Candid Street Photography: Capturing Life on the Move
In this article, I want to share my recent experiences with street observation and candid photography. I find candid street photography to be inspiring; it gives me an adrenaline rush when I engage in it. However, I seldom go out solely for that purpose. Instead, I often practice it during my daily commutes to work. Although I no longer work in Oslo sentrum, I am close by and take the train each day. It is during these train trips that I often look for candid photography opportunities.
Looking for something that catches my soul
Every time I am near a city or in an area with people, I look for something that catches my eye and my heart so much that I want to take a picture of it. In the last few days, I have captured some pictures; you can see them here. Of course, I take a lot of shots, but it is challenging to make a good street photo. For example, if I take 10 shots, one of them may work.
This lady sat opposite me on the train home in the evening. I marked the spot on her hands, where her nails were painted so beautifully. The color of her bag was pink, but in my editing, I felt free to remove the colors because I thought they got in the way of the beauty of the nails. But here is also a picture in color, the original. So you can decide for yourself what you like best. Color or black and white.
Finding subjects at the station
Another day, I saw a man through the windows of the waiting room reading his newspaper. It’s nearly unusual to see people reading a paper today. Most people are looking at their phones instead. So then I captured this picture. Because of the reflections in the glass, the image is also layered. There are so many things going on in this picture. So it is an interesting photo.
The last picture for this time shows two trains meeting at the station, along with the outline of two people sitting in the window of the train, waiting for it to leave. Having the name of the station in it also makes it, along with the other elements, a strong composition. I like this picture in color, because I love red.
You can also see my work on instagram
Which camera do I use?
For candid photography I like to use my iPhone or a small camera Canon G9X, or my Olympus pen F with 17mm lense. But most I use my iPhone. For landscape or nature photography I use my Canon EOS 6D Mark II and mostly 70-300mm lense.
So, I use slightly different tools for my photography, depending on the category I want to shoot in.
