Pushed

One of the things I did this long weekend was push myself outside of my comfort zone and I'm really happy I did.

When I mentioned the other day that I wanted to start trying to take pictures of people, a flickr contact of mine offered to take me out shooting.

I really appreciated the offer (thanks!) and so we headed out in the sunshine this weekend and I got to experience and learn and try out street photography.

It was great to have someone experienced and comfortable to go with because I spent a lot of time feeling...weird.

Weird because I didn't want to bother people or get "caught" by people or annoy people or be noticed or, the list goes on and on.

But once I got my nerves up and saw that, really, most people either didn't notice or didn't mind I tried it.

And I liked it!

Sure, I spent a lot of time saying "darn, I wish I'd gotten a photo of him/her/them" and I spent a lot of time going "nope, that didn't work" but every once in a while something would work or I'd see someone or something and I'd get that shot and that made it worthwhile.

It's something I'm going to have to practice and get used to. The idea that I'm allowed to take pictures of people and that it's ok and that some people like it and there's instinct involved (ie. don't point your camera at the big yelling drunk guy) and that I'm not doing it for nefarious reasons is a new idea. It's not comfortable quite yet.

There's an aspect to it all that's something akin to "sneaky" because for me, at least, I'm looking for candids. Natural shots of people just doing what they're doing, so there's a part of me that feels like it's weird to take photos of people who don't know they're having their photo taken.

At one point in the day another guy with a camera asked what we were taking pictures of.

"People," I said and he laughed and said "Good."

And then he showed us a photo he'd taken of us.

So I suppose it's all fair game and who knows how many times my photo may have been taken without me knowing and turnabout is fair play, yes?

I know street photography or unknown candid photography has the potential to upset people or anger people but for me it's all about telling a story.

What is the best photography, the photos that we look at over and over, the ones that show us something about a time gone by or an era we only know from black and whites? It's a story.

And people are amazing and beautiful and interesting and I want to see them and see *how* I see them.

So I'm going to try to take photos of them.

It wasn't easy for me, the process, but I'm glad I started and tried and I want to keep pushing myself to get out there and do it because it's uncomfortable. But it's a good uncomfortable. And it's something I want to keep trying.

I don't know if any of this made sense, but I took some pictures this weekend and I think I really like them.