Shoot New York City Newsletter
16 April 2024 - Embrace Change
Issue 201 of the SNYC Newsletter
Greetings everyone! I hope that you’re doing well and out shooting lots of photos. Busy season is beginning. Longer daylight hours and warmer weather! And work is really gearing up!
I have been providing group street photography workshops and private tours for over 13 years now and I won’t switch to another kind of employment unless I absolutely have to. I meet the most amazing people and we shoot the streets of the city together. Yes, I do it all year round and in all kinds of weather.
So it is with great appreciation to everyone who has worked with me! Also, I thank everyone who is subscribed to this newsletter. I share my experiences and those of the people that I work with. I hope that it helps you on your photographic journey.
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
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. Thanks to everyone who has bought me a coffee!!! Maybe one day we’ll be able to have a coffee in person. Mucho love.
Embrace Change
Recently I’ve been making an attempt to go through my vast and unorganized photo library of over 450,000 images. I organize my photos through keywords. I don’t always add keywords as I often don’t have or make the time to do it.
The biggest thing I can say about my photo library is that my photography has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. That is about the amount of time that I have been shooting digitally.
I started shooting in 1966! And yes, my photography has drastically changed since the beginning. I have also changed quite a bit. The other thing that has changed are my tools. That is to say the cameras and lenses that I use and the subjects that I choose to shoot. The thing that hasn’t changed is that I am always experimenting and changing the way that I shoot.
I’ve been shooting a lot more film these days and I really enjoy shooting digital and analog. They are different tools that provide different results. They also make you use your brain and your vision differently. I don’t believe that you will ever hear me say that you have to make a choice between the two.
All of the film photos that I am posting in this issue of the newsletter were all taken while shooting digital at the same thing. It’s a bit of a juggling act. Shooting film is slower. Especially when you have to focus manually. I have always liked mental aerobics.
To top things off with these photos, the film is expired 20+ years! So I really didn’t know what the results would look like. We know what we’ve captured when shooting digital. Shooting film is of course just one method of experimenting and therefore making a change in the way you see, shoot and the final results.
Shooting into the sun is another way of experimenting. It’s never the same twice. It took me many years to finally shoot into the sun rather than capturing the beautiful light when people are walking into the sun.
Change the way that you work with the light around you. Many people who take workshops with me say that they will never walk by a window or puddle reflection without examining it and shooting it. If you stand in one place for 15 minutes or so and just look around you to see not just the action but also the light, you may find something of interest.
It’s funny how our expectations change between analog and digital photography. I don’t know that I could capture the above photo with a digital camera. Perhaps if you shoot in manual mode it would be possible. But even so, it isn’t really possible to get the same film look in digital photography. Maybe something kind of close.
Is this or are any of the film photos perfect? Well. you’ve heard my thoughts on perfect photos in the previous issue of this newsletter. But what is perfect anyway? I’m sharing these photos with you because there is something about them that I like. And it could very well be that I really like the imperfections.
I urge you to find the beauty in imperfections. When looking at classic old photos you will see that the focus is often a little fuzzy. Did anyone tell Cartier-Bresson that his focus was not sharp? I think not.
I discovered that I need to use my right eye to manual focus. Yes, I had cataract surgery on my left eye, my shooting eye. Now I have dry eye and it gets in the way of my ability to focus properly.
Certainly if I taken this photo with a digital camera, it would’ve been in focus. It’s good to understand what digital cameras do. We take for granted these kinds of things. Also, I’ve been shooting wide open digitally these days and getting a shallow depth of field.
Most of the photographers that take workshops and tours with me tend to shoot color and with a wide depth of field. And they typically only shoot raw. As you may have heard me say, most of my digital photos that I post are the jpgs with a film simulation recipe straight out of camera or with minimal post processing.
I have slowly been working towards this. Shooting all Auto and both raw and jpg. This has been an experiment. And mostly my jpgs are monochrome. These are a few things that I’ve been doing to free me up to spend more time on observing and capturing what I see.
Another thing is that I often shoot in the same places all the time. I challenge myself to look a little deeper. Of course, everything is always different when you go back and shoot in the same place. But there are those things that stay the same.
If you normally shoot color, try monochrome. If you normally shoot only when you’re someplace new, try something you’ve done before. Maybe use a different focal length lens. Shooting with a prime lens is a great way to improve your photography.
I’ve been mostly shooting 35mm equivalent digitally. My film photos are with a 50mm lens. It’s the only one I have so far. The lens that you use is maybe more important than your camera. It should match your vision.
Think about the ways that you can switch things up a bit. I don’t really suggest you change everything all at once. Though shooting film instead of digital will be a big change all by itself. And of course, spend some time looking at photos and finding those things that you would like to incorporate into your own photos.
Have you made and changes in how you shoot? I’d love to hear about it.
Announcement
The Facebook group for Shoot New York City has not been very active. There are a few hundred members. Very little action. Do you have any suggestions to make it better? Have the photo assignments not been interesting? I’m not going to make an assignment in this issue until I can figure out whether to make some changes or abandon it. Thanks and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Further Viewing
Have you done abstract street photography yet? This is the first video that I’ve watched by this guy. Some good tips here. Ones that I use and teach all the time.
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.
Sad that I would need to pay you for your newsletter. My friends and I were your original customers back in the day We enjoyed our shoot with you and have followed you ever since just to enjoy visiting your photography. Too bad.