Speaking about find a new idea in street photography, actually can be so simple, yet I never really realised it.
Problem start when I feel constraint in creativity to produce street shoots. I’ve been shooting in so many places in Jakarta (my hometown), and started to feel like: What else I need to shoot out there?
Yeah, I can wait at the exact same spots to try capture even better subjects, but the point is, the spot is the same. The results will mostly looks similar to my old photos anyway.
Then I start to analyse what actually constraint me. Jakarta itself is a big city with almost 10 millions people inside. Logically, it is impossible for me to feel bored about photograph this city, because there are so much things going on in a day.
My assumption is my own rule and habit are two main reasons that stop me to explore more about the city. Here are what I change to keep doing street photography give spark in my mind to keep shoot more and more, even though I still only shoot in the same city:
The time to shoot
People always said golden hour is The King. At early morning, or late afternoon is the best. Why? Why have to only shoot at those two moments? Is it impossible to create good shoots at noon? Or perhaps at late night?
My habit also make me to shoot mostly at afternoon or night. Now I start to shift it a little bit by shoot in the morning time regularly once or twice a week. That’s enough to give me different type of scenes and context in my photos. I start to notice new spots that may looks boring at afternoon or night, but great at morning time.
Lens and focal length
Fix prime with small size is the best for street photography. Well, I’m 100% agree with it. However, sometimes a little various in life can lead us to think differently, to understand things that we never really think about, that may add few creativity point in our life.
My daily to go lens is 35mm or 50 mm (FF Equivalent). So why not try some tele zoom lens? Something big like bazooka, with long range 200 – 400 mm. Go the opposite direction and use super wide lens also an option too. True, they are heavy, not practical, attract attention, not accurate as human’s field of view, etc. However, are they only have bad side with zero benefit?
Perhaps we are the one to need change our perception about how to shoot, how to use lens, or our concept of street photography itself to be able to appreciate those big and “weird” lenses?
I’m not suggesting you to buy “weird” and big size lens immediately to use in street photography. That would be hella costly. Perhaps we can start by renting them for a day, or borrow from friend who have those lens only collecting dust inside their shelf. Doing something different and have fun with it. When shooting out there, expect zero great photo (as always), expect a new way of thinking, new way to look a scene, and new whole experience to behave on the street while have big lenses on our hand.
Simply walk to a new place
No, not going to other city or country, that is not wise while we still in this pandemic condition. However, we can start by exploring more about city we live. Erase any assumptions that we never walk to any area in our city because that places are bad or boring to photograph. We will never know until we walk down the path by ourself. Anyway in street photography what important is how we creatively compose multiple objects into one single artistic photos.
Perhaps once a week, give ourself chance to walk at completely new place, street, alley, or any spots in the city that we never care about or never been there before. As always, do not expect anything about good result, just simply have fun with the process of “thinking” how to compose these new element to match our artistic mind.
Always shoot out there on city street? Give ourself chance to shoot inside a building. The easiest spots to find is inside shopping mall and museum. Perhaps also can try other places like stadium or sport centre. They will provide a huge difference vibes that may spark a new type of creativity for us.
Shoot different type of subjects
To put in simple example: Stop photograph people. Start shoot out there to only photograph animal, and think how to include them as a context in street photography. Bird, cat, and dog could be the easiest to find, so we can start to focus on them at first. Give a strict rule to ourself to not shoot even a single person for a day. Really focus on searching animal subjects.
That’s all! Always remember to keep shooting regardless our mind in creative mood or not. The main point is to have fun with the process to create street photos anyway.
Stay sharp,
Nico Harold