A group of excited photographers and I met up at GPC Labworks in Ottawa a few weeks ago. Located in a busy part of town, we had lots of interesting subjects close at hand. I have a few thoughts I shared with the group about street photography. It’s eclectic with all sorts of activities and distractions. People rushing about, others waiting at bus stops, some pan handling, others window shopping, then there’s cars, buses, cyclists along with all the stores, coffee shops, traffic signs, advertising stuff everywhere you turn… a sure formula for indecisiveness leading to unnecessarily detailed cluttered shots.
Patricia
Jon & Max
Nicole
Please consider a few suggestions to help make your images uncluttered and decisive. Also keep in mind the essence of B&W film photography is realism.
- Don’t rush or force a shot.
- Observe and anticipate your shot coming together.
- Isolate for tight compositions.
- Minimalism!!!
- Portraits of ‘street people’, have a tooney or two in your bag.
- Reflections in windows offer interesting shots as does graffiti, even better with people in your compositions.
- How about a slow shutter speed to allow blurred motion with foreground tack sharp… example, a static person waiting for a bus with the traffic blurred, an eight of second should do it.
- Selective focus is really great to isolate, and with your lens aperture wide open it’s even more effective..
- With ISO 400 HP5+ a tripod is not needed…don’t weigh yourself down, travel light.
Jerry Nielsen from Amplis Foto and Crombie McNeill
Please drop by the Vistek Bank St location to see a gallery of my images printed on Hahnemühle Sugar Cane paper. The images are for sale with proceeds going to the homeless shelters in Ottawa!
I’m very much looking forward to seeing your street photography results!
Cheers!
About the Author – Crombie McNeill
PHOTONews Flash is honoured to see our contributing editor Crombie McNeill featured in CTV News Ottawa. Tune in to hear Crombie’s story and his mission to help those experiencing homelessness.
Crombie McNeill is a unique artist. He’s a world travelled photographer with numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the best editorial photographers in North America. His credits include Time, Newsweek, ELLE, Life, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Chatelaine, Paris Match, McLean’s, En Route to name but a few.
His Odyssey lead him from the Arctic to high fashion magazine shoots to Olympic Games, World Cup events, the depths of the Great Barrier Reef to the altitude with the Snow Birds, interwoven with civil war in Africa, Royalty, presidents to paupers world wide. Not to mention frozen toes at the North Pole.
His photography has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, the United States and Europe and has three books to his credit.
Not one to leave behind the uniqueness of traditional film he’s evolved a blending of photography with both hand applied and computer processing to produce truly unique images.
“The art of photography for me” says Crombie “is to convey a timeless essence with a hint of mystery”.
The National Archives predicts he will be credited as one of Canada’s most significant photographers and is on the list for The Order of Canada. The National Art Gallery of Canada has some of his fine art B&W prints included in their permanent collection.
Crombie is now happily retired, in that he no longer accepts editorial or commercial assignments He now lives in Aylmer, with his wife Sue. “This retirement”, he’s delighted to says, “allows me the freedom to search for those magical B&W images, and to determine the ideal technique by which it should be captured and presented.
Crombie often returns to the peaceful amber glow of his wet darkroom as a respite from his extensive digital lab and art board.
Please enjoy!
