For the non-productive days
Street photography surely requires hard work. It pays off in the long run, but it doesn’t mean that you would be able to create great pictures every time you walk the road. This blog post is written right after I spent 4 hours yesterday shooting without any remarkable result.
The reasons for failure are plentiful. I decided to leave my comfort zone to explore new areas in town. Instead of sticking with the Dong Xuan market with its beautiful architectures and labor lives, or the Hoan Kiem lake with tons of people dressing up running around, I tried walking the lesser-known streets in the Old Quarter and ended up wandering the Long Bien bridge before going down the Banana Island in the middle of the Red River. The idea was to scout for new places with great composition to come back to, and if I had been lucky enough, I would have come home with some good pictures here and there. So, as you can see, the expectation was low.
The weather was not on my side either. I need to up my game with blunt weather, especially with the old and unsaturated colors of the buildings and alleys I walked across. If you have been to Hanoi, the busy and chaotic architecture and lifestyle in the Old Quarter might be fascinating to experience. But on days where the light is flat, it is hard for “fisher” like me to find my composition to camp. Next time I should try to turn “hunter” and take a closer look at the residences’ activities, and maybe carry my Ricoh GR3 for a stealthy wider lens instead of the Sony A7C with the 50mm. I did try to have some silhouettes against the sky, but they are kind of cliché and not that great.
The third reason I think, is I focused too much on the walking and too little on the photographing. It is very easy for us to get lost in our thoughts on a long walk, and the eager to get to the destination on time unconsciously makes us walk faster. Walking faster and wondering mind are our enemies. We want to stay calm, focused and curious. We want to detour, get lost and work the scene. 4 hours might seem like a lot, and in my wander, there were more than once I reminded myself to move slower, but still I made the wrong decision. The fear of missing out was huge on this one. I was afraid the good pictures were waiting for me ahead, not around me, so I spent little time working the scene on every spot I found.
However, it is not all pessimistic. I did make some visual notes, which are photos of the places I think have potential for good pictures. I took a lot of bad photos for experiments that day, which means next time the photos are going to be better. The fear of missing out is almost gone for that particular route. I even made some new friends who are also street photographers. With the help of several sunny days, I will be able to clear this area of the map and fill it up with pictures.
So, my advice for anyone having a bad day shooting? Do not push yourself too hard. You can always come back to the place some other day. If you find a spot with great potential, pin it on the map, shoot some pictures around it to remind your future self of the surroundings, take notes on what you think would make it shine. Maybe you need more people to walk past, some sunlight, some rain, or some reflection. The second tip is do not plan a route that is too long, or do not set a destination at all, so you don’t fall into the trap of cardio like me. Walk slowly, stay sharp, the picture is right beside you.
