The People...
I was a lost photographer.
Not in the literal sense. But in the sense of genre.
I'd been shooting landscapes, cityscapes, and a few bits between.
But not with any consistency.
And when it came to choosing where and what to shoot, I had no clear ideas.
Then, I read about street photography.
It seemed easy enough to get out and give it a go...
And there was my first mistake.
Sure, you can wander around trying to take street photos.
But there is real skill in finding those moments.
Moments that matter, that are photogenic in a street photography sense.
So, I kept reading and came across this quote from Elliott Erwitt:
All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice.
Ah, now there's a quote that made a lot of sense to me.
So, I dropped all the other complicated stuff and began learning to watch and observe.
To notice.
And for the photo above, I was walking along the banks of the Thames in London.
I saw the group of men leaning on the railings, watching the world go by.
At the same time, I noticed the Uber boat in the background. It's such a classic London scene I waited until it was well in the frame.
And I fired my shot.
I love the result.
It is a simple human moment.
But, I learned a lot from being ready, always ready to react to the things I was seeing around me.