When I went about deciding a topic for my street photography project, I didn’t know where to start. I knew there was so much to capture in New York City, but it became intimidating for me to choose any specific route. I wanted to capture the unique aspects of the city, my own views, and it’s vibrant culture.
I joined the three by visualizing the city in my point of view. I walked around New York with a small point-and-shoot camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-TX7) and tried to capture whatever seemed representative of my theme. Now, I enjoy taking pictures, but wouldn’t yet call myself a photographer, so I ask for some flexibility in quality and more attention towards the technique I tried to use.
During some pictures I used the rule of the third, while in others, being in the center helped emphasize the picture’s purpose. I tried to play with lighting, but found that natural light works best, especially with my theme, where I strive to capture it as if it were going on in real time. I also wanted to shed light on the fact that the project is capturing an average day. I tried to avoid setting up my pictures too much and planned for more impulsive and impromptu moments. A picture taken in the subway was special in its way of showing depth and making an average subway cart seem much longer than it actually was.
While I showed some of the city’s culinary staples, I avoided making it the main subject of my project. While New York may be known for some elaborate and artistic dishes, I wanted to keep the food in line with my theme: an average day. I decided instead to capture the bagel stand, the halal stand, Mike’s Pizza and a local bar. With some places showing people getting together to socialize. Do you see a trend? They all follow a pattern. Breakfast, lunch, dinner (debatable) and drinks.
This leads me to reveal another one of my techniques: chronology. A result of my own personality being reflected in my project, organization and order help me provide coherency. By having the pictures start off in the morning and end with the luminous New York City skyline, the work is easier to understand and the flow is more enjoyable.
I could have easily gone to the city’s most popular tourist destinations to include in my project but I chose to abide by something more personal to my own view of the city. Since New York is sch a diverse city, there are many ways of capturing it and I felt that my own view of the city was what I wanted to represent. They move from queens, to my commute into the city, to the night view from my apartment. I chose to end off with the New York City skyline because it is the iconic view of the city and I really enjoy the view from my apartment. I often go up to my roof to see the view, so by including it in my project, it helped provide my own view of the city.
While going about the photography project there were two key challenges I faced. The first was getting the right angle. When capturing a photo the angle makes all the difference because it essentially decides how the moment is seen. I would spend long amounts of time trying out different angles, still unsure whether or not I chose the correct one. However, after a few photos, I believe my ability to distinguish and select the angles from which to take pictures improved.
The second challenge I faced was something I should have expected with my theme. While trying to capture a day in New York City, my camera was often affected by crowds of people moving in a rush. When I would pause to take a picture of something, throngs of people would see no reason to stop and sometimes moved my picture out of focus. Although I should have seen the problem beforehand, I managed to adjust my techniques to avoid increasing the presence of blurred New Yorkers.
