The Difficult Ones - Street Portraits of "Scary People"

When I shot street portraits during New Year’s Eve in Wellington I had some moments when I encountered people that I would usually regard as “difficult to shoot” because their outer appearance is “scary” and doesn’t invite to asking them if they agree to having their portrait taken.

I am far from being a bold street photographer. I will never become a second Bruce Gilden. Gilden is an example for an “into the face” street photographer who doesn’t have any inhibitions at taking peoples’ pictures. I find it difficult to get into the flow and to convince myself to take the first step of approaching people to take their picture. I actually find it easier to shoot a person with who I have an appointment for a photo shoot because in that case the question “does he/she want it or not” has already been answered. But of course that approach doesn’t have the spontaneity that you find in street portraits.

So what about the “difficult ones”? During the NYE shooting I remember shooting two people that I found difficult to approach. One was the bouncer at a party establishment, the other one was a guy who was sitting on the edge of a flower bed in Wellington’s pedestrian zone. He was heavily tattooed, made a brooding impression and and it felt as if he would not be very approachable. But man, he looked interesting!!

I was lucky because I was in the flow. I had been shooting for half an hour and it had been fun and I had enjoyed this experience a lot. People were friendly, easy to approach, often a little drunk but not completely pissed, so I was in a real nice photographic flow.

So I just went over to him and knelt in from of him, holding my big Nikon D850 DSLR camera and asked him “would it be ok if I took your picture?” He looked at me and answered in a relaxed way “Sure, no problem.” He took his cigarette, had a deep drag and stared broodingly straight ahead. I was more than surprised. I made use of the kneeling pose that I had taken in from of him and shot him right from where I was in front of him. So I had this slightly lower perspective that helped with the expression of the picture.

The experience with this picture showed a very simple photographic rule. “You never know before you ask people”. And that is certainly an encouragement for a slightly more daring approach to taking street portraits.

What helped me very much was “the flow” I was in. I think it might be a good idea of describing this experience and how it evolved on that particular evening a little more in depth. I will do that soon in a separate article.

Happy New Year! - Street Portraits on New Year's Eve in Wellington, New Zealand

I had nothing better to do. On New Year’s Eve I decided that I wanted to visit the city centre of Wellington to catch some street portraits of the party goers in the hours before midnight. So I put my Nikon D850 in my bag, put the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 lens on that I use for portrait shooting and started into the night.

My starting point was not overly good. I was not in the mood for party nor to meet people and to converse. But I did want to shoot. Initially I could not even be bothered to take my camera out of my bag. But then I sat down next to an amazing blues guitar player in the pedestrian zone of Cuba Street. This blues man invited me to shoot him while playing. So I sat down opposite to him and started shooting. And next to me on that bench was sitting a little guy with tattoos all over the face, the smell of cheap wine coming from his mouth. He started talking to me in a mix of English and German language. And he made me aware of the “dangerous two guys over there that are for sure American spies. That broke the ice. :-)

I was sitting there, taking picture of the musician, of people sitting around him on benches. And then I took off, walking back into the party zone at Coutney Place. And all of a sudden I was “in the flow”. I sought eye contact with the people coming towards me, started asking them for their picture. The atmosphere was easy going, people where already a little tipsy and in relaxed and beautiful mood.

It really flowed. I walked down the place on both sides into all directions. And then I met those girls. They had a little too much alcohol, no doubt. And they showed me the Haka. Right into my camera. Full on. I was blown away and exacted two pictures.

Do you know the Haka…?

And it went on and on. Surprising and sometimes a little annoying was that nearly everybody that I shot took on a pose immediately. They are all Instagram trained!! Everybody does it. They put their heads together, hands up, fingers spread and smiiiile. It is as if everybody had the same trainer that told them how to take on the “right pose”. It is incredible.

I stayed in the flow for 2 and a half hours. Until I was really empty. Until I had really all the pictures I wanted. Until I was really happy.

The Sweeties

The Bouncer

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

D850 and Sigma Art 50mm f/1.4

Looking at my photographic days in Tokyo I need to discuss the combination of the Nikon D850 camera with the Sigma Art 50mm f/1.4 lens, particularly for motion blur photography.

I have to admit that I had a difficult and problematic relationship with this 50mm lens. 50mm is not my favourite focal length. For street photography it appears to narrow for me, it does not cover the scene sufficiently for my taste and thus deprives me of creating compositions that I like. For portrait the lens is too wide. I prefer staying a little further away from my model which I find less intimidating for the person at the other end of the lens. Working with 85mm or the 70-200mm zoom also gives a nicer background bokeh.

In Tokyo I used initially the 70-200mm lens for motion blur street portraits. But I realised that due to the narrow focal length I missed quite a few shots and depended a lot on luck and serendipity. And later when watching the pictures on my computer I realised that the shots with this lens looked a little smeary to a degree that I disliked the results.

For the second part of my stay I changed the lens and used the Sigma 50mm instead. And man, this was a revelation. The rendering of this lens is crisp, motion blur causes beautiful lines, the colours are also beautiful and easy to work with. And doing the blur stuff was of course much easier with this wider lens than with the 70-200mm zoom. So I am really smitten with the Sigma lens and it seems that our relationship has good chances to recover.

A word to the D850. I have praised it already just a few days after buying it. This camera is incredibly versatile. You can try anything with it and the results seem to be very convincing. I love shooting portraits with her, results are predictable and reliable. Same now with my motion blur attempts. The files are great, I can process them easily, they never fall apart, even if I try extraordinary things in pp. I can clearly confirm my first impression. This camera is amazing and in hindsight I bless my crooked old D800 for having given up its spirit.

I will use bothD850 and Sigma Art 50mm in combination in the future and I am looking forward to the results.