The reason for choosing my theme of red for my street photography project is because red is a color that represents boldness, or alert, which should be a color that grabs the attention of an observer. My camera has a functions setting to only capture one color in its field of vision and leave the rest of the picture in black and white. I thought, this setting on my camera would be perfect for this project. I could make all items red stand out more than it normally would.
The title of my Street Photography Project is “Paint the Town Red”. In my photographs, I captured the red essence in each scene by eliminating color in the background. The photos were taken in the span of a month, from day to night, in my daily routines traveling from home to school and from school back home. The slideshow is ordered in a chronological sense in a day’s activity. Day photos are placed at the beginning, while nighttime photos are placed at the end.
My point and shoot camera was always conveniently placed in my right-hand side coat pocket, ready to snap a photo. To take these pictures, I looked out for any large outstanding groups of objects in the shade of red or of a similar hue. Many times, the red is usually a garment on a stranger, and I must carefully snap a picture before or without them realizing for the picture to remain candid. Only candid photos, I believe, capture the true essence of the streets of New York City. No picture of a still taxicab or an empty train station can grasp the idea of the busy nights in the Big Apple.
With a digital camera, I was able to take many precautions before taking each photograph. One thing to look out for was that the lines in my photograph were straight and the perspective looked aesthetically pleasing. Another difficulty in taking these pictures was the timing. Since my subjects were strangers, I could not control where they stood, how they stood, and how they looked on camera. I would have to shift myself to get the right angle. Often times, I had to crouch down or move in a particular way to capture exactly what I wanted. Most of the time, after seeing something of value, and before actually capturing the instance, I would have formulated an anticipated picture in my head of what I envision my outcome to look like. Then I would take multiple pictures to match what I had in mind.
It was rather easy for me to take pictures, since red is such a common color. I was able to find red everywhere I go. Instead, the challenges to me in putting this project together was naming each photograph and deciding on the final twelve that get to be shared. I found it tough to decide on a final twelve when I have about a dozen snapshots for each day of the month I spent taking photographs. I wanted to display all of my artwork and share what I encountered each day. Although in the end, I chose what popped out the most to me from each set of photos. I am satisfied with what I was able to capture of the Big –Red- Apple.
