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Behind A Photo Project: Taksim Skies

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A Look Behind A Smaller Photo Project

I recently finished a smaller photo project in Istanbul and thought I’d share a more detailed look behind making a photo project like this. The project, titled “Taksim Skies,” wasn’t a large, complex or highly involved project. It wasn’t covering some serious topic or made for deep meaning. It was more of a smaller scale, artistic photo project, while being somewhat experimental and lighthearted. Hopefully describing each aspect of the project can help you see what goes into making a small photo project like this, while also telling you more about the project itself.

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Removing Chaos in Taksim Square

While living in Istanbul, Turkey, I stayed just a five minute walk from Taksim Square. If you’ve ever been to Istanbul, you know Taksim Square is at the center of the city, and always full of life. The largest metro station is here, the busiest pedestrian street starts here, Gezi Park is here, and the famous Republic Monument is here. This is also the place for big events, protests and political rallies. So you get a constant chaos of locals, tourists, commuters, street sellers, and political activists. Even on a slow day.

A day didn’t go by where I didn’t have to walk through Taksim Square. I always had my camera with me and spent plenty of time photographing this active spot too. But with people constantly moving in all directions, you get messy, crowded backgrounds where ever you look. So you’re forced to attempt to organize the chaos when shooting Street Photography here. I’m not a fan of messy streets of people walking in every direction because most photos end up looking the same. A person walking in front of other people walking. 

Taksim Skies Gallery-21

So since I had to walk through this square every day, I decided to start a small photo project attempting to capture these people in solitude. I came up with the idea to use the sky as their backdrop and to take a few photos a day, over the summer, and see if anything could come out of it.

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Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week:
“Store Window Desire”

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Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Belgrade, Serbia on Prince Michael Street. This is the main pedestrian and shopping street in Belgrade. It’s a great area for Street Photography, while also being a good center location to start and finish a day of shooting in Belgrade. 

On this day, I was just finishing up a day of hitting the streets here. The sun was slowly setting, but still shining through in a few beams of light from between the store buildings. I found a spot where this was happening, which was also by a large store window that had a few lights displaying a provocative cologne ad. The ad was mostly in shadows, except the woman and man’s face were brightly lit up. 

I wanted to see if I could juxtapose this ad lit up by the lights with a real person lit up by the sunlight. Walking my way, I noticed this woman with red hair, almost matching the color of the ad. Her head was turned in a way where I thought I could place the man’s face over her shoulder in a similar position to how the woman in the ad was to him. So while exposing for the highlights for effect, I framed and timed the shot just as she walked by the ad in that exact position. Natural and artificial light working together.

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/8
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 400

City Street Guides by f.d. walker:
A Street Photography Guide to
Tbilisi, Georgia

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*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, safety concerns, street tips, and more for cities around the world. I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!

Tbilisi

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Announcing: New City Street Photography Guide Every Other Week All Year Long!

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City Street Guides by f.d. walker

*Every Other Wednesday*

I have a lot planned for the new year, all over the world, but outside of photography, this blog will be my biggest focus. I will be putting most of my free time into making sure it’s filled with new content. For starters, I will now be posting 4 times a week with a schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. 

To really get things into gear, I’m announcing a new City Street Photography Guide every other Wednesday, all year long. I put a ton of work and time into these guides. I personally research, explore and shoot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera. Find the best streets and spots for shooting, sample walks, things to capture, safety concerns, general reaction, street tips, and plenty of personal street photography captured there. For cities around the world. 

Before visiting a new city, it can be extremely difficult to find good information on photographing the city, outside of views and sunsets. This is especially true for Street Photographers, or any photographers interested in capturing uncontrolled life. Without enough knowledge on the city beforehand, you can waste a lot of time after you arrive, instead of spending that time capturing the city. So I hope these city guides can be helpful for other photographers.

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Sample Guide to Istanbul, Turkey

Even if you’re not planning on visiting the city yet, these guides can help you find out about new cities and maybe add them to your list for photography. I’ll also fill them with my own Street Photography captured there, so you can just enjoy the photos and see the city, if you like.

And if you still have any questions about shooting in the cities I create a guide for, I’ll leave it open for you to comment those questions to me below the guide! I want to make these guides as valuable as possible for you all, so you can always add any ideas on improvements and addition requests in the comments too. I will gear them towards visitors, so ease of getting around and safety of areas will take some extra importance. I personally like going into some of the edgier areas, but won’t advise others to do so unless you ask :)

I worked in over 15 cities across 12 countries last year and have plans for even more travel and photography this year. So I’m more than ready to start supplying plenty of guides for you all. I’ve done some revisions from the first few I created so you can check out my last Street Photography Guide to Istanbul, Turkey to get a good idea of what’s coming, and then stay tuned for tomorrow’s Guide to Tbilisi, Georgia to start off the new “every other Wednesday” schedule!

(In addition, I’ll group all the City Street Photography Guides here as they post.)

Cheers!

 

Quotes For The Streets: Mark Twain – Eyes See What Your Imagination Allows

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“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

― Mark Twain

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Not many have been as quotable as Mark Twain, but this is one of my favorites when applied to photography.

How Does it Relate to Photography?

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Street Shot Sundays
Photo of the Week: “Polka Dot Flats”

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Street Shot Sundays Story & Stats

Story:

This Sunday’s Street Shot of the Week was taken in Belgrade, Serbia near Republic Square. For a change, I chose a different type of street shot than usual this week. 

I was walking down a narrow street from Republic Square towards Terazije. At one point, I looked behind me and noticed two middle-aged women walking the same direction as me. The first thing I noticed was the flats they were wearing. In the mostly colorless, haggard streets of Belgrade, the baby blue polka dot flats especially stood out. The woman wearing these retro styled flats was also carrying a large bag. There was basically no room on the narrow sidewalk, and the available background was either a car cluttered street or an ugly building. So I decided to try to create an interesting shot of just their shoes as they walked by. 

I sat down on the door steps of a building and waited for them to walk by. Just as they did, I quickly took this shot. I tried to use her bag to help add even more focus to her shoes, while also timing it so I captured three feet spaced apart into almost a triangle. Lately, I’ve been interested in capturing people walking from this perspective against the street. It might not be interesting to most, but something about it is to me. 

Stats:

  • Camera: Fujifilm Xpro1
  • Lens: Fujinon XF 18mm 
  • Focal Length: 18mm (27mm full frame equivalent)
  • Aperture: f/4
  • Shutter Speed: 1/500
  • ISO: 800

7 First Impressions of Rome, Italy
(From a Street Photography Perspective)

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In the middle of my Eastern European Street Photography Tour, after Kraków and Prague, I had to make a detour to Rome, Italy to join the StreetHunters.net team for the filming of their new Street Hunt: Rome episode, which covers a Street Photography walk of Rome. This gave me the opportunity to be a part of scouting the city for production, be included as a Street Photographer in its filming, and spend some extra time there devoted to more Street Photography. We even had a local photographer to help guide us, which made experiencing this historic city that much better.

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Rome is at the top of my list of cities because of all it has to offer and how much of it you can’t find anywhere else. Walking around Rome is truly an experience like no other. So here are my first impressions of Rome, from my personal Street Photography perspective…

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Master Profiles: Tony Ray-Jones

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* “Master Profiles” is a series profiling all the great photographers of uncontrolled life. Unlike the rest of the blog, I’m doing these in a straight profile format to make it easy for quick access to facts, quotes and knowledge on all the masters. I’ll also group them together here every time I add a new one.

Profile:

Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972)

English photographer whose photographic career only spanned one decade, but changed British photography forever.

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