It’s only exercise #2 and I’m already sweatin’. Picturing a street scene using a wide angle shot was easy enough, but the combination of that plus putting a subject in the foreground proved to be quite the challenge.
My immediate neighborhood offered nothing of interest, quiet streets and big modern houses. So I really had to go out and into the streets of the city in the hopes of capturing something compelling.
I wanted to take a picture of a very common sight around here, street vendors. But I stuck out like a sore thumb with my pale complexion and conspicuous digicam 😟 This prompted some of the people to either pose and wave, or stop and move out of the frame altogether (gulp!).
I felt self-conscious and obtrusive. On hindsight I could’ve just played along, grinned widely and charmed them with a “boleh photo-photo“? But I wasn’t in the mood. (Mental note: prepare mood before embarking on a photo-photo spree).
A week went by and circumstances remained unfavorable. The perfect shot remained elusive while the rest of the (daily) assignments were piling up. I felt pressure. I read up on street photography and learned that some photographers really sit in one spot for a certain period of time and wait for that perfect moment. Hmmm …
Well at least I learned something new about composition + the fact that I need to learn how to be less conspicuous if I want to pursue street photography. That and, perfection will just have to wait another day 😏
I decided to move on to the next …
(2 down 8 more to go 👊🏻)
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