I was out and about in the today doing Berlin Urban Street Photography. Camera in hand, sun low in the sky.
Looking for colours, walking, crowds and inividual figures populating the streets.
I decided that I wanted to find a composition with strong colour, and create a focal point that would serve as a well framed Berlin street shot.
Street photography is everything you intend it to be.
It’s always one moment to the next. It’s always about intentions: strong intentions driven by a desire to create something good, interesting and worth keeping.
Intention that creates decisive feelings that lead to eye opening moments that may only be fleeting.
A shadow cast by a pair of legs – there one moment, gone the next.
No need to think too much, just raise the camera and take the shot.
Long ago I decided that street photography, for me, is about art. It’s my opportunity to let go and find out what’s inside of me, and see what I can do with the desire to make sense of the visual world around me.
Urban Street photography can have a person in the frame, or not. When a person serves as a part of a composition, then they fit well into the scheme of my thoughts, when the sunshine and shadows cast light and darkness into fascinating forms, I don’t wait for a human figure to walk into the frame.
It’s certainly getting late into the year, and the sun is dipping low early in the day. I’m glad of the opportunity to still get some sunny days and a few colourful shots of Berlin’s streets.
Berlin can be a gritty cold place at times. It can also offer up gentle flows and human traffic that create fascinating swathes of composition that a camera can stop and keep.
The small corners of town where the sun still shines and people gather for coffee, and the last rays of sunshine, are always the beacons that beckon.
These photos were taken with my Canon Rebel. The 750D, and a Sigma 17 mm to 50 mm lens. An excellent combination of good technology.
The Canon Rebel does a great job of picking up colour and texture – so long as you are close enough.
It’s a light weight. A touch screen makes it quik to control, change things, or to swipe through the shots as you travel home on the Berlin Ubahn.
I like it, that’s why I’m happy to leave the Canon 5D Mark IV at home on those rushed days where I ant to take some street photography shots but have to be somewhere else afterwards. It slots into my shoulder bag easily.
Urban Lifestyles are stressful. People seek ways to relieve that stress. It could be yoga, martial arts, boozing, or street photography. It’s up to the individual.
The street photography above depicts the intentions of what people want: to relieve the stress of a fast life, to slow down and enjoy the day.
The shot I took reminds me of an art collage by Richard Hamilton, “Modern LIfe”. A combination of collaged TV set, body builder, comfy living room with poster art on the walls. A reflection of all the “mod-cons” that post war modern life offered us.
My street photo above reminds me of how people are becoming less conscious of other people around themsleves.
They are pratcising their meditation outside in the street, they do calisthenics on a park bench, and practise the art of combat in public places.
Most of the people that I observe on the Ubahn, in the street walking, sitting on benches to relax have their ears plugged with earbuds to listen to commercial music – okay, maybe some of them are listening to Hendrix or Zappa, but as I walk past, I hear the familiar searing noise of modern beats.
Urban street photography can be anything you want it to be, so long as you include a street, intentions, and look for a strongly desicive moment that allows you to get exited about what you are doing.
