The Faces of Exit 270 Part 20

Street photography is not for the faint of heart.  When you poke your camera at a particular subject - you are basically invading their privacy.  I try not to be obnoxious with my camera - I move in quickly and take the shot trying not to annoy my subject.

My camera of choices a Sony A7II - it is light and small enough that people don’t notice it as much as they would if I was poking a larger DSLR in their face.  I usually set my ISO at 200 and F8 -my 28-70mm is my lens of choice - however I find that 50mm is my usual focal length.  

I never use flash - and work with the lighting that is available.  I try to shoot my subjects in the shady side of the street -so I am not faced with faces with deep shadows.   The exception to this light preference is when I find an interesting silhouette.  I also try to pay attention to the juxtaposition of the subject to background.

Street photograph makes you aware of the life around you - and the various people that occupy this life.

The Camera and The Light

I think the camera is a tool that encourages you to combine multiple ways of thinking about the life before you. You find yourself seeing shapes and light and how each of these simple observations triggers your thought process -and maybe a new way of seeing some common object you see every day.

It is a creative process we all have-but some of us maybe suppress it because we have no means to express it. As a photographer I use the camera to release my thoughts and ideas.  Line, shape, texture are only a few of the elements of the visual image and photographic composition.  Photography is not just capturing an image, but rather observation of what you are looking at and actually seeing it. What is the interplay between the shape and the light falling on it?

In my backyard there is a table and chair - and I noticed the early morning sunrise and how it seemed to frame the objects. By moving around the table and chair, the two objects took on a different appearance depending on the angle of the camera and the direction of the light.  Light and shadows work in harmony in defining what we are seeing.  Light can make the most mundane subject visually interesting.