andrewlighten.com

I’ve been thinking a lot about my photography over the last few months. For a long time I considered myself to be primarily a landscape photographer. My portrait work was very, very ordinary, and I hardly ever spent time taking street shots.

I used to love heading out in the Land Rover and carefully setting up and composing each shot. Working with film that was appropriate, because I usually shot Fuji Velvia, and the cost from raw stock through to mounted transparencies worked out to a couple of bucks per shot. A good incentive to try and get things right.

These days I’m far less concerned with getting that perfect shot. I’m leaning more toward an urban, journalistic and street style that’s all about capturing the moment and recording life as I see it.

Because I’m still relatively new to street work a lot doesn’t come together as I planned. I end up looking at some photos I’ve taken as plain and very ordinary snapshots, which I don’t like at all. Others work well. I’m still feeling my way, but I’m definitely getting an idea of what I’m looking for and the direction I want to head.

I’ve been trying to work out why this landscape to street transition has occurred, and I think I’ve got it figured out. This hasn’t been an entirely concious and deliberate change, by the way: it’s just the way my photography has taken me.

1. Cost. Since moving to digital, the price-per-shot has gone from a couple of bucks to nothing. I no longer worry that a particular shot doesn’t represent the image I was trying to capture; I’ll just try again from a different angle, or using different camera settings. It isn’t unusual for me to come away from an afternoon-long shoot with 500+ images. Sure, only 2-3% will be what I consider to be good quality, but that’s ok; I still end up with more useable stuff than I would by shooting a couple of rolls of film, no matter how carefully I planned each shot.
2. Influences. Lots of my earlier work was influenced by the sorts of images I was seeing in photo magazines and other places where high class photos were found. These days my influences are typically internet based where there’s less emphasis on capturing a publication quality shot and more emphasis on showing what’s around you in a way that’s good enough without striving for perfection. If you end up with a few gems in there, great, but it isn’t the main driver. Take a set of 70 or 80 or 500 photos at an event, a gathering or a subject — don’t try and take 10 perfect National Geographic quality shots. Oh, by the way: some people might say that they’re trying to develop their own style without being influenced by others, but I don’t think that’s possible. None of us ever shoot in a total vacuum; there’s always other work providing influences in one way or another. Don’t copy others, but don’t afraid to experiment with the sort of work other people are doing.
3. Time. Since our beautiful little girl came along there just isn’t the time to go and spend a whole day with the camera. Too much other stuff to do.

I’m still not quite as comfortable shooting street stuff as landscape, but I’m getting there. A faster and more configurable camera will allow me to raise the quality of what I’m able to capture in those spur-of-the-moment shots. Landscape will always be a love of mine, and I still shoot the land when I can, but I’m going to focus on street life a lot more.

I’ve got some rough plans for street shoots over the next few months: an early morning shoot at the Vic Market and an early evening street shoot in the CBD. Leave a comment or ping me if you want to hook up for either.