{"id":39542,"date":"2017-06-07T23:06:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T03:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=39542"},"modified":"2017-10-16T04:48:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T08:48:56","slug":"photographing-semi-candid-portraits-out-on-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/photographing-semi-candid-portraits-out-on-the-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing semi-candid portraits out on the street"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photographing semi-candid portraits out on the street<\/h1>\n

Not quite “street photography”, but rather a semi-candid portrait out on the streets,\u00a0I love the resulting photograph. It encapsulates a few of the typical New York elements for me – colorful vibrancy and attitude.<\/p>\n

Late this afternoon, as usual when I had finished with a corporate headshot photo session in the Wall St area of New York, I waited out the peak time traffic by roaming around the streets with my camera. This young woman graciously waited a few seconds for me while she took selfies with the Fearless Girl – there were other people walking past in the background, and I wanted a cleaner shot. I held up my hand to ask her non-verbally with this gesture (and a smile) to hold her natural pose for me. And she did – and with that, I\u00a0have\u00a0a photograph where everything gelled. It’s one of those rare moments that\u00a0make the semi-aimless wandering around looking for photographs, worth it!<\/p>\n

One of the toughest things I had to overcome when I first picked up a camera, was engaging people I didn’t know. Just like many other newer photographers starting out with their first camera, I felt too awkward about making any kind of contact- ending up\u00a0 photographing people from the side or from behind. If the resulting photograph\u00a0works, then that’s fine – but I would say that capturing expressions make for far more interesting photographs than the back of someone’s head.<\/p>\n

And that’s it – you could engage in a quick conversation, or even with a nod or a smile or a hand-gesture, ask permission to take a photograph. I’m never pushy with it – if I sense someone would rather not, I just nod to show that I understand, and I move on. But people do often respond favorably, so it’s worth overcoming that fear!<\/p>\n

Share with us\u00a0how you go about approaching\u00a0strangers when you want to take a\u00a0photograph of them.<\/p>\n

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Techie details<\/h2>\n