Gone Fishin’

In street photography, one of the approaches to getting a shot is called ‘fishing’. How it works is you find a scene that looks good, frame it up the way you want it, and wait for a subject to enter the frame. Sometimes you can wait for a really long time. This is one of my favourite techniques and if I have the time, I’ll often hunker down in one spot for a while, trying different things out.

So today I went fishing…

Walking around on my break, I noticed this shaft of light and a really strong reflection of the sun in the building. The edges of the light beam made a really nice and natural leading line. I thought if I could only get a subject to walk in the middle of this, it would be a great shot. Add to that, the light coming off the building would hopefully backlight the subject. Fingers crossed, I hunkered down and hoped for some good luck.

The first shot I took wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. Someone walked through the frame, but they were much farther away than I would have liked. Also, a lost tourist appeared in the background and decided to stand around for a minute or two.

A crowd started to form around the tourist which kind of cluttered the frame I thought. Also, the sun was moving and the light was changing. I wasn’t going to have many more opportunities before I’d lose the moment.

Just as the light is starting to go, I get close. If only they had walked two steps to the right I would have had it!

This is the image I went with. Not what I had in mind when I started and the light had changed by the time I had taken this. By this point, the reflection of the sun would move off the building half a minute later and that was as good a sign as any to move on.

While I didn't get the shot I was going for originally, it was still loads of fun. I like working like this and it’s almost like a game. With the season changing and the shadows getting longer, there will be more opportunities like this to come.

Finally, here’s one more photo I took after I had abandoned my original idea.