Trust your instinct
Have you ever taken a shot, you love it very much, but while reviewing you find out it is not “theoretically perfect”? You still cling to it emotionally, but it does not fit in with the guidelines in the textbook. You wonder if the shadow might be too dark; some people’s limbs are cut off halfway in the shot; the frame is crook; or the subject is not at one of the strong points of the 1/3 composition. Since you are going to put your picture out there for the whole world to see, you are afraid of the coming critics of the experts, or maybe you are just learning the craft, and you sincerely believe that you are doing it wrong. What should you do now? In short, how can you balance feelings and theories, since we all know that checking all the boxes in the textbook might result in many correct but soulless photos.
On the street, you must trust your instinct, otherwise the moment or the emotion will be gone before you know it. In the image below, all I noticed at the time was the shape of light and the men talking in group. Right after I took the picture, the men noticed my presence with the camera and took off. Vietnamese people in general, or in my case, Hanoians are pretty nice, but they are also very shy in front of the camera. They either get out of your way or pose randomly. I am not the kind of photographer who talks to the locals until I become invisible to them, so I try to be subtle and quick from the beginning. Anyway, my instinct paid off pretty well, since I figured out the shape the light made was somewhat a heart-shape, the three men are perfectly positioned inside that shape, and one of them are looking at my direction. Imagine if I had thought too much and walked around them trying to get the perfect center composition, I would have looked crazy suspicious. I call this one “Love for the street”.
I was on my way to meet my friend in a cafe when I took this picture. It was around 6.30 in the morning, the sun was low enough to cast long shadows of objects and create silhouettes of them everywhere. As the bus came by, I decided to shoot in burst mode, hoping that there would be a lonely person in one of the rows. Well, there he was. I stood there for a couple more minutes to try again multiple times, but none of the other shots make it to the selection.
This “instinct” I have mentioned is not just pure luck or magic. It is built up over time, it grows within you when you have more experience shooting, read more books, study more pictures, paintings, movies, when you go out more and observe more. It is just you unconsciously “summon” all you have learnt overtime, mix them with your emotion and a spark of creativity at the time.
Do not get me wrong, that does not mean I am against working the scene, but quite the opposite. After shooting the first shot with the subjects I have a feeling for, I will stick around, shoot from different angles and settings, capture consecutive actions of the subjects, try to fix the problems of the original shot if any, and pray for a decisive moment to unfold.
I was walking against the sun as usual, minding my own business when this woman started to open her street vendor. When she removed the nylon cover on her stall then folded it, her shadow was cast on the cover, which is interesting enough for me to click the shutter. Seeing what she was about to do I came running with my Ricoh GR3 firing all the way, fearing I would miss the moment. I did not even have the time to look at the result image, since I was shooting against the sun, and everybody knows in such situation the LCD would be pretty much useless. Once I got the shot (I thought), with her figure somewhat recognizable on the cover, I started to move around a little, thinking maybe if I could include her in the frame alongside with her shadow, it would be a stronger image. I kept on shooting while walking around her until she finished folding the thing, which was like 10 seconds, and I got exactly what I want. Both the woman and her shadow are in the frame, and the shadow figure is just something else.
Unlike many other photographers, I select and edit my photos right after the shoots. Whenever I get back home, I backup all the files into my computer and cloud account, then go through them immediately. At the time, I would be flooded with the hype from the walk. I know the story of every image, so I am attached to some more than the others. I do not want to waste any of the emotions I get from walking the street, and normally when I should, I know what I need to do to complete the photo in post-production. I want the stories to be preserved as much as possible, so I select and edit the photos the way I feel right. This is by no means the end of it though. After every few months, I come back with a fresh eye. Now the hype has faded, I see everything in a more “logical” way, I analyze everything from the color, the composition, the tiny details at the corners, etc. This filtering process happens a few times before I finally decide to delete any files, to make sure I do not miss a potential good shot or get sick of the original files that I have chosen because of the blindness the heart.
When I saw the trees of the Thanh Xuan Park from above, I just knew I had to take the shot. There was something so peaceful about the scene, and since it was at noon when I came there, not many people were around, which added to the mood. I took a few pictures, and at the time I was so disappointed since in none of them the subjects are completely visible. It was until I looked through them all on a big screen, it became clear to me that the human figure doesn’t have to be completely clean. The texture of the trees are just perfect for me, and the guy riding a bike behind the trees even emphasize the feeling of loneliness and serenity of the frame. I have to thank myself for clicking the shutter anyway, for trusting the feeling in my heart.
