Bio:
I’ve always been an observer. As a child, my mom asked me what would be my dream job and I said, “Sitting on a park bench watching people!” It is not surprising, I guess, that I like street photography best.
The pandemic has forced me to make some changes in order to keep working, however. I refuse to photograph people wearing masks, faces hidden. The limited number of people out and about, such as at festivals, is also limiting my available subjects.
What to do? How do I keep photographing? Landscapes?? I dislike photographing landscapes! 99 percent are wall paper or have been photographed a million times, in my opinion. How do I make this something “different”, something my style?
Using my street photography background, I am attempting landscapes as nature’s street photographs. One thing within the landscape is isolated much the like a person on the street would be within that scene.
It takes observation, patience and recognition of the moment to be worth pressing the shutter button. As the “father” of street photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson said - “the decisive moment”. It’s no different in landscapes.
More emphasis is placed on focus placement, light, and atmosphere than would be in a traditional street photo. Photographing in the rain and fog is preferred to “nice weather”. In some cases, I provide the light via strobe flash in order to isolate the subject. Using flash is new for me. It has been quite a challenge to get the exposure “right”. I am also working more and more with mood setting techniques when processing in Photoshop. No trickery – just tone.
All-in-all, a good stretch that will help my people photography someday.