Issue 202 of the SNYC Newsletter
Greetings everyone! I am loving the longer hours of daylight. More hours of shooting. It seemed like the winter would never end. The city is overflowing with tourists, tulips and cherry blossoms. Who can resist the beautiful weather?
Thanks so much to everyone who has taken group and private workshops with me. It is such a pleasure to meet everyone and to share my love of street photography and New York City with you. There’s so much to explore and photograph. Street photography heaven.
And also, a big thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter. I am so happy that you are reading it.
Happy Shooting! Is there any other way?
The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes. Marcel Proust
Seeing with new eyes is my motto. That is why you will always see it here in my newsletter. Walk slow, observe and see things that you might not have noticed otherwise.
This newsletter is about my thoughts & experiences on street photography. I hope that you find it of use on your journey. If you are able to, you can support me by buying me a coffee. No sweat if you’re unable to contribute. The newsletter is free for all. Thank you for supporting my work. Mucho love.
After Shooting
In this newsletter, I mostly write about the act of shooting street photography. But, there’s more to it. What happens after a day of shooting? There a number of things that you can do. The obvious first step is culling through your photos.
I prefer to let my photos marinate for awhile. That is to say that I rarely spend much time previewing my photos while they are still in camera and even after I have uploaded them to computer, I take my time deleting and editing them. Did I mention that I’m years behind in working on my photo library? It’s a bit of chaos.
We often look at our photos too quickly and dismiss or delete them without processing them or even cropping them. I find photos years later that I really like and I don’t even remember taking them. Or I wonder why I didn’t like them on first viewing. Some things look better with age.
As you may have heard me say in the past, the majority of my monochrome photos are the jpgs out of camera with minimal post-processing. I have found a recipe for achieving the look that I like for them. It’s kind of like shooting film. So I have many raw files that I haven’t yet processed. Processing is an important element in achieving photos that you like.
The problem with photography is that it looks easy. Most photos that we see on a daily basis have been edited. Sometimes they are highly processed. No big deal, if it works. Photography is an art. The point is that you’re happy with the final result.
Street photography is a challenge all by itself. Processing photos requires a different learning curve. I’m not thinking about anything other than the activity of shooting when I’m on the street. They are two entirely different things.
When was the last time that you printed your photos? It seems that people mostly print special photos and print or have them printed high quality and even large. Printing your photos shouldn’t be reserved for when you plan on framing them.
The above photo was printed on 4x6 glossy photo paper. Cheap paper. Then it was scanned. Perhaps it’s difficult to see in the newsletter that it was printed. Digital has a way of flattening everything. If you hold a printed photo next to the digital version you can see the difference.
Maybe I’m just old or old school. I do recommend that you spend time looking at photo books. I think that photos deserve more than a split second. I also believe that it’s a good thing to print a few of your photos to see how they look in print. They do look different! No kidding. Even with very basic printing. Nothing fancy.
Presentation is everything. Lately I’ve been learning how to layout photos together and often making diptychs. Sometimes all it takes is to place 2 photos together to make them both work. I do make diptychs with a separation between photos as well as merging them together like the above photo. This is a technique that I’m using in my upcoming zine.
Having your photos look good like those that you see in books and digitally is a very different thing than taking good pictures. One of my favorite photographers, Daido Moriyama, has said that he takes photos to be printed. That is his main objective.
Back in the days when digital photography didn’t exist, we had our photos printed at the drug store. That was the way we did it. We looked at the photos that we took and showed them to other people. You take photos with your hands. You can look at photos with them too.
Depending on what your intention is as a photographer, you don’t need to have a website. But you do need to have a method of compiling your photos into a body of work. It is helpful to see your work together and see how the photos fit together, or not. I’m also on the Glass app and I treat it a little like a website.
It’s also helpful to be able to see your progress and be able to assess your work and see what you might want to do to further your work. It’s so easy to take a million photos and feel like you’re not improving or have a feeling of not knowing what it’s all worth at the end of the day.
So I suggest making time to have your processing match your vision, collecting your photos into a group and printing your photos on occasion. Put more time into what you are doing with your work after you take photos.
Is there anything that you would like me to write about in this newsletter? Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks!
Online Group Street Photography Photo Reviews
The 2nd Online Photo Review session is scheduled for next week. It is already booked. The first session went really well. If you are interested in joining one in the future, please leave a comment in the Chat or email me.
At the moment, the time slot that I am able to provide doesn’t really work very well for people in the UK or EU. I will try to come up with a good time for that.
Group sessions are a maximum of 4 people and everyone comments on each others photos. It’s a great way to get a sense of what’s working and how you can improve your photography.
New Zine Coming Soon!
The zine is finally finished and is currently being printed. I will probably receive it just in time for the next issue and I’ll post a link if you’d like to purchase it. The photos are all abstract street photography taken over the last 3 years in New York City.
It is very exciting to see your photos in print!
Photo Assignment - Favorites from 2024 so far
I posted in the Shoot New York City Facebook Group that people weren’t very active and many people responded. So I’ll try it out again with an easy assignment. Your favorite street photos from this year.
This is a voluntary assignment if you want to take part. You can submit your photos to the Facebook group for Shoot New York City and also on Instagram tag @shootnewyorkcity.
Further Viewing
Alex talks about composition in this video.
Upcoming Workshops
Workshops are a maximum of 5 people Workshops are only scheduled on weekend days. If you would like to have a weekday workshop or a workshop in other areas of NYC, let me know with some lead time and I’ll see if others want to also attend it. Otherwise I continue to provide private workshops on weekdays and in other neighborhoods.
For those who haven't done a workshop or photo tour with me in the past I have a number of reviews on my website and also on TripAdvisor! Workshops are both for people who live here and also travelers, as are photo tours.
Photo tours are one-on-one and arranged on an individual basis for both neighborhood and photographic style and can be designed as a workshop as well. They are customized to your interests and level.
I can relate to what you write here and that's very nice. I have chosen to post on ig pretty much my most recent shots, without the 'marinade' :-).
Have you made any books?