Ok, this won’t be a play by play of each step I take in a photowalk, as the fun of an photowalk is just randomly going down streets with no real idea in mind, letting your eye be caught by something interesting… or as I like to call it “OH, shiny object!” My friend and fellow street photographer emailed me a few days prior telling me he was headed downtown for the night and wondered if I would want to wander with him. Always up for something new, and having nothing better to do than shoot Maroon 5 at the Bell Centre, I said hell yeah!
When you start any type of photography, it takes a little time to get into the groove. This is true for music, portraits, products… anything. Sure, you have the go to safe images you can do, but that’s your routine, your safe zone. When you try and push yourself to see things differently and pick out small pieces of a city’s urban landscape that make an interesting shot. And that’s what is great about urban shooting… you can walk the same street three nights in a row and see something different each night.
So my first few “safe” pictures happened to be mannequins in store windows. Their blank looks, the light behind them can be sometimes interesting.
As you walk the streets, I love to stop and look down alleys. They sometimes have details in them (like the shot in the header of this post), or the alley itself and the various coloured lights can make the shot. I like to try and add some depth to an image, making something that is essentially 2D look 3D by layering different elements. This is probably my favorite shot of the night:
Then I started to focus on the people that make up the city. What they are doing, where they are going, who they are with. This can sometimes be a bit more difficult as you always try and snap and not be to intrusive in their lives, else the candid moment is no longer… well… candid.
The girl on the cell phone above was taken as we walked into a metro station to warm up a bit. The issue with going from cold to hot is that your lens will fog up. And sometimes, you can have some fun shooting with the fog. Call it a natural soft filter on your lens 😉
When I look back on the interesting images, I notice a trend as to what was catching my eye that night. Snow in the city was obviously a theme, but we walked by many parking lots downtown which are always fun to shoot.
So there you have it! The downtown Montreal area at night, on a snowy Wednesday.
*these images are available in prints, just send me a note and we can chat about what you are interested in. Or feel free to browse my portfolio for other images, or just ask me for anything you might be looking for. 🙂
Thanks for checking them out!
I love them, especially the bus one.