Photos of this life: Introduction to Street Photography Workshop

On July 14th I hosted a Street Photography workshop in downtown Tucson, Arizona. The idea behind workshops is simple, use your knowledge to help others with their own photography. This is something I've recently been doing more of and I must say I enjoy it alot. While I do not know everything, I can certainly show you what I do know and how I see things. Three people joined me for a bit and we set about walking downtown looking for interesting subjects. While the other topics covered in the workshop directly relate to street photography. The topic of looking for interesting subjects: people, shadows, shapes, and architecture is fairly universal if you simply chance the subject. When nature shooting you do same, look for interesting animals, the lighting, slowing down anticipating the actions. The more you can break down and ask yourself why you wanted to take that photo in the first place, the better your photos will be. Was it someone's hat that caught your attention? The color of the hat? The material? The texture? When you can answer these questions to yourself that's what you take a photo of. This helps the viewer not have to guess what it is they are looking at, which always leads to more striking photography. At the workshop I let Jessica Williams borrow my DSLR to shoot with. I opted to use my beloved Pentax K1000 film camera from 1979. I am a big fan of simple yet effective tools, and the legendary K1000 camera is just that. By stripping away all the modern features it forces you to pay more attention, because guess what? You're paying for every frame, so make it count. The process of slowing down and paying more attention to your shots will always inevitably lead to better photos. You may be thinking, isn't that a contradiction to your theory that the streets slow down for no one, and that's what makes them so exciting in the first place? Yes the streets slow down for no one and your biggest asset is your power of observation, but then again you have to remember. I have been using the same camera for 6 years now so it's fair to say I know my way around it. This is not an issue for me but it may be difficult for a beginning film user to learn the basics on the streets. Another topic I'd like to touch on is how to handle people's reaction to you taking their photo. 90% of the time a simple smile and wave directly after taking the photo will diffuse most situations. There was an incident on Sunday where a lady had engaged me and started talking to me. Having responded and smiled, some photos were snapped of the woman. That's when she snapped and started yelling at Brian "get away from me, you're gonna hurt me, I know what you're gonna do" all while he is doing absolutely nothing to her. We felt removing ourselves from the situation and relocating would be the best bet instead of sticking around. It just goes to show you how fast a situation can turn and one must always be ready for anything. Overall I had such a good time hosting this workshop and I feel I was able to help others and get them interested in this style of shooting. You don't need to live in a huge city with tons of people to get striking street photos. Sure there will be more subjects, but that won't make your photos any better. As long as you can capture the environment and the essence of the environment while adding the human element. That's what street photography is all about to me. Thanks for stopping by. Until next time