Both my daughter and I have been ill lately which means I haven't had chance to get out and shoot and have rather let the course slip a little. However, it has allowed me to do a little research and try to get a little inspiration.
One of the earlier exercises in the course involved a little street photography. Whilst I was first a little nervous of taking photos of complete strangers in the street I did eventually really enjoy it. This encouraged me to do some research on famous street photographers. I found some really interesting images from a number of well known artists including the amazing (and extremely famous) Henri Cartier-Bresson. His candid and novel approach to reportage photography produced some of the finest images of all time. Cartier-Bresson exclusively used a leica 35mm rangefinder camera with a 50mm lens. He used fast film and lenses to capture images in an almost stealth like manor.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Whilst I was shooting my street photography images I did feel very conspicuous with my big SLR and large telephoto lens. I think I will try some more street photography and perhaps try a smaller more discrete camera.
Another more modern street photographer with a slightly different approach is Bruce Gilden.
Bruce Gilden
Gilden is much more ‘in your face’ and uses flash, something that Cartier-Bresson never used. The result is Gilden’s images are more ‘punchy’!
