Photowalk with Alan @varjak._ #1

3pm Sunday, Sep 19th, Dublin, weather: warm and sunny

1st practice session with Alan aka @varjak. I learned a lot from this photowalk. Had a lot of fun refreshing my street photography skills with an expert. In this blog post I’ll share some photos and things that I’ve learned during this photowalk.

Street photography doesn’t require any particular weather or time of day.

The motto: Whether it’s day or night, dull or bright, if the weather is shite you’ll be still alright

This means that there there are ‘no excuses’ not to go and practice. The street is all a dynamic place with new subjects moving through all the time and photogenic moments are happening all the time just waiting to be made into photographs.

We happened to get sunny weather on this day so I focuesd primarily on colour. Blog posts about photographic exercises and colour theory are on the way

Tuning in your selective focus / perception / eye takes time and practice

To get in the zone takes about 15 minutes of warmup shots. Practicing changing settings, lenses, cameras and basically just shooting without concern for whether its a good shot or not. This allows you to get comfortable making photos.

It took me a least 15 minutes before of I could get in the zone. In this session I spotted a lot of the same photo opportunities that Alan would see but about a second or 2 later. That could be the diffrence between making the shot or missing the shot.

Street photography invokes sonder… I think that’s its main purpose

"Sonder — noun. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own."

When we walk through a city we can feel very connected or very lonely depending on our ability to perceive. By default the typical adult will just see people as moving objects not to bump into unless they present themselves as a possible help or hindrance. Usually only people who look very attractive, ‘dodgy ‘or unusual enter our sphere of awareness . Street phoography allows us to temporarily remove our perceptual blindness and see a random passerby as an individual with their own story to tell.

I felt quite at home in this world after that photo session. I also met another photographer I’d never seen before and had a good chat.

It’s great way for photographers to improve their skills

Street photography is a great workout for all photographers. Whether your into sports, portraiture, concert or landscapes. Street is a great way to improve skills like reaction time, imagination, people skills, and composition. In particular, an aspect of composition I call ‘connecting the dots’. I’ve a blog post in the works that explains this concept.

Even with knowing the theory, I need to go out shooting at least once or twice per week for maintenance. I was little bit rusty on this shoot as I hadn’t done street photography since college a year ago. I intend to shapen these skills with consistent practice.

Know your location and plan ahead.

Alan uses an app called the photographer’s ephemeris to plan out where the sun will be, which helps him to anticipate the light in a particular location. He also has a routine route that he walks between several photographic hotspots around the city, wherien he is aware of the direction of light and potential subjects, based on his past experience. These organisation skills and location knowledge, I presume are a factor in his success as a street photographer.

On this day, Alan went to photograph the Afgani protest taking place on O’Connell St. before meeting me and going on a route though some interesting areas such as Moore St., Dublin Castle, and Temple Bar