1. Intro
2. Gallery
3. Reflection
4. Conclusion

Intro

“Wake up! Today we’re gonna enjoy our day off, take ourselves on a lil’ date, and do street photography with our homie Jon!”

It’s Friday and my job is observing the day before July 4th, Independence Day in the US. For me it’s a 3-day weekend with the cherry on top of Santa Fe’s First Friday Art Walks. I’ve never dedicated my evening to street photography nor thought about doing it until I discovered my coworker, Jon aka @babbsbystreetphotos (Instagram), did street photography. I’ve probably done some form of street photography in the past but this time around, it felt different; more on that later…

For brief context, First Friday Art Walks consists of food vendors, artists, art galleries, and local/small businesses coming out to Santa Fe Drive in Colorado. The importance of Santa Fe Drive is that it is Denver’s Art District. Furthermore, the Art District on Santa Fe is part of the La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood.

But first, what’s street photography? The best way I can describe street photography is: photographing people and/or things in relation to other people or spaces. According to Brittanica, it’s defined as “a genre of photography that records everyday life in a public place”…

I’m starting a new series on REVIZE.BLOG. It will be called “ON THE STREET”. I’ll be uploading the photos in a gallery form and if I’m in the mood, I’ll write some stuff up. Being that it’s my first time going to shoot with the intention of doing street photography, I got some things I want to share which you’ll get to read in the reflection portion of this post.

Enough yapping and let’s get to the photos! These first 3 photos were my warm-up shots. I was dialing in my aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to achieve optimal exposures with the overcast, summer weather that evening. It was around 5pm and the sun was starting to set around 7:30pm.

(For you Fujifilm camera shooters, the film simulation I used in these photos was Astia!)

Oh you know I had to take a photo of this 1st gen 4runner haha.

Gallery

Reflection

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking a look at my first attempt at street photography! Midway into shooting that evening, I was starting to overthink things and for a short burst, lost that fun and passionate aspect to shooting. It would be a slippery slope. Then I kept shooting after taking a break, talking with Jon, and grounding myself with the surroundings.

The next day, I’m culling (or selecting) photos I want to edit with the hopes of exporting and publishing – my usual workflow, and I’m seeing these “imperfect” photos. I again, start feeling this doubt but I had to remind myself:

This is your first time. Sh*t doesn’t have to be perfect.

The process of culling these photos made me question this belief of “needing the perfect image”. No, I don’t need a perfect image bro. I just need to hold the camera more still or adjust some settings. Move on dude!

The act of doing street photography seems like I’m breaking the rules compared to the usual automotive stuff I’m doing. With cars, you have more control on the image because cars can easily stay still. With people, there’s more dynamics you have to deal with: lighting, hair, glare on the glasses, and moving limbs, etc.. I had to let go of the control and adjust my approach…

It helped a lot to have Jon introduce me to this genre of photography. It gave me the confidence to really find MY flow and to hone in on how I wanted to compose my shots. Jon, if you’re reading this, thank you for ushering me into this niche of photography! The bug got me and I can’t wait to go out shooting with you again!

Conclusion

Even though it was my first time shooting on the streets, it felt really natural to get into focus. Assessing my surroundings, observing small details, and spontaneously conjuring up compositions to get a good image. It seemed strangely familiar. I would say it’s oddly familiar to that feeling of deja vu. You think you’ve experienced it before but it’s going on currently…

Thanks to you all for sticking around! I hope y’all enjoyed this first edition of “ON THE STREETS” on REVIZE.BLOG! I’ll catch up with y’all next time! JVZY out!