Street Photography At Night

Ok, it has taken an embarassingly long time to sit down and write another blog post, let alone this blog post. Let’s just say a lot has happened since my last post. The main thing is, I’m writing a blog post. I really should do this more often…not least because more regular writing might mean I cut the waffle. Anyway…

I’m sure I’m no different to virtually all landscape photographers in finding landscape photography in the summer a bit of a chore. Sunrise is too early, sunset is too late, the middle of the day is just harsh light and blue skies (how awful). It’s a challenge, and not in a skill-enhancing way. It is because of this that I’m glad I have dabbled in street photography over the years, as the conditions that aren’t great for landscape photography, make for great conditions on the streets.

I’m still learning a lot about what makes a good street photo, but I’ve enjoyed getting out and about and learning more about a quite different way of shooting. Whereas I often find landscape photography to be quite tranquil and often (although not always!!) a relatively sedate process, street photography forces me to think quicker, to spot opportunities and to pay close attention to details. I feel like, as a result, my street photography and landscape photography have helped each other.

I’m still yet to really figure out my “style”, but the one thing I’ve really enjoyed lately is shooting on the streets at night. And fortunately, given we are in October, there’s loads of opportunities ahead! So much have I enjoyed this, I even treated myself to the 33mm f1.4 Fuji lens back at the beginning of the summer and I haven’t regretted it one bit. The things I’ve particularly enjoyed in the evenings is making use of the street lights and, most especially, the condensation on restaurant/cafe windows. As someone who feels a little uncomfortable taking photos of people, having them obscured slightly not only makes my life easier, but also makes the photos more interesting. And then when you have rain and interesting lights to play with…well, that’s the cherry on the cake.

33mm 1/250s f1.4 ISO 3200

Of course, shooting at night isn’t quite as straightforward as during the day. During the day, I’d happily put headphones on and wander around. At night I’m of course needing to be hyper-conscious of what’s going on around me, whether I’m shooting locally or in a major city. I’d prefer wherever possible to shoot with others in the evening, but if that’s not possible then I’ll still go out but just ensure I’m extra vigilant and avoid any places where there are few people around.

33mm 1/250s f1.4 ISO 320

In terms of my settings, I stick to around f1.4 (obviously) and try not to drop below 1/250th unless I’m shooting something static. I set my ISO to a maximum of 3200 and then leave the ISO decisions up to the camera. My priorities are that I keep to f1.4 and 1/250th for the kind of shots I’m looking for to keep the ISO low and the pictures free from motion blur. To cap off the settings, I go for exposure compensation of anything between -1 to -2 to protect the highlights. These settings largely work well for me, although I do sometimes encounter some strobing outside some shopfronts, which I think is largely due to the shutter speed and the LED lighting. Other than that, I tend to find those settings do the job.

33mm 1/250s f1.4 ISO 3200

With the nights drawing in and more low light conditions to work with (and obviously this time of year is pretty intense with lights up everywhere), I’m looking forward to getting out more often with that 1.4 lens and learning more about street photography at night.

What kind of photographer even am I?

Those of you who follow me on social media will know I am currently in Spain on holiday. At the time of writing, I’m just about coming to the end of the two week break and mentally preparing for the journey home (and the impending 14 day quarantine we will have to endure - you can read more on my thoughts on this here). Obviously, part of my mental preparation is sitting down in my in-laws’ study and writing this blog post. Horses for courses I guess…

One of the things that I am forced to confront whenever we are in southern Spain (Sevilla to be precise), is my approach to photography. Particularly in terms of the landscape/seascape photography I’ve come to enjoy over the past few years in various part of Kent. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), landscape photography here in and around Sevilla is a bit…well…tricky. Whilst the sunrises are very do-able this time of year (currently around 0730 which is very pleasurable!), there is so little in the way of cloud and interest in the sky, it makes it very difficult to get interesting landscape shots. Effectively every day is cloudless and hot. The sun rises - there’s no cloud. The sun sets - there’s no cloud. The sun is in the sky - it’s hard to bear being anywhere for anything beyond an hour or two (by way of example, it was 28 degrees at sunrise the other day…and easily 40 in the sun during the day). As a result, I have to adapt and make use of the other opportunities available to me and that means…street photography.

Not long before we left for Spain, I took the plunge and bought a Fuji XT-3. I’d been in love with it since I first saw it a couple of years ago, and it became my dream camera. Having cashed in my season ticket, I figured it was now or never. So I picked one up along with a 23mm lens (35mm equivalent full frame). I should point out here this isn’t to replace my Nikon D7200 (which I love). No, this is to complement it. I love the D7200 for landscapes and seascapes. It fulfils all my needs on that front. What it is less good for, is carrying around as a casual camera for on the fly photos and street/travel photography. Which is where the XT-3 comes in.

Although Andalucia is a struggle for landscape photography (at least when we come here…I know some great spots, but they don’t really work this time of year due to the sky etc), it comes into it’s own for street photography. The harsh light makes for lots of interesting deep shadows, making for good potential compositions (whether I see them or not is a different matter…). This is particularly helped in Sevilla with the interesting architecture acting as a backdrop (particularly handy with a 35mm equivalent lens).

In terms of my approach, I’m not the most confident of people, so I am not so keen on outright approaching people, but equally I’m nervous about the potential for people to approach me and ask what I am doing (funnily enough yesterday a Spaniard was shouting at me because he thought I was taking pictures of him when I was actually taking photos of some bikes!). So I tend to find places where there is an interesting backdrop or interesting light and use that as the composition, waiting for people to walk through. I make it easier on myself by telling myself I am taking pictures of buildings or light as my subject and if someone walks into the frame, then they are purely incidental. I’m not sure whether this is a good approach overall, but I feel it is helpful as I am feeling my way around street photography.

Experimenting on the streets has got me thinking a lot as well about the old question of “what type of photographer am I?”. I realise I describe myself as a landscape/seascape/street photographer, but I also like woodland photography (which I guess is a subset of landscape) and abstract. So what’s my genre? Maybe it’s just “photography”? I have been thinking about this a lot since watching one of Sean Tucker’s videos (see below), and I’m thinking less about what kind of pigeon hole do I want to be in, and more, what kinds of things do I enjoy taking photos of. Other than sports and wildlife, I don’t think there is much I don’t like taking photos of.

It’s very easy to get into that mindset of curating a brand. Making sure your social media is consistent and, particularly with Instagram, ensuring your feed has a particularly style. But does that really matter? Maybe if you are a professional with a particular approach that will attract clients looking for a specific thing, but for the rest of us, surely it’s a case of, as Sean Tucker says, taking whatever photographs makes us happy? If they garner likes, great. If they result in approaches for work, even better. But for me, my focus is on trying to learn new skills, improve my photography in different ways and, ultimately, enjoy what I’m doing. It’s one of the reasons I’ve not heavily gone down the road of selling prints. I feel that getting in too deep with additional pressures will result in me losing my love for getting out with my camera. I don’t want to get bogged down into what sells and what doesn’t, and so I am very much taking the approach of “if you like a photo and would like a print, feel free to drop me a line and we can chat about it”.

The bottom line for me is photography is about getting out there and taking the photographs I enjoy, in whatever genre that so happens to be. Some people will always try to fit others into categories (as well the photos themselves), but as a wise man once said: oh well, whatever, never mind.