The Continuing Saga of My First Street Photography Project
I have to admit, shooting street photography in my hometown can be curiously difficult. I am energized by the novel situations that other places offer. But It became clear last year that hometown shooting was going to be where it was at, even before the pandemic drove that reality home. If you need crowds of people to feel comfortable shooting street photography, as I do, then the choice of where to shoot in Nashville during pandemic times narrowed down to one place: the five square block, or so, of the Nashville entertainment district. To help motivate myself, I decided to launch into a project - Nashville Playing. It is about how we play where the music is playing.
There was no shooting at all for about 7 months during the pandemic dark times. I started going out on Saturdays in October. To be honest, the first couple of weeks of shooting were confusing, and for the most part, non-productive. The expression, “It’s just like riding a bicycle, you never forget,” clearly did not apply to street photography for me. It was not a technical problem. Managing the camera and the settings were, in fact, just like riding a bicycle. It was the seeing of interesting moments that was so difficult. Even now, 5 months into my Saturday shoots, if I miss a week, I am set back.
The Nashville Playing project now has about 200 potentially useable images since it was kicked off in October. Managing them requires new skills. Right now I am using my iPad. All images are loaded there before they are loaded into Lightroom. About 75% are deleted on my iPad. What is left is copied to the iPad Album, Nashville Playing. Pictures in iPad albums can be sequenced, although it gets harder as the number of pictures gets larger. Even clumping them into broad subcategories like, musicians interacting with people or stride pictures, is tedious at best. Many photographers get small prints made of their project images made. They can then be arranged and rearranged. That is seeming like a better and better idea.
Because I did not really study on the art of project making, I took a lot of shots that probably cannot be used for a variety of reasons. A project needs consistency between images.
Color vs B&W
You can choose color or b&w, but not both. I have both. I will make the color decision later.
Aspect
You need a single aspect. I have decided on 4x5 because that is the aspect I most often use. Now I have to go back and re-crop any pictures that are not 4x5. That is a hassle and, honestly, a 4x5 crop may not work well with all images.
Focal Length
You need a consistent focal length. For the most part I have been using 28 mm, but my lens is a zoom, so sometimes I stray from that. Each picture will be have to checked for its focal length.
Post Processing
Consistent post processing is also desirable. That is going to have to be reviewed.
It is probably best to set a goal for the expected final number of pictures in the project. If you plan to make a book, then you will need upwards of 40 images. If you hope to have a gallery presentation which, by the way, can be on a wall in your home, then 15 or less images would be an appropriate goal. It is also common practice to set a time limit for the project. This can stretch from weeks to years. I am thinking years.
When I read about making a project, getting feedback and criticism as the project develops is always recommended. That will be a challenge to find someone willing to help with that. I have imposed on children to help me make selections of small sets of pictures with good results.
One of the reasons to start a project is to learn the skill of sequencing photos. This is really a design and conceptual skill, which is very appealing to me. The starting point is to pair photos that look good together. Think of pictures on the opposite pages of an open book. Then you pair pairs that conceptually and visually go together. That strikes me as another argument to use small prints. It needs to be as easy as possible.
I intended to pair two of my photos as an example. You would surely think that out of a group of 200 images, I could find at least two that go together. Of course not. For the example, I leaned on my friend, Susan Schiffer, who is a master at pairing.
Photo by Susan Schiffer. Used with permission. You can see Susan’s Instagram gallery at @susan.schiffer.
Photo by Susan Schiffer. Used with permission. You can see Susan’s Instagram gallery at @susan.schiffer.
Photo by Susan Schiffer. Used with permission. You can see Susan’s Instagram gallery at @susan.schiffer.
Many photographers work on more than one project at a time. I have decided to also work on a much more serious project that tells the rather universal story of being a woman in a man’s world. This one is more difficult because it is conceptual. I have to find other people to tell my #metoo story.