Freezing the Street
My experience with street photography is quite low, so I took the challenge of creating a photo series about freezing moments in downtown Ottawa. I chose to capture the street because I have always been interested in the sporadic events that can occur while walking around downtown and I wanted to experience this first hand.
Myself and a couple classmates charged our batteries, packed our bags and hit the streets for an amazing 6 hour shoot. Experiencing the city during daylight, evening, and night! I learned that the city can be unexpected and beautiful, the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of images from candid portraits, landscapes, automotive, and nature shots in one area is rare and special. I also learned that the city is essentially a blank canvas and it's the photographers job to capture it in attractive ways. For example, looking down an empty street after a heavy rain, I could have taken a photo straight down the street at eye level or, I could look around and find a creative angle, getting low above a puddle and capturing the reflection. Street photography is a true test of one's creativity and this is why I enjoyed it. I really appreciate anything that is challenging and that forces me to think differently. I was pleasantly surprised about the way my images turned out from the shoot, editing street photos is different then anything I have done before. Changing the warmth of an image can completely change the mood. I played around with other colour adjustments to portray the look I had in my head.
I would like to challenge everyone to go photograph something they have never done before. You will learn a lot about yourself and your creative process. For myself, I will be returning to the city to freeze more moments in time and collect images to tell stories.
