Tag Archives: things to see

City Walk Photography with a iPhone – Two Free Books to Help!

Oops… started this post over the weekend and didn’t wrap it up… sorry for the delay! Guess you will have it ready for this weekend’s shooting fun.

I have my iPhone in hand… ProCamera at the ready (sometimes jump to Top Camera too), and many city streets to walk. While I had hoped to get into San Francisco today, the traffic slowed my progress as a major bridge is having work being done on it. So, I hit a few smaller ‘towns’ to see the natural lit buildings and foot traffic. There was a lot of folks out milling around the coffee shops and small markets but not many in the actual stores. So my shots turned to objects like benches, mailboxes, signs, pets and window reflections. My wife, pup and I not getting anywhere fast, just using photography as an excuse to get some fresh air.

Sometimes I come across articles or books that I find gives me a different perspective on things around me. Everyone has their style. It’s fun to try someone else’s eye on a subject, then modify it towards what I enjoy so I end up with a mix that is me. A couple recent finds are actually free eBooks that I thought I would share, hope you find them enjoyable. Both books are using 35mm cameras but there is very little adjusting/tuning with camera settings so they are both very well suited to shoots done with your iPhone.

Street Photography – By Alex Coghe: (A friend had a issue with the ‘download’ link and offered a direct link to the eBook on Eric Kim’s site)

Alex’s view on ‘street photography’:

Rules of Street Photography

Street Photography is a genre that can’t be too constrained because it would limit it. But some
pickets are needed to understand what we’re talking.

– Street Photographs must be taken in the public realm: streets, subways, museums, beaches, parks, events, countryside, nightclubs…

– Photographs may not be staged or posed by models.

– Photographs do not need to include people but should at the very least imply human existence or a human condition.

– Street Photography can be colour or black & white. Partially desatured images can’t be considered street photography.

– Add or remove elements from street photographs is not ethic. Street Photography is a challenge with ourselves and the approach to this kind of photography is raw, like the old straight photography.

– Cropping a photo and perform colour corrections and processing in keeping with a realistic representation of the subject is fine to enhance the image. And naturally also the black and white conversion is allowed but extreme photo manipulation, stitching and combining of images is not for street photography. Also High Dynamic Range (HDR) is considered heavy post production and therefore not suitable for this photographic genre. 

 

Going Candid – by Thomas Leuthard:

Thomas – “What is street photography for me”

Street photography has changed my life in a way that I didn’t expect it would. I suddenly have a plan in my life. I have an activity where I can use my creativi- ty. I get challenged every day. I don’t get bored because it’s always different. I can travel the world for a reason and I can meet a lot of people. And last but not least I wake up in the morning with a smile. Street photography is not just another way of photography. It’s a way of life…