No Rules Street Photography

[johnastovall]

Looking for a new way of looking at the streets? Then go check out Nitsa's Non-photography.com web site. It'll challenge your eye and help free your mind.

She has some simple rules:

no special gear (too heavy).
no instruction books (too boring).
no calculations (too calculated)

[Paulo]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[ChuckW]

Thanks for posting, she really does have a talent for taking ordinary street scenes and turning them into works of art. Very inspiring! I do note that among her "favorites" gallery she has chosen quite a number of photographs that have been heavily post processed. While I enjoyed these I think that more can be learned from her other galleries where most of the images posted appear to be exactly as taken.

[xseption]

Very cool site ... gives me loads of ideas

[JohnT]

Got me thinking differently already. :-) Thanks, John!

[shutterdrone]

John -- is this just a re-branded lomo?

Seems that it's pretty much the same thing to me?

!c (a unrepentant holga enthusiast [no, not fanatic])

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by shutterdrone

John -- is this just a re-branded lomo?

Seems that it's pretty much the same thing to me?

!c (a unrepentant holga enthusiast [no, not fanatic])

Looks like a re-branded lomo with some changes...

[Moses on the Street]

No offense to either John or the creator of that site, but it's no trick to use simple hardware if you're going to use complicated software to post process the images.

[d2creative]

Moses took the words right out of my mouth.

First off, I pretty much feel the same way as the photographer about rules and calculations. "Screw it!" is my motto.
But if you look beyond the processing of those images at the heart of the subjects and compositions, they are just your average snapshots IMHO.

[shutterdrone]

Originally Posted by d2creative

Moses took the words right out of my mouth.

First off, I pretty much feel the same way as the photographer about rules and calculations. "Screw it!" is my motto.
But if you look beyond the processing of those images at the heart of the subjects and compositions, they are just your average snapshots IMHO.

I think this about sums up my feelings on lomo/no rules/whatever: http://www.cameras.alfredklomp.com/lomography/

I enjoy toy camera photography, I enjoy making my own pinhole cameras (if you look on my mine website, pretty much every picture is made either with a toy camera or pinhole) -- but there's a huge difference between using lo-fi tools as an artistic medium, and simply "shooting at random until something good comes of it". Not that there's anything wrong with it, but even poor little amateurs with a million miles of learning to go (such as myself) can usually differentiate that from capital-P Photography.

You've got to know the rules before you can know why breaking them can be a good thing =)

!c

[xseption]

Originally Posted by d2creative

Moses took the words right out of my mouth.

First off, I pretty much feel the same way as the photographer about rules and calculations. "Screw it!" is my motto.
But if you look beyond the processing of those images at the heart of the subjects and compositions, they are just your average snapshots IMHO.

I have to disagree ... I think the timing of the shots (at least some of the shots) sees to be just right, capturing moving people/objects at a good compositional place

of course, that's only two cents or so ...

[Paulo]

Maybe I misunderstood the link but I got the feeling the idea of it is simply to remind people to keep an open mind. Honestly, a snapshot to one person can be an image that has extreme emotional conncetion to another. Learning the basics in order to know how to use equipment is important, but compositions are personal. And not everyone will feel the same about an image whether it's because of post-processing techniques, subject, etc... But it's the concept of 'just shoot' seemed interesting to me.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by d2creative

Moses took the words right out of my mouth.

First off, I pretty much feel the same way as the photographer about rules and calculations. "Screw it!" is my motto.
But if you look beyond the processing of those images at the heart of the subjects and compositions, they are just your average snapshots IMHO.

Sort of like Garry Winogrand's 'snapshots'?

[shutterdrone]

Perhaps we could look at it like this, most photographers (perhaps hobbyists? don't want to cast any aspersions about 'pros' *grin*) start with 'no rules' and then they learn the rules. As they learn and practice each new 'rule', their skills and outputs improve.

In what little I've learned about street photography (admittedly, photographing a person gives me the shivers for some reason, so I don't expect to be engaging in it any time soon) - the rules do seem to be more flexible and different than say, landscape photography. That being said, the "evil rules" aren't there in-place to stifle artistry, but they assist in reducing the amount of film one wastes to get to a good picture.

Now, if I get what John was pointing at with the post, more advanced photogs would do well to sometimes kick out the rules and "just shoot". Makes perfect sense to me - we get trapped up in our "process" some times, and forget what the end result is supposed to be (and it's not always a photograph!).

That having been said, I think where philosophies like this fail seem to be when new, or novice photogs get their hands on them, and, as was said in the article I linked to earlier -- you've got a bunch of hipsters with no knowledge of their tools or the history of the processes involved with them calling every crappy piece of celluloid art b/c it's some sort of free expression.

!c

[johnastovall]

As above, it is about getting out of the box but first you have to get in the box. You get in it by learning first to make you tools do just what you want, how to expose, what's good composition and be able to to that consistently.

Then you climb out the box and work without rules because you'll know how to work with them.

It's like learning to draw an enso (empty circle in Japanese calligraphy). All you have to do is sit down, put a sheet of mullberry paper in front of you and draw a circle with one continuous brush stroke. It's easy and after you do mess up a few thousand sheets of paper you'll be able to do it and everyone will look at it and say, "My kid could do that." Oh yes, just like I use to look at Gerry Winogrand and say, "Oh, I could do that. It's just a snap shot."