From Selfies to Street Photography

From+Selfies+to+Street+Photography

Kiana Farhangi, Journalist

Street photography is a valuable form of artwork, most people today are familiar with their cameras as taking selfies and pictures of one another are common. Anyone can become a more savvy photographer by traveling to different places, and seeing ordinary things the way a seasoned street photographer might. Street photographers are able to share fresh new perspectives with people who may not get to see what they see otherwise. Walking around the same streets each day, seeing the same things, is probably not very interesting to most people. Through the lense of a camera, photographers see much more than ordinary. Staff writer Kiana Farhangi looked into different photography techniques that have to do with lighting, the importance of focusing on one thing or on a theme, finding patterns, getting down low for a worm’s eye view or searching for a bird’s eye view and more all to help normal phone photographers become more powerful behind the lense.

How can one become a street photographer? By looking at the world in new and different ways. Try going outside and using different, natural lighting to help transform what might normally be just a memory and make it into a photograph that lasts. There are specific hours of the day that can be spectacular for photos- what photographers call the blue hour happens  about 15-30 minutes after the sun sets while the golden hour is the last hour of the light prior to the sun set. Paying specific attention to lighting can make a normal beach photo more visually beautiful. Taking time to focus on patterns can also make photos more interesting, seeing something for its parts rather than the whole. There are things that you visualize from afar that are dull but up close become fascinating. The photographer can add some flavor to a shot by making the shot wide or getting a new vantage point allowing him/her to shoot from a “worm’s eye view” which is a shot from the ground looking up. Photographers should also play with different settings like using classic black and white photography filters.

The next time you are outside, go to an unfamiliar place where you haven’t been so you can shoot a new landscape, from a new angle, at a different time of day. You should pick something that you are interested in; look around the city for things that hold patterns or shapes within them. The point is to try and see the world differently, to adjust your vision and  develop a new skill that might help you have an eye that sees boring places as extraordinary places.