Street Photography: Part 1

Wrigleyville Street Photography.

Lately, in an attempt to restore my blog fully, I’ve been going back through old photos to recreate old galleries. This means looking at a lot of pictures I haven’t looked at in years and laughing to myself at how bad they are. While I still have trouble even calling myself a “photographer” I can definitely see a lot of growth and there is a big difference from where I was just a few years ago.

I’ve been taking photography classes in an attempt to really understand photography and how to use my camera. I can finally shoot on fully manual when I want to and know how to adjust the aperture or shutter speed to get the results I want.

So, it’s funny, that in my latest class we were told to put our cameras on fully automatic.

I’ve spent the last few years learning how to not shoot on automatic and here a teacher is telling me to throw all of that out the window.

I started a Street Photography class last week. For the second time I signed up for photojournalism and for the second time it was cancelled on me. They asked if I wanted to take this class instead and I said sure.

It’s kind of the Jack Kerouac of photography. It’s about going out there and taking photos. About getting up close and personal with strangers. About capturing scene and emotion and immersing yourself.

And I think it’s probably what I need.

In travel there’s always a big debate over being a traveler or a tourist and what that means. I often feel like I’m a tourist, on the outside looking in. Seeing the sites the guidebooks tell me to. But I want to see more. I hope in the future I’ll be able to dive into different cultures and really connect with people and see a different world. And be able to photograph it from the inside.

Instead of the technicalities of the camera, this class will be working on a different side of my photography, and my life: fear. Not being afraid to take that photo. Not being afraid to get in close. Not being afraid to see things in a different way.

In our second week of street photography class we took a field trip to Wrigley Field while a Cubs game was getting started. We dispersed and wandered around, shooting what we saw.