Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides
*City Street Profiles is a series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities across the world. One of the biggest things I found lacking on the internet was Street Photography info for specific cities so you can be ready to shoot when traveling to a new city. Find the best spots to shoot, what to capture, safety concerns, street tips, and more for cities around the world. (I have personally shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for.)
One of the main reasons for all my travel is my “100 Cities” book I’m currently working on. This is my main personal project and I hope to complete it in 2-3 years. I have around a quarter finished now and should be about half way done by the end of 2016.
It’s only tentatively titled, but just like the name says, the final book will contain photos from one hundred cities. There is more to it than that, though, so since this project is such a big part of the blog, I thought I’d give you all some details behind it.
The final book will include photos from 100 cities spanning 6 continents. I’m focusing on spreading the cities out as much as I can to give a range of countries, cultures, life and scenery. I’m also focusing mostly on the bigger and more well known cities in different countries, but I will try to mix in a few smaller cities.
I’ll visit and photograph more than 100 cities to be safe, but depending on the photos and curation, some won’t make the final cut. Some cities will have more than one photo that make it into the book too, as I plan on including around 150 photos.
Life in color. I’m focusing on color for this book so there will be no black & white. I’m looking for color to be an important aspect visually. I have a different view on “color vs black & white” photography than some photographers. For me, color contains more life. To quote the famous street photographer Joel Meyerowitz:
“A color photograph gives you a chance to study and remember how things look and feel in color. It enables you to have feelings along the full wavelength of the spectrum, to retrieve emotions that were perhaps bred in you from infancy… Color is always part of experience. Grass is green, not gray; flesh is color, not gray. Black and white is a very cultivated response.”
Another reason I chose color is that I feel it captures a specific time better. In my opinion, black & white can have a nostalgic, older feeling it adds, while removing many aspects of the time, while color adds and reflects the time. I do appreciate black & white photography, and it has its own strengths, but I just don’t feel it adds to this project like color can.
I’m spreading out the cities across 6 continents and many countries so I can show a wide variety of life around the world. Travel provides a look at so many different cultures with their own history, customs, scenery, and life. It’s fascinating to see how different we all are and live.
At the same time, it can also be fascinating to see some of the similarities we all, as humans, share, even in the most different of environments. I hope to capture some of this too within the variety of cities.
Photography can capture a people, time and place all in one split second click of the shutter. For me, this might be the most powerful thing about photography. When looking at older photos, you can see a time and place that is no longer possible to see in real life. Documenting the world we live in during times that have passed is so interesting and important to me that I hope I can capture some of that in this project.
Sometimes, ordinary life can be extraordinary. This usually goes unseen and passes without a thought, though. Finding and capturing these moments and scenes within day-to-day life is a big focus of the project. Capturing them candidly is another focus. Authentic moments can never be duplicated exactly and I want that to show in the book.
At the center of all the photos will be humanity. This will be the primary focus of each photo, but there won’t be a focus on pulling emotional strings. The focus will be on capturing humanity authentically in daily life and letting the viewer pull what they want from it. I will try to show this using a mix of both humanity “up close and personal” and in layered scenes. There won’t be any portraits, though, as candidness will be central to the capturing of humanity.
There will be more to the project than this, but hopefully this gives everyone a good idea of what’s going on with it. The whole time working on the project, I’ll continue writing plenty of photography related posts for each city I go too, including first impressions, street photos, street photography tips, interviews with local street photographers, and in-depth Street Photography guides for most of the cities. And if there’s any requests for new posts that might be helpful while I’m working on this project, just comment below!
I’ve created a page listing where I’ll add each I city I visit, in order, with the most recent number being the city I am currently in. I’ll include any upcoming and planned cities too. So you can always check back to see where I’m at, where I’ve been, and what cities are next.
I’ll also include city links to provide an easy way for finding blog posts I’ve already created for the specific cities I’ve traveled to.
And if you have any questions or city recommendations, feel free to comment below!
Cheers!
f.d. walker
Back before I started my Eastern European Street Photography trip, I first had to stop in Berlin to drop my Leica M9 off for sensor replacement (A whole other story). After being told via email that this would be a 10 day fix, when I got to the Leica store, that quickly changed to an 8 week fix.
So I ended up shortening my stay in Berlin since I’d have to come back anyway. Another reason for the shortened stay was the Berlin weather. I was blessed with one nice day, but the rest were dark, grey and very rainy. So my Street Photography plans for Berlin didn’t go as I’d hoped. I wasn’t going to post about Berlin until my next visit, but I decided to at least write one of my Street Photography First Impressions posts for Berlin so it wasn’t a total waste.
So here are 7 first impressions on Berlin, from my Street Photographer perspective.
I’ve decided to change up my photographer interviews and create a new series for the year. It’s a play on “20 questions” and I’ll try to mix them up with some different questions than you might get in other interviews. Some serious, some not so much. I’ll also be focusing the series on some of the best street photographers from the cities I visit around the world.
I just finished up a few weeks in India that included a stop in Bangalore, home of the very talented photographer, Arindam Thokder. Arindam is also a member of one of my favorite photo collectives out there, That’s Life, which I highly recommend checking out. Arindam’s work is full of life. He uses color, light, shadow and an observant eye to capture the special out of daily life in Bangalore.
So a big thank you to Arindam for being the first to participate in the new series! And now time for 20 Questions in Bangalore, India with Arindam Thokder…
*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!
My Eastern European Street Photography Tour ended in Budapest, Hungary, which was a great city to finish it off. I enjoyed all the cities I worked and photographed during this trip, but if I had to choose, Kiev and Budapest would be my favorites. Budapest has become a top spot for travel in Europe, and it’s easy to see why. The city has so much to offer that it would also be one of my top cities to live in Europe. Check out my 7 first impressions of Budapest to find out some of the reasons why.
And as far as Street Photography goes, the city grows on you the longer you spend exploring all it has to offer. So here’s 33 photos that I was able to capture during my time in Budapest…
After Belgrade, I made my way up to Budapest, Hungary for some work and decided to stay longer than planned, while also making a short trip to Bratislava. When I first arrived in Budapest, the weather wasn’t good, the light was bad, and I wasn’t finding much to shoot. So why did I stay longer? Because there’s something special about Budapest that I didn’t want to leave yet. Fortunately, the weather and light got better, and I started finding photos too.
Living in Istanbul and traveling around Eastern Europe, I was constantly hearing about how great Budapest is from travelers. It had the feeling of the “new european city” being added to every traveler’s list. Everyone’s always trying to find the new city in Europe that has so much to offer, but hasn’t been overrun with tourists or inflated prices yet. And Budapest is that city right now.
I remember my first time in Prague years ago, before everyone found out about it. Budapest has that similar feeling. And it’s great.
So here are my first impressions of Budapest, from my personal Street Photographer perspective…
While working in Budapest, I decided to take a quick 2 hour train ride up to Bratislava, Slovakia to spend a few days in a city I didn’t know too much about. It’s not at the top of most people’s lists to visit when it comes to European capitals, but I’m more than glad I spent some time exploring this unique little city with my camera. It has a relaxing vibe with history, character and a ruggedness that comes without the fast paced chaos of bigger capital cities.
So here’s 33 photos that I was able to capture during my time in Bratislava…
*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!
Thinking of photography in the context of a series or project can be a great way to improve. It gives you a theme and vision to focus on, and then teaches you how to bring that vision to reality.
Afterwards, when you’re out shooting photography without any project in mind, it still helps you learn to be more effective in capturing your personal vision with each shot.
A serious project should take years, not days, but you don’t have to let that intimidate you. Working on smaller, easier projects can be valuable too.
