It is true that I always try to shoot “street photography” everyday. Keep thinking how to work the scene, how to shoot things in creative way, how to visualize things before it happened, how to approach stranger, how to add visual art elements inside my frames, and so on.
However, I do not limit myself to only shoot scenes that could be considered as street photography. Many many times I just let my mind wander around while I walk in the middle of city, and try to feel more about things that attract my attention, spontaneously, without thinking or take many consideration and just shoot it.
Some people called these action as snapshot, which is based on Wikipedia it means “an amateur photograph taken without preparation”. Do not let this fact fool you, snapshot may sounds easy and for beginner, but actually it has some benefits, such as:
True to ourself
Kind of honest shoot that reflect the way we perceive this world.
No rules apply in snapshot photography. Shoot with joy and freedom, think that no one would ever judge ourself, our skill, or our life status based on our snapshots. Just go outside and start to shoot any objects that we think good to be photographed. Documenting our vision with our camera. No need to limit your shoot preference based on genre anymore. Be it street, architecture, landscape, urban, etc. It just does not matter at all.
Capture things that we think beautiful, unique, and able to bring certain feeling like nostalgic, sadness, happiness, hope, or excitement. Biggest benefit for being honest to ourself: Treat photography as stress reliever (or therapy) when no one will judge our decision. It is all about freedom and shoot based on what we feel instead of what we think.
Help us know about our preferences
One thing that I learned by keep doing snapshot daily is I start to understand more about my own style and preferences in photography. All about things that able to attract my eyes.
In my case, when I do street photography I like to shoot things that have strong geometry, diagonal line, colour contrast, have mysterious feel, or background with minimal distraction. I found them as my main point of interest after I had reviewed many of my snapshots. When I shoot without think and only based on what I feel, these elements keep appear in many of my photos.
When in doubt, click
Words that keep inspire me how to shoot on the street until now. Read more at Eric Kim blog here. Doing snapshot also taught me to always take shoot first than decide later whether it is a keeper shoot or not. As long as I feel there is an attractive moment or object around me, I will always try to snap it without thinking too much.
What is attractive moment or attractive object means?
They could be anything that we rarely see in our daily life. For example: A person with attractive outfit, eye catching murals, or unique hand gesture when people talk to each other.
Also things that we might see everyday, but try to see them from different angle of view. Look from extreme low or high angle, tilt our camera diagonally, use golden hour time to shoot shadow, or crunch down and tilt camera to the sky so people would become silhouette. Do something that we rarely do when we shoot, experiment with angles.
That is all of my thought about doing snapshot. It is indeed an action that able to improve our photography result. Bring our camera everyday (read here), and remember to always click first, decide later!
Related article: Snapshot in Street Photography
Keep shooting and stay inspired,
Nico Harold