the human story I read somewhere that it was a frequent practice in the 1920’s to photograph from bridges, windows and other elevated locations in order to show the street as a board game with people, cars and other objects as game pieces. No doubt this kind of approach minimizes the personal story while emphasizing on the composition and the general relationship between the “pieces”. Now take away the human story and you are left with a nicely composed photograph, and nothing more. dream on I love looking at old photographs. Sometimes I wish I could go back in a time tunnel to, I don’t know, maybe London of the late 1800’s or NY in the 50’s and photograph life as it was. Therefore whenever any of my (non)photos turns out looking like an old one, I can’t help but feeling delighted. An after thought my quest... it is what it is, and it appears to be primarily focused on the study (or basic love) of humans in their artificially natural habitat. train station journey with clouds She’s putting that old blurry picture On the shelf Regretting it will never get any sharper. She's leaving now. She's living now. She’s taking the nowhere train... . . . . Unexpected Sometimes I stumble upon an image in the least expected places. When I last visited the famous Metropolitan museum in Manhattan, I didn't even think about taking my camera out. I just couldn't imagine I would be interested in taking pictures inside a museum, a sterilized fabricated environment, but when I stood there on the bridge looking at the room below I realized I was mistaken. Rain There are several instances when non-photography makes perfect sense. One such happy occasion is photographing in the rain. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite so appealing to me getting caught in the rain while carrying around all that additional (and un-necessary) photography gear. In fact the only extra gear you might need during a rainstorm is your trendy jacket/raincoat to hide your camera in between shots and, if you’re lucky to have one, a good friend with a big umbrella. it's not about the camera ..it's about me I already determined the camera never matters. Obviously what really matters is who’s holding it (and why. but that is a whole other issue). sunny days You probably heard this kind -hearted advice sometime before; "avoid shooting in midday sun!" The motivation is no doubt the high contrast of bright highlights and hard-edged shadows created by the noon-time sun. (…and that's a bad thing… right?) Then they warmly suggest you move your subject into an area of shade (I would be very interested to see how someone moves an entire street scene to a shaded area) They suggest you use a diffuser (what's that?), a reflector (uh?), a polarizer (what?), a fill-flash and all the way down to the universal recommendation to simply forget about it all and stay home between 10 am and 4pm. Well, well, I think it is just about the right time to abandon this myth! And while we're at it, let's dump the old wives tale it's best shooting with the sun behind us! Bottom line: Shooting into the sun makes interesting silhouettes and midday sun produces downright contrast and dramatic shadows. On the move About photographing On the Move. Street photos are often formed on the move. Consequently, there will be no time to address the usual photography routines... very often even fOcUsIng can become an ex tra va g ance. double exposure Accidents are more likely to take place in street photography than any other area of photography. It will usually involve people walking into the frame just when you pressed the shutter. It is important to keep in mind that sometimes unintentional photography can yield some pretty cool results, so don’t be quick to toss these images away. color nights So you really want to bother with colors… One way of coming up with an interesting color photograph is making night photos. You know, employing that special essence of the night… And besides, it can keep your viewer busy for a while [busy trying to figure out what the H is going on there in the dark! ] Downtown Alley ...but what about the technical information? You might ask. What about it? I might answer. If you really think about it, what difference does it make what camera I am using? Who cares about the ISO, shutter speed or F stop? Is it just me or this is just a lot of useless information nobody should ever have to come across? Tagging Strange but True Typically I don’t say much about my pictures. I keep it to a minimum of location and date. The sad truth is that I, despite the fact I am present there with all my glory at the moment when the picture is taken, myself; I don’t have much information about the story behind the image. Since I like the mystery in photos, I make sure to avoid finding out any further details about the scene I’m shooting. The Mystery streets photography is like going on an unknown voyage. You never know what you're gonna find, or what shots you're gonna make. No doubt, a real treat for those of us who dislike any form of planning. Photos design and text by Nitsa @ Skylight Web Design [www.skylightweb.com] Copyright © 2000 - 2005 . All rights reserved. email: nonp site @ skylightweb. com Any use of the photos on this site without the author's permission is prohibited.