Sometimes, life gets too busy , so I simply grab the camera and hit the road to do some street photography.
How to Do Street Photography
last Saturday, late afternoon, I did just that. I headed out into the mean sweet streets of Berlin – a bright sunny day, tourists still swarming, and lots of opportunities to make something work for me in street photography.
I headed straight down to Hackescher Markt in Mitte.
I spend a lot of my street photography walks and time down by the River Spree. I like wide open spaces, it allows me to get a good feeling for the urban landscape, see what people are doing, and zero in on a small area – with my feet – then, I settle down and wait, take shots, and watch. The next shot will show up any time soon.
Complacency in Street Photography
But, I’m becoming complacent with my street photography walks; I need to challenge myself more, and head down to areas of Berlin where i might feel a little uncomfortable. Heavy foot traffic, narrow streets, cars sweeping by every second or two, and trams, buses, sirens, and all the noises of a busy and tight little spot in Berlin’s sweltering summer of 2024.
Above; Cafe at Monbijou Park, mitte. Berlin Street Photography 2024.
RAW Gelände, Berlin. Berlin Street Photography 2024.
Street photography is all about observation, and what we do with those observations.
Learning to see clearly, to notice structures, light, shadows and how they all fall together into a frame of colour and line.
I often hear other street photographers asking how they can get over their boredom, or a feeling of staleness.
Challenging yourself in street photography settings will put you in a position where you feel uncomfotable. It’s as if you are walking into the unknown, don’t quite know what to do or look at, but after a while the mind starts to put things together.
You are a photographer. Compositon is the first sense of order that the brain looks for, then undestanding things within that composition – you’ve already started to frame ideas, experiment with various possibilities.
That moment when you walk along a street and see something, it catches your eye. You stop and compose an idea, lift the camera and see it through the viewfinder. That’s the beginning of a street photo.
It doesn’t take long if you are serious enough about getting through the confusing moments where you feel drab and weary about being in the street. Searching, looking, stopping, starting, lifting the camera, checking light and shadows. Then, the moment comes when your brain offers you a good idea about something you’ve looked at already, you lift the camera, square up, compose, frame and shoot; a street shot is born.
Lovers walking through Hackescher Markt, Berlin Street Photography, 2024
It’s summer in Berlin and that makes things sweeter. Looking around the street and seeing shadows and bright lights that divide objects, shadowed faces with wite teeth and red smiles can make finding a shot easier. It can also decieve into believing that it’s too easy.
A Street Photo a person walking along in the sunshine is not a street photograph if there isn’t any real content.
The content can reflect your own way of seeing the world. The colours, the composition, the dark lines that cut through bleached facades.
Hackescher Markt Tram and People. Berlin Street Photography, 2024
All of the little things that we notice help us create personal statements about our experience of the world of street photography.
Even in times of boredom there is opportunity to push yourself harder and discover that it leads to a step forwards with your street photography.
Learn to experiment in street photography and with what you see, don’t be afraid to make daft mistakes – they always lead to better understanding; life is a series of mistakes with interludes of success.