Street Photography in Spring Time, Motorcycles and Sunday People
If it’s warm outside, and the shadows are cool and jaggered, then I have to grab my camera, and stroll out into the city streets. Spring is here.
--
The irresistible streets of Berlin where crowds flow along, jam and stop-start every few seconds. People strolling, cars edging at slow speeds.
Along Friedrichstrasse, the main street in Berlin, drivers like to show off their yellow and red paint jobs. Spring beckons everybody to enjoy the warmth of the street.
I can walk along Friedrichstrasse on a Saturday afternoon and watch a pimped-up car pass, I stop and gawk for a moment, but cars don’t make good passing shots for a street photographer. I’m looking for people, shadows and lines. Compositions that stop me in my tracks.
It always takes time to get into the swing of street photography. Walking, looking, seeing; but my mind is lazy with too much reading and repetitive TV shows. Too much winter.
So I keep looking. It’ll happen, something forces its shapes and shadows onto my mind, it reminds me of what I like, and get the first shot.
A simple shot of two people walking among the hedgerows close to the Reichstag building. It’s the photographer’s ability to frame a shot that allows us to see things as we need to, and manipulate a scene to have a meaning. I like the idea of photographing people who appear to be alone, or lost for a moment. Frame it correctly, according to your own interpretation, and you have an interesting shot, albeit a simple shot.
Spring sunshine reminds us of hope and health. The feeling that all is well again, and that we can plan to be outside, it allows us to make plans to spend free hours wandering the streets to enjoy the heat.
At this time of year, you can walk along a Berlin street, and if there are patches of grass with bushes, guaranteed…
