, a creative process that I thoroughly enjoy.

To see all my other monochrome  photographs for Cee’s challenge continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Abandoned or Alone” →

16

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ascend

Need a Ride
Need A Ride | Brussels | 2016

This week the weekly photo challenge (WPC) from Word Press’ “The Daily Post” has the theme “Ascend“. This street photo I took in Brussels Airport with my Ricoh GRII, image specs are 1/80 sec @ f/4 and ISO 1600, shot in P-Mode. Fore are a few images that symbolize upwards movement, continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Challenge: Ascend” →

15

Instant Inspiration (21) – Shoot what attracts your eye

Hands
Hands | Portland | 2017

In time for the weekend here is episode 21 of my “Instant Inspirations”, 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.

Not every photo you take needs to make perfect sense. That is, making perfect sense to the outside world. It only needs to please you, make you happy. If someone else likes it, that’s a bonus.

That said, you are not limited to taking “conventional” photos of people, landscape, architecture etc…shoot it all! Whatever visually stimulates you, take a photo of it. Don’t be shy, the limit is only defined by your own taste. Try things out! Let interesting colors, shapes, textures and juxtapositions that catch your eye get your creative juices flowing. Be a visual artist. Go out and experiment and have fun! You only need to please yourself!

The “Hands” shot above I took last night with my iPhone while at dinner with two of my awesome colleagues here in Portland. We were enjoying a fab dinner in a Peruvian restaurant (Andina) in the Pearl District. We were sitting at a copper plated table, and while enjoying wine and great talks I observed my friend Anton lay out the shape of his hand with the chips of the cork from our wine bottle. The mixture of colors, shapes and textures really triggered the desire to take out my iPhone and capture that for my eyes visually appealing scene. Just for myself. And this is what I did. It was my creative moment on an otherwise quite unnerving day of project work, and it made me happy. And this is exactly what photography does for me.

For some more examples of random creativity and links to previous episodes of “Instant Inspirations” continue after the jump….. Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (21) – Shoot what attracts your eye” →

12

A Street Photographer’s Dialogue

Lunchbreak
Lunchbreak

For all my free tips and inspirations around Street Photography visit my Learning Center


A street photographer’s dialogue:

Street Photographer: “Excuse me, can I make a portrait of you?”

Subject: “Ahm…yes…yes, generally yes….but why?”

Street Photographer: “I’m a street photographer from Nuremberg, I like to document everyday life in the streets and meet interesting people, like you!”

Subject: “Ok, that’s interesting, but why did you pick me?”

Street Photographer: “Oh, I like your style. And you radiate a kindness that I like to capture. Great smile!”

Subject: “But I’m eating….it will look stupid, what shall I do with my box?”

Street Photographer (already snapping away): “Don’t worry, you look great, I’ll show you in a second!”

Subject (quite relaxed): “Ok, can’t really imagine that.”

Street Photographer, showing the back LCD of the camera: “Check it out, I really like this photo. Great street portrait of you!”

Subject (smiling): “Yes, it really is a nice picture. What are you gonna do with it?”

Street Photographer: “I have a street photography blog, where I post some of my photos. Would you mind if I post yours?”

Subject: “No, that’s ok!”

Street Photographer (smiling): “Here is my card with my website, check it out if you like. Thanks for letting me make your portrait, was great talking to you! Have a great day!

Subject (smiling): “Well, you too”

Street Photographer and subject continue their ways…..

Have a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

My Eric Kim Workshop Experience

Instant Inspiration (8) -Make a portrait of a stranger

Street Photography Quick Tip (9)

Keep Portland Weird

48

What’s there and what’s missing

Thinking Out Loud
Thinking Out Loud |Berlin | 2017

For all my free tips and inspiration around photography visit my Learning Center.

Putting a camera in someone’s face takes some getting used to. It is obviously something where you need the consent of the person you are photographing. This image I took with my Olympus PEN-F and the mZuiko 25mm F/1.8, the “nifty fifty” of micro four thirds (due to the m43 crop factor of 2). Which by the way is also an awesome portrait lens, if you are close, like a good arms length away. Image specs are 1/160 sec @ f/3.2 and ISO 200.

This is for sure not the prettiest of street portraits but it shows a couple of things that are important for this kind of photography.  This guy caught my eye, I walked up to him and asked if I could make his portrait. Turns out he is visiting from Montreal, Canada, and he was just looking for a place to eat some typical German food. A win-win for sure. I got to shoot his portraits, he got directions to a place where he could find some good beer and a “Schweinshaxe” (he asked me to type everything in his iPhone).

While we chatted I snapped away. I liked the shot of him best. I had asked him what he liked best about visiting Europe, he closed his eyes and thought hard. Asking people about something (e.g. what they like best about something….where they got their interesting outfit, glasses…what they are doing here, what is their profession…) puts their mind away from being photographed, puts them at ease and tends to draw some interesting poses, face expressions and gestures.

And this what is missing here. I wish he had made a hand gesture, putting his fingers to his face, adding interest to the shot. I didn’t want to ask him to do that, maybe I should have. But then again, I’m just starting this kind of street photography, and I will learn. And you can learn along here on the “Streets of Nuremberg”.

Have a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

My Eric Kim Workshop Experience

Instant Inspiration (8) -Make a portrait of a stranger

Street Photography Quick Tip (8)

Back on the Streets of Nuremberg

14

My Eric Kim Workshop Experience

Eric Kim Workshop Making Of
Marcus & Eric | Berlin | 2017

Just a little over a week ago I had one of the most memorable photographic weekends ever when I attended the workshop “Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography” with Street Photo Legend Eric Kim in Berlin. For my in depth experiences from the workshop plus a bunch of both “behind the scenes” images and my workshop “results” continue after the jump…

Continue reading “My Eric Kim Workshop Experience” →

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