Street Photography

Inside The Street Photographers Bag

I thought I'd do a 'what's in my bag' feature for all you gear heads out there. As you can see from the photo above, I actually have two street bags. The green Lowe Pro Terraclime 100 is a great bag that is just about perfect for a minimalist street shooter and is the bag that I used until I bought the iPad2. Why take an iPad on a street you might ask? I love the iPad for reading or writing if I stop for a coffee or if I'm on a train going to or from the city I'm shooting in. I can also load my photos in, edit them and have them in a blog post, ready to upload when I get to a WiFi spot. The Storm isn't a camera bag, but I really like the style and pukka feel to it, it's made of good quality leather and has a section in the front for my iPad and a zipped pocket inside for all my accessories.

My main camera is the Fujifilm X100. That little camera has quadrupled the amount of street photography that I do and I really believe it's one of the best cameras ever made. The Yashica Electro 35 GTN is my film rangefinder which has a 40mm fixed lens. At the moment it has a roll of Ilford Delta 400 loaded, but I want try out some Fuji Acros 100 film after seeing the results that Severin Koller had on some of the photos on his blog, including this one. The Casio FC100 is for a project that I'm working on at the moment and will be featured here on 35mmStreet some time soon.

Make sure you always take plenty of batteries (especially with the X100) and a spare memory card. I have an 8GB in the X100 and a 16GB as a spare. The 16GB would usually be in the camera, but with the latest firmware update there was a new bug that makes the camera boot up really slow when using a 16GB. Reformatting sorts the problem, but it returns after you take a few shots. Let's hope Fuji is working on a new firmware update that will fix the problem.

The Zoom H2 Audio Recorder is for recording ambient sound to use with slideshows or videos, but I'd like to use it for interviews some day. The Fuji flash never gets used for street photography, it's just a habit to always have a strobe in my bag.

That's about it. To be honest, I could go out without a bag and just have the X100 and/or the Electro 35 and a pocket full of batteries. It doesn't really matter what gear you have, even a point and shoot will get you good street shots. When I use my DSLR's on a paid job, I'm a sharpness freak, but when I shoot street it doesn't really matter too  much. It's all about the content and the composition.

Gear List

Fufifilm X100 Yashica Electro 35 GTN (rangefinder) Casio FC100 (point & shoot) X100 Lens Hood 2 x X100 Batteries 16gb SD Card Lens Cloth Business Cards Storm Bag or LowePro Terraclime 100 iPad 2 & Charger iPad 2 Camera Connection Kit

35mmStreet Photo Featured On Scoop.it

It's a nice surprise when you go to a website to have a look at what's new in street photography, and you see one of your own photographs right at the top of the page. That's what happened today when I went to The Street Photography on  Scoop.it which is curated by Ricardo Vilela. I'm flattered that Ricardo chose Theft Prevention (above) to feature on his street photography digital newspaper. Although this photo hasn't been featured on 35mmStreet before, it is on the 35mmStreet 500px site.

Fujifilm Finepix X10

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttiZkQBq2s&w=950&h=564] Fujifilm have announced the baby brother to the X100. The X10 is smaller, black and even more stealth. It has a zoom lens and a smaller sensor. It can be used in manual, but it doesn't have a dedicated shutter speed dial. I don't think many of us that own an X100 will be rushing out to buy this (unless you really need a zoom), but it looks like a nice little camera for people who might not have the cash for the X100 or want something even smaller. There is one features that trumphs the X100 though; The video is 1080p. Check out the run through by The FujiGuys.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts festival in the world and a street photographers dream. Probably one of the things that make this festival so different, is that the programme is determined by the performers, producers, promoters and venue managers, rather than the organizers (The Fringe Society). If you've never been, I sugest you put next years event in your to-do list. You might also like to drop in to Edinburgh Stills to see what exhibitions they have on.

Welcome To 35mm Street

I've had a street blog over on my commercial site Derek Clark Photography but it always felt like an add on (which it was), rather than a blog fully dedicated to street photography. So I thought it was time to launch 35mmStreet.com. As well as sharing useful tips and techniques on shooting, I hope to bring news, reviews and links on the subject of street photography. I have migrated the posts from my original street blog and will have lots of content on a regular basis.

At the moment I shoot street mostly with the Fujifilm X100, so you can expect quite a bit of content on that fantastic little camera. The X100 has an equivalent focal length of 35mm, which is widely considered to be the perfect sized lens for street photography (not that it's the only focal length for shooting street). Most of my street photography is black and white, but there will be the odd bit of colour.

Although this site is just starting, I'm hoping that as well as bringing readers from my own blog, I can attract lots of new readers from the street photography world (old and new), and that we can have a two way conversation about all things street. Please add this site to your RSS reader by clicking the link at the top of the site. 35mmStreet is also on Twitter, Flickr, 500px and Facebook . Content will be added to these sites soon after the main 35mmStreet site goes live.

I look forward to your input.

Derek.

Fujifilm X100 Commercial

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSQEBLMgLI?rel=0&w=950&h=564]  

This is a pretty hard core commercial for the X100. It sends out the message that this is no point and shoot, but in fact a very serious camera for serious photographers (not Photoshop guru's). It really inspires you to go out with this camera and document every bit of life around you, which is what this great product was made for. The video contains nudity.

The Invisible Photographer: Shooting In The Rain

Invisability surely must be every street photographers dream super-power?? I found out that you can come close to invisible by shooting in the rain. Not only that, but the heavier it rains, the more invisable you become.

I was in the city to pick-up some supplies and had the Fujifilm X100 with me (as always). I grabbed an umbrela from the boot of the car to sheild the X100, then headed off to grab a few shots. The rain was getting heavier as I stood on the street holding the umbrela in one hand and the camera in the other. I waited for the usual off look from passers by, but it never came. Even though I was shooting staight at people and not even trying to hide the camera, not a single glance.

Things returned to normal as the rain eased off and people would give me the "why are you pointing the camera at me" look. But when it started to rain heavy again...invisability resumed.

That Friday Feeling

20110818-075540.jpg Although I like my street photography in black and white (mostly), the X100 has it's own look when it comes to colour. I can't really describe it...it just is! I'm back to shooting JPEG again, which I wouldn't dream of doing on my DSLR's. The X100 JPEG's look great straight out of camera, they write faster and the exposure is so easy to get right that I don't get any benefit from shooting in raw. I might even get round to trying the Velvia and Astia film simulations. I have a tone of Wedding & portrait work to get through, but I'm going to have some free time coming up for shooting more street. Anyway... back to work.

Take The Red Pill

20110818-080533.jpg I saw the Blues Brothers and looked around to see if there was someone on the street that would tie in with their dress code and make an interesting photo. Nope, nobody on the street, but I was delighted when I looked in the shop and saw this guy. I waited 5 or 6 minutes for him to come out and was rewarded with this.

Was he attracted to the shop because of the similarity in his and The Blues Brothers headwear, or was it just coincidence? By the look on his face, you would think that he hadn't even noticed Mr Aykroid and Belushi until this moment when he's leaving the shop. You get these things in street photography a lot. How much stuff do we miss in day to day life? When you really switch your brain on, like you do shooting street, you start to see all these connections around you that happen a lot more than you'd expect. Grab your camera and head out on to the street. Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes!