Saints Alive
I have been doing a little experiment lately. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t look at what I was photographing. What if I just “shot from the hip?” Literally. Well, I discovered that I like it AND it ain’t a bad way to shoot.
For the last couple days, I’ve literally been carrying my camera by my side, somewhere around my hip area, with my finger on the shutter and walking as I normally would. I haven’t bothered with framing or cared whether I was moving or not…. my camera was down so low that there was no way I could look through the screen or the viewfinder. I basically let my hand do the directing, moving in one direction or another, up or down, side to side… that was it.
I discovered that in low light conditions, moving wasn’t always the best idea. Sometimes I would stop and look at something while my camera hand was moving around and snapping away at something else. It’s like I gave my hand and camera free rein to do whatever they wanted, I let them have a mind of their on.
Okay, now I know that sounds weird and maybe it is however, it’s very freeing. Think about it, you’re not worrying about whether a shot is framed just right or not, or if the lighting is okay or not. And when you look at the shots after wards, it’s amusing to seeing what shows up. There were some things I photographed that I didn’t remember even seeing much less shooting! Now don’t get me wrong, some of the pictures were just bad and those I dumped but others, were actually quite nice and if I had been looking through the view finder, I might not have “seen” them in the same way, and I would have probably shot them in a more “normal” way and not gotten anything near as interesting.
I have a dear friend who is one of my all time favorite photographers… he also teaches college level photography. I remember he once said to me that when you’ve got a camera in your hand, you’ve got to do the “camera dance.” Meaning, don’t be afraid to move around, try something different. Standing there with the camera to your face, looking through the viewfinder or screen can be quite boring… stoop down, stand on something, get up close, do whatever it is you need to do to get an interesting shot and most of all… don’t be afraid to push the button.
Well, for the last couple days, I did a different kind of “camera dance”…. I took my camera for a walk and let it do the shooting.
How cool is that! Here are a few more shots to give you some ideas.
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Walking Boy
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Red shoes
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Iron work
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Fruit stand girl
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The Toolman
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Chorro girls
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2 Girls on the street
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Saints Alive
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