My first attempt at street photography

Last weekend, I got to do something very unusual for me.

I got a day out! Pumpkin stayed at home with Daddy-man and I spent some time in London with my ‘big’ camera (which has been terribly neglected lately). It was actually the first time I’ve had a whole day to myself since before the baby was born. I missed her terribly as the day wore on, but it was also nice to focus on something else for a few hours.

The day was spent with a group of photographers. I found this group, years ago, on the Meetup website and I’ve been to a couple of other meet-ups with them. They’re always great learning experiences and I always find the meetings to be the perfect mix of socialising and photography.

I always leave the meet-ups with great plans to go to another one very soon, but then life gets in the way and years actually go by without me attending another one. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again this time!

Anyway, the theme of this meet-up was B&W Street Photography: Beauty in the Mundane. We met at Westbourne Park Tube station and headed to Portobello Road Market.

Now, I have to admit that street photography is a type of photography that I don’t really get. There are two main things that bother me about it. One is that I feel like many examples are just high-contrast black-and-white snapshots of street scenes.

The other is that I feel like some street photographers intrude on the lives of vulnerable people just for an interesting photo.

This is one reason why I could never be a photojournalist or nature photographer. I couldn’t see someone suffering, take a photo of it and move on. I also couldn’t watch as a lion ate a baby gazelle. I’d be running on to the savannah, waving my arms and screaming like a mad woman to scare away the little animal before he became lunch. Sorry, lion.

So, while I felt a bit uncomfortable with the photo assignment, I also saw it as an opportunity to try something different. It’s always good to step out of your safety zone once in a while, right?

Although some of the more seasoned street photographers on the meet-up seemed a bit bored by the market atmosphere, it was perfect for me. I started out feeling very apprehensive about taking photographs of strangers, but the street performers were more than happy to have their photos taken. That helped get me started.

The people working in the various stalls also seemed fine having their photos taken, particularly in the food stalls. I’m sure that’s because tourists are always taking their photos.

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Once I got a little more into it, I found a place where I could stand back with my zoom lens and take photos from a distance. In all of these cases, I was so far away from my subjects, they had no idea they were being photographed. However, these were later critiqued as being portraits rather than street photographs. Fair enough.

I also tried a bit of stealth photography, holding my camera down by my side and snapping the shutter without looking at the screen or view finder. My aim was terrible though, and only got a couple that weren’t random pictures of the sky or tops of buildings.

Street photography wasn’t my only challenge on the day. There was also the tricky theme – beauty in the mundane – which I’m not sure I ever managed to capture.

All the photos were supposed to be in black and white, but there were a few that I took that needed to be in colour. I don’t think these really qualify as street photography anyway. They were just interesting things that I saw.

Near the top of Portobello Road, there were some really lovely murals, which depicted various moments in history – as if you were looking through the walls into the past.

I think they were very cleverly done, and I’d like to go back and take a closer look. I was running out of time when I got to them and I didn’t really get a chance to look at them properly.

Of course, I’d also like to go back to the market to eat the food and look at the items being sold. AND I spent the day on Portobello Road, and never once sang the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. So, that needs to be rectified too.

Portobello Road, Portobello Road,

Street where the riches of ages are stowed.

Anything and everything a chap can unload,

Is sold off the barrows at Portobello Road.

Would I do street photography again? I’m not sure. I know it’s good to get out of my comfort zone, but I’m just not sure this type of photography is something I’m interested in.

I’m also not a huge fan of the photos I ended up with on the day – but that may be partly down to inexperience (and being out of practice, since I haven’t been using my ‘big’ camera much lately.)

Anyway, I had fun and tried something new. And, when we were done, we headed to a little cafe called the Book and Kitchen, where I drank some lovely herbal tea and had the most delicious piece of peach cake. Mmmm. Any day is good when it ends in cake, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

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