Ok, last Sunday, 30th Aug, I’ve joined Camille, Etsuko and Jason on Rob’s Street Photography Course.
Well, it all happened thanks to Camille as she forgot her lenses after the Portrait course, my Travel class got cancelled, so I had free Sunday, and I’ve offered that I bring her the lenses. Rob was ok for me join his class – thanks Rob! So I put it on my calendar!
It was a bit of a journey from Putney – had to take my trains as District line wasn’t working – … but I made it in time!
We all met at 10am in front of the Aldgate East tube station.
Rob did a quick intro, exposure/settings bit, and we made our way towards the Brick Lane.
The weather looked promising with some sunny spells and as we walked Rob pointed out the highlights/shadows at play, the decisive moment, the human element, shutter speeds (avoiding camera shake / freezing action when people walk past), aperture for blurring the background in portraits or having it at f/5.6 – f/6.3 for some depth of field, composition, complementing colours, etc…
We’ve spent the next four hours wandering through the streets full of art and graffiti, met super friendly people who were kindly posing for us, tasted some fantastic food from the markets, practised, practised, and asked Rob tones of questions.
I have to say that I was blown away by Rob’s knowledge, his approach and super polite way of asking complete strangers to stop and help us. I would say 9 out of 10 people said yes, and if someone has said that they don’t want their picture to be taken, it was a no with a smile – not an angry no.
We staged some shots (as time is precious and goes fast), or while we’ve waited for the right person to walk into the “previsualized” frame, we chatted about photography, our interests, lenses, it was fun!
All in all, it was a great day! I got a tone of inspiration, lots of tips, especially for me on how to approach and talk to strangers, how not be afraid of rejection. Smile, be genuine, honest, friendly- and so they will 🙂
If you would like to join one of the Street Photography courses with Rob – please visit the course page –
https://www.dslrphotographycourses.com/courses-and-workshops/street-photography-course
Use code STREET10 for span
To give you an idea about the area – we walked between the Aldgate East and Shoreditch High Street tube, the Brick Lane, Upmarket, The Truman Brewery, Backyard Market, Allen Gardens, Bethnal Green Road, Old Spitalfields Market, Petticoat Lane market.
Below are some pics form the day!
