Separation

One important element of black and white photography is contrast. In the absence of colour, focusing on enhancing tonal contrast or separation between elements can make subjects or details stand out. Lately I’ve been trying to find areas of high contrast to highlight subjects. In this set of photos, I’m trying to get the two dark/shadowy subjects in front of the relatively white/light background.

I’ve got a nice reflection happening here and these two subjects are split between the pillar. The person on the left stands out as they are mostly in shadow against a white background. The subject on the right is just creeping into the dark area of the pillar.

Now the subject on the right is really starting to blend into the background. If it wasn’t for the really nice highlight on the top of their head, they would be relatively hidden. At this point, I’ve realised that I probably haven't framed this photo the way I want.

Now that there is only one subject in frame, they are in a good position and are standing out better against the white background. The nice highlight on top of the head is gone now though and I’m realising that the better light is to the right of the pillar.

When I sat down at this location, I really fixated on the pillar and the reflection. I framed my photo in a quadrant which probably wasn’t the best choice. The light was much better to the right of the frame and it probably would have highlighted the subject if there was less of the reflection in the picture. I still find it challenging to visualise how a subject will look when they walk through a frame.

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.

Welcome

For years I’ve been interested in photography, but last year something clicked for me. I now bring my camera almost everywhere I go and when I don’t, I often find I’m looking at how to compose an image. As I tell my step-daughter Charlie, you can always go ‘click’ with your brain! I’m still very new and thought it would be fun to document what I’m going through with photography.

I’m mostly drawn to street photography, although Vancouver is known for lots of beautiful landscapes and wildlife. I work in an office in downtown Vancouver, and part of my practice is to go out shooting street shots during my lunch break. I also always shoot in black and white. My camera is set to show black and white only, so I often don’t ever see what my photos look like in colour.

Shooting in black and white makes sense to me right now. I would often get overwhelmed with editing colour photos and spend longer than I wanted on an image. My colour photos in the end just didn’t match what I had in my head. Right now, black and white makes it easier for me to focus on other compositional elements like shapes, lines, space and layers.

The other thing I’ve really connected with this year has been the quick turnaround time from idea to release. The ability to take a photo, do a quick, minimal edit, and post it online and move on has been really fun.

I’m a musician and have been playing for nearly 40 years (I did it for my full time job for a number of years). I love music but I was getting increasingly frustrated with how long it took an idea to turn into a song or an album. From an idea, to arranging, to recording, mixing, re-mixing, sitting on it for a year second guessing myself and then finally releasing, it was taking me too long to get things out (more on that in a future post I expect). With photography, I’ve been able to put something out into the world within the day, and it’s been really rewarding.

Owen