Photography is the expression of your art, of your soul and the way you see and feel the world at that peticular moment. Shy away from the "street photography must be done this way" mentality is the best advice I could give to my younger self. About 1 in 4-5 keepers I get have people in it, for example.
Love your channel…quite right though😀you get a few fairly cool street shots that fit the bill and then..photographers block or self delusion,I have a fuji x100v. Congrats on your book. You are headed for great things…your work resonates with me. At 83 this old granny cannot take a chance of falling in a Montreal winter,but I do series “From The Car”. Roll on warmer weather. Happy Christmas!
Great video, Mike. All the advise shared and discussed is invaluable for everyone interested in photography. The key takeaways for me were, looking outside social media for inspiration and knowledge. Photobook, zines and Blogs are as important if not more than scrolling through social media. Getting together with other photographers to get inspiration and share views and opinions is a great way to learn and finally, shoot, shoot , shoot and then shoot some more. For street photography, the number of steps walked is directly proportional to the chances of getting images that you will want to keep.
Some great 'real world' advice. Very helpful. Thanks as always Mike. Your photography is going from strength to strength. Looking forward to what the next year brings.
Great video Mike, really good questions, I've learnt a lot from this. As a new photographer and new to street photography Im buying photo books, yours being one of them (great book BTW 😊)and getting so much inspiration from them.
I come from a different angle to derive satisfaction from photography. This social media is totally new to me and I follow less than 10 and am followed by less than 10, hence I treat my street/urban/tribal photography as a personal journey. I engage with my subjects to try a build a story and hence deeper memory of the image, so showing that image on social media does not tell my story. I live in an area with massively high murder, rape, GBH, assault figures so vigilance is an important factor on the street but getting the story to me is more important than the final shot, no social media image in isolation can tell that story. I can look at a 40 year old image and still remember the story to compensate for my ordinary image.
I bought a camera as recommended for street photography. I then tried to use it to photograph a landscape, a birthday party and a black n white portrait, the camera shutter button just would NOT work. The camera just locked up …. How did it know i wasn’t in a street ?
Agree with everything you say but I am 72 yrs old and may not have the time. Saying that I have had 40 odd yrs of the fun and heartache of photography. I just wish I could remember all the thing I learnt.
Great video and very helpful! I’m curious to know though how you would suggest getting constructive feedback. I have taken a few workshops and have joined numerous forums etc, but have not found a way of receiving constructive feedback on any of my work. I don’t have friends who are photographers and have tried to expand my circle with Flickr, Twitter, attempted an instagram page, and posted on numerous forums under threads solely based for critiquing, but never get any feedback (good or bad😅)
i have to disagree with matt Stuart and say that's horrible advice, to simply ignore what you find interesting and only do what someone else tells you to do is destroying that persons own creativity and maybe they will create/catch something in that moment that he finds to be wonderful. It's one thing for him to simply not be interested in it, but i think it would have been more helpful to critique what he/she could have done better to make that message come across clearer or POP or add humor. I don't love martin parrs work but i know he finds humor in his images.
I have to take the blame for simplifying Matt’s comment too much. It wasn’t as black and white as that. But also, if you’re paying for his advice - it’s not unwarranted. He can be as objective as possible, that’s the point. It’s up to the person to listen or not. Just my opinion.
fair enough, i guess this is one of the reasons i haven't been drawn to workshops. I prefer to study what i can from the books and take what i want out of it :) glad you enjoyed the workshop though!@@MikeChudley
You should follow what catches your eye, yes, but ultimately you need to know in advance where and what the potential is. That's what good taste is to me. Imagine you get the best shot of that person with the two suitcases that you can - will it be an image worth printing, framing, putting up on your wall? Probably not, at least not to me. It's just not that interesting, even if you extract the most out of it. Maybe I'm wrong, though, who knows. An artist can make something great out of almost anything.
That's what the youtube does. It hypes the gear. I block those channels and I only listen to walkabouts and thought process videos. I shot with a used 7d until this year and was perfectly happy.
@@stephangauthier911That's a little oversimplified, though. Yes, TH-cam pushes gear videos. But not only because they're advertiser friendly (if the video is simply a sponsored ad, TH-cam doesn't even get a cut from that portion). It's mainly because they simply get clicked like crazy. People love to hype gear. Upgrading their gear on a regular basis always gives them something to work towards. Especially if upgrading their photography in itself doesn't work. Gear is a substitute for people to artificially push their self-esteem. Because let's face it, there are significantly more comparatively wealthy photographers than there are good ones. In my experience, there are especially many men of "advanced age" who like to show off their expensive equipment whilst exhibiting neither talent nor knowledge about the actual art of photography. They just mathematically optimise their exposure, put a subject in the middle and done. And I'm totally fine with that. Because they don't hurt me, I can easily ignore them, it apparently makes them happy - or at least feel better about themselves - and, most importantly, they make up a _huge_ percentage of equipment sales. They finance the industry and leave their hardly used equipment in almost pristine condition for me to pick up on eBay. Those people are why TH-cam is full of gear reviews. Those people MASSIVELY outnumber us who are interested in the actual art, in meaningful images. Overall, we are a fringe group in the photography sector. Obviously TH-cam content won't be tailored for us. Can't blame them. I do wish it would be more balanced, but honestly from a monetary point of view you probably don't even want those men to see much of the artistic side of photography because they will realize that there have been people who are _much_ better than them and whose level of work they would never be able to reach, ever. They will realize that those incredible pictures were taken 50 years ago with equipment that you can get for $100 nowadays. And lastly, they will realize that it's not about gear and always having the latest tech, and they will stop spending all this money.
Some good advice here. Thanks for the shoutout too.
Thanks Jamie, appreciate that! I somewhat struggled to explain the DK effect, your video is still one of the best explanations I’ve seen haha
Photography is the expression of your art, of your soul and the way you see and feel the world at that peticular moment. Shy away from the "street photography must be done this way" mentality is the best advice I could give to my younger self.
About 1 in 4-5 keepers I get have people in it, for example.
Love your channel…quite right though😀you get a few fairly cool street shots that fit the bill and then..photographers block or self delusion,I have a fuji x100v. Congrats on your book. You are headed for great things…your work resonates with me. At 83 this old granny cannot take a chance of falling in a Montreal winter,but I do series “From The Car”. Roll on warmer weather.
Happy Christmas!
That sounds like a great series! Let me know where I can see the photos!
Great video, Mike. All the advise shared and discussed is invaluable for everyone interested in photography.
The key takeaways for me were, looking outside social media for inspiration and knowledge. Photobook, zines and Blogs are as important if not more than scrolling through social media.
Getting together with other photographers to get inspiration and share views and opinions is a great way to learn and finally, shoot, shoot , shoot and then shoot some more.
For street photography, the number of steps walked is directly proportional to the chances of getting images that you will want to keep.
I’m just starting my street photography channel, it’s been fun. I come from sports, so it’s definitely an adjustment. Good luck!
Most people have pretty generic photography, almost everyone, I think it’s important to just enjoy it for your own reasons and memories etc
Some great 'real world' advice. Very helpful. Thanks as always Mike. Your photography is going from strength to strength. Looking forward to what the next year brings.
Great video Mike, really good questions, I've learnt a lot from this.
As a new photographer and new to street photography Im buying photo books, yours being one of them (great book BTW 😊)and getting so much inspiration from them.
Ahhh this means a lot! Glad you liked the video. Thanks Nick!
Nice one mate, great advice in the whole video 👌🏻
Thanks for the input on the video as well! Appreciate it
Really enjoyed this! Appreciate the shoutout, awesome to hear your thoughts on our replies.
Wise words by a wise man
Be yourself, shoot for yourself.
Learn the rules then break the rules
Good video .
Thanks for sharing
Learn the rules and then break them, very very true.
Enjoyed this thoroughly, amazing insights mate!
Thanks George! We’re due a catch up soon for sure
@@MikeChudley definitely new year let's do something! In London briefly atm but back north tomorrow
Love your channel. Good tips here.
I come from a different angle to derive satisfaction from photography. This social media is totally new to me and I follow less than 10 and am followed by less than 10, hence I treat my street/urban/tribal photography as a personal journey. I engage with my subjects to try a build a story and hence deeper memory of the image, so showing that image on social media does not tell my story. I live in an area with massively high murder, rape, GBH, assault figures so vigilance is an important factor on the street but getting the story to me is more important than the final shot, no social media image in isolation can tell that story. I can look at a 40 year old image and still remember the story to compensate for my ordinary image.
Great advice, thank you!
thanks for watching!
I bought a camera as recommended for street photography. I then tried to use it to photograph a landscape, a birthday party and a black n white portrait, the camera shutter button just would NOT work. The camera just locked up …. How did it know i wasn’t in a street ?
😂
Agree with everything you say but I am 72 yrs old and may not have the time. Saying that I have had 40 odd yrs of the fun and heartache of photography. I just wish I could remember all the thing I learnt.
Great video…….many wise words
Great video and very helpful! I’m curious to know though how you would suggest getting constructive feedback. I have taken a few workshops and have joined numerous forums etc, but have not found a way of receiving constructive feedback on any of my work. I don’t have friends who are photographers and have tried to expand my circle with Flickr, Twitter, attempted an instagram page, and posted on numerous forums under threads solely based for critiquing, but never get any feedback (good or bad😅)
i have to disagree with matt Stuart and say that's horrible advice, to simply ignore what you find interesting and only do what someone else tells you to do is destroying that persons own creativity and maybe they will create/catch something in that moment that he finds to be wonderful. It's one thing for him to simply not be interested in it, but i think it would have been more helpful to critique what he/she could have done better to make that message come across clearer or POP or add humor. I don't love martin parrs work but i know he finds humor in his images.
I have to take the blame for simplifying Matt’s comment too much. It wasn’t as black and white as that.
But also, if you’re paying for his advice - it’s not unwarranted. He can be as objective as possible, that’s the point. It’s up to the person to listen or not. Just my opinion.
fair enough, i guess this is one of the reasons i haven't been drawn to workshops. I prefer to study what i can from the books and take what i want out of it :) glad you enjoyed the workshop though!@@MikeChudley
You should follow what catches your eye, yes, but ultimately you need to know in advance where and what the potential is. That's what good taste is to me. Imagine you get the best shot of that person with the two suitcases that you can - will it be an image worth printing, framing, putting up on your wall? Probably not, at least not to me. It's just not that interesting, even if you extract the most out of it.
Maybe I'm wrong, though, who knows. An artist can make something great out of almost anything.
🎉🎉🎉🎉
7:45 Ah come on, from 3 to 5 years is not even one stop of light ;)
:)
I wish I had known sooner. Upgrade my vision before I upgrade my gear. Try not to take too many meaningless or pointless images.
That's what the youtube does. It hypes the gear. I block those channels and I only listen to walkabouts and thought process videos.
I shot with a used 7d until this year and was perfectly happy.
@@stephangauthier911That's a little oversimplified, though. Yes, TH-cam pushes gear videos. But not only because they're advertiser friendly (if the video is simply a sponsored ad, TH-cam doesn't even get a cut from that portion). It's mainly because they simply get clicked like crazy. People love to hype gear. Upgrading their gear on a regular basis always gives them something to work towards. Especially if upgrading their photography in itself doesn't work. Gear is a substitute for people to artificially push their self-esteem.
Because let's face it, there are significantly more comparatively wealthy photographers than there are good ones.
In my experience, there are especially many men of "advanced age" who like to show off their expensive equipment whilst exhibiting neither talent nor knowledge about the actual art of photography. They just mathematically optimise their exposure, put a subject in the middle and done. And I'm totally fine with that. Because they don't hurt me, I can easily ignore them, it apparently makes them happy - or at least feel better about themselves - and, most importantly, they make up a _huge_ percentage of equipment sales. They finance the industry and leave their hardly used equipment in almost pristine condition for me to pick up on eBay.
Those people are why TH-cam is full of gear reviews. Those people MASSIVELY outnumber us who are interested in the actual art, in meaningful images. Overall, we are a fringe group in the photography sector. Obviously TH-cam content won't be tailored for us. Can't blame them. I do wish it would be more balanced, but honestly from a monetary point of view you probably don't even want those men to see much of the artistic side of photography because they will realize that there have been people who are _much_ better than them and whose level of work they would never be able to reach, ever. They will realize that those incredible pictures were taken 50 years ago with equipment that you can get for $100 nowadays.
And lastly, they will realize that it's not about gear and always having the latest tech, and they will stop spending all this money.