40 in Philly
Yesterday my wife and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia with our two mini dachshunds, Cannoli & Rigatoni. Philly is not too far away for us and heading out west we can usually be in the city in under an hour. We had a quick appointment to make and I had about 40 minutes to burn. While not my optimal time frame there is always time for a few frames. Especially near Independence hall. There is such a great mixture of parks, streets, back alleys and businesses to capture in such a tight area. On this short trip I had with me a Fuji XT-3 with my new and quickly becoming favorite lens the Fujinon 35mm f/1.4.
Now normally I reserve my XT-3 for professional wedding and family photography. To be honest it never really became my go to body for street and travel. I just get so much inspiration from the X100F and XPro Line up but I wanted to take advantage of the upgraded auto focusing the newer XT-3 afforded me which I’m sure will be the same or improved upon on the XPro-3 announced this week. The one thing I’ve never really been happy with is the color science on the newest X Trans sensor and much rather prefer the older versions found in the XPro 1 and Xpro 2/XT-2 cameras. I feel like I have to work the image more dialing it in to where I like it. Maybe I just need to dedicate more time to studying the colors and tweak my profiles for this system.
So how does one make use of 40 minutes to shoot? Don’t walk so much. Find a few nice spots and look around. Train your eye to look at things in a different way. Watch for light and shadows. Study angles and how they may interact with your subjects. Find the reflections. Hunt a little by way of staying planted waiting for the decisive moment.
What are some of the things you need in a good photograph? If you have some of them in front of you then wait for the last element to reveal itself to you. You may have the light and shadow and the framing but you just need the right subject to enter. This is where patience comes into play. The images following were all taken in the same spot…..no literally the same spot. All I did was move around in a circle and take a step or two to capture each moment. When all else fails don’t forget to look up!!!
Speaking of looking up. You can always find something interesting. You just have to frame it correctly.
The one nice advantage that we have shooting with the XT-3 is the use of a flip up screen. I’ve always favored a flip up screen while shooting street photography. I feel it offers a different point of view when capturing subjects and it also draws less attention to you. Thankfully were are getting this in the new XPro-3 however a lot of people are less then enthusiastic about the new design. You can read my thoughts on the issue HERE.
What better way to end my speed shooting street photography session then to capture an image of my better half on one of the many beautiful historic streets in the city.
“My name is Joe D’Agostino. I’m a father, husband and Photographer. My passion for photography started at a young age while learning from my father which I hope to pass down to my daughter. I believe failure helps you succeed so I take hundreds of bad photographs every day.”
