I arrived early at the restaurant. The manager said to me. 'Do you mind waiting a bit?"
I said no.
'Good', he said. 'Take these drinks to Table Nine.'
There's a lot to be said of a strategy in photography where you choose your backgrounds before you choose your subject.
A good wedding photographer can scout out a venue they've never used before the day so that they know where to position camera and subjects for individual shots, the families, the reception, etc. Amateurs take photos of people where they just happen to be, no matter how unsuitable the location.
When applied to street photography as in my K-1 pic below, you can find an interesting scene, and wait for a subject to enter it.
Artistically, two kinds of subject automatically work:
1. Matching. The pic below has a similar retro vibe between the walking girl and the fast food stand. The colour scheme of the picture has had its saturation exaggerated to connect the two.
2. Contrast. A suited businessman on his way to work can be contradicted by a heavily graffitied wall behind him, for example. It's fun to explore the possibilities.
'Good things come to those who wait, but only what's left from those who hustle!' is an old joke. My pic's a candid, but the legendary street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson loved staging shots, too. At times he'd position himself beforehand, and get friends to go past as if they were the public - his famous photo of a bicycle rider is an example. The famous Distracted Boyfriend internet meme was also a setup - the Spanish photographer IIRC used professional models for his picture of domestic unrest.
So, you can camp at a good background for minutes or hours as you see fit. It's a bit like fishing, I suppose. You might get something, you might not, and you might come back and try another day.
Finally,
Q. How do you keep a fool waiting?
A. I’ll tell you tomorrow.
The rest of the series here:
Clackers' Beginners Tips (Collected) - PentaxForums.com
Last edited by clackers; 04-14-2022 at 09:23 PM.