Wow, 25,000 steps completed yesterday on the first of the two days of this workshop. My feet were tired when I took off my walking boots last night, my clothes were a bit damp from the rain and blustery wind we suffered almost all of the day and now it was time to wake up and do it all over again.
The Day Begins
Today was Sunday, I set my alarm for 7am again and then carried out my ablutions, great old time word that, before packing everything up into the bags I needed for the day and those which would be left at a small souvenir shop in Gloucester Road. I was a little nervous about leaving my Canon 5D Mk IV and the lenses in this luggage location but knew I had to do it, as I couldn’t carry it all around with me all day.
Bag Drop
With my bags packed and all my gear ready, I checked the room to make sure I’d left nothing behind, it didn’t take long as it was a tiny room. Down the flight of wonky stairs and deposit the key card into the littl perspex box on the way out. A swift walk to Kensington Olympia and jump on a District Line train to Gloucester Road. Out of that station and carrying my heavy bags I walked to Maxwell’s shop and leave my bags there, apart from my shoulder bag which contained my M6 and Q3. I was a bit nervous about leaving the stuff here but hey, it’s only a camera and I could get another. I’d removed the Compact Flash card from the slot and kept that with me in case the worst was to happen.
Back into the underground network and I needed to get over to The Birdcage Pub for 10am, with no heavy bags it would be much easier. Still raining and windy though but that’s no real bother.
Alighting from the underground network at Whitechapel I banged the Birdcage into my Apple Maps and let my watch guide the way. All the time I had my Q3 on my wrist waiting to capture any scenes of interest, the only real interesting items for me were a couple of buildings and a street sign for Turin Street that someone had graffitied and turned it into BORIN’ Street. I never felt at any sort of risk in this area, although many people have warned me to steer clear from this area with my camera in the past.
Columbia Road
Not really knowing what was waiting for us at the Birdcage I turned up completely blind and was pleased to see a Flower Market taking place in the Columbia Road. This is a well known location for a Sunday morning in the East End of London and was certainly the reason that Matt had asked us to come over here. Yesterday Matt had said that the West End, Oxford Street etc, was rammed on a Saturday but dead on a Sunday and the action was to be found in the East End.
I walked back and forth up the market area of Columbia Road snapping a few shots that caught my eye until it was time to meet up with the gang at 10am. I had spotted Christmas Trees bein gsold and found that a shot up the barrel of the tree netting tubes was interesting, and also spotted a woman in a bright orange coat who was gathering a load of plants in her wake. The coat matching exactly with one of the large gazebos that housed a flower stall that smelled amazing. Much the same way that the smell of fresh bread is piped into supermarkets, I’m almost certain they must have been using a scent to draw people into this stall, or they had some amazing flowers. There was also a guy in his doorway, lighting up a spliff, wearing a cannabis leaf t-shirt at 9:45am with the feds hanging around the area too.
Off To Market
We gathered together at the pub and had a chat about how we had got on with our editing before Matt arrived and told us that we were going to take photos in the flower market. This time though we were to aim at getting the subject of the photo into one of the four corners of the frame. This was, he said, as we’d most likely captured all centred subjects the day before and we can get some great results from people in the edge of frame and the whole field open behind them.
We set off from the pub and went in loops around the block with some of us overlapping or crossing over half way around. It was quite funny to hear people again that had experienced being part of one of my colleagues photos, “it was right in my face”, “why did he take a photo of me?”. It was tricky again and to do this I felt like I had to get very close with my 28mm lens to make the subject large enough in the corner of the photo. Although I tried to get the corner shots I found after that I’d only aimed at the bottom left and right corners and had none in the top corners.
Incorrect Orientation
Meeting back up again at Hermanos Coffee shop, where some of us grabbed a coffee, Matt explained to us all that he’d been watching us yesterday and this morning and hadn’t seen many of us shooting in a portrait orientation. This is true normally but I had shot a few in that orientation yesterday and often do this to fit a whole person in. Matt also explained his preference for how much you cut off people in images, it’s ok for instance to cut off half an arm but not just a fingertip, or a whole leg can be chopped off at edge of frame but if it’s just the toes of the shoe then it’s distracting and annoying ot the viewer.
After a warning about not bothering the stall holders we were off again holding our cameras in an upright position but without sticking our elbows out or looking all awkward and catching peoples’ eyes as they come towards us.
Market II
After gathering together again at a lamppost we prepared to move on to the next location which would be Brick Lane and the market there. As it turned out, due to the rain, it was a bit quiet so there were fewer stalls and punters out on the street. Matt suggested we go up and down the market trying to put into practice the skills we’d developed over the last day and a half. After this next session we’d head into Bishopsgate to grab a bite to eat before the next part of the workshop.
I chose to shoot a mixture of photos, with some being close up, some using layers of one sort or another, some capturing the colours and the people that are walking around in eclectic vintage fashions.
Layers
I tried a few different shots as can be seen in the gallery above, there are some where I’ve tried to create layers using the street signs, a-boards and even lamp posts with stickers adorning them. At one point there was a deliveroo bike with a mirror that I captured reflections in, and some market stall holders thought I was a market officer about to fine them for parking their van where it shouldn’t have been. When they heard the daft Shropshire accent though I could see them relax a bit and they were happy enough then.
After getting to the end of Brick Lane, we were to head to the Pizza Express in Bishopsgate for lunch before the work of the afternoon. Unusually for me, I was first in after Matt. Normally I’d be ages late owing to try and get as many photos as possible but it was freezing cold and wet and the time was spot on so I headed that way.
Lunch Express
We sat in the restaurant and had a chat about how Matt got into photography and he was a genuine guy to chat to across a table. Once everyone had started joining the table some of them were making me feel bad as they had small microfibre cloths that they were drying off their kit with. A few of my fellow photographers had brought som ebooks with them and asked Matt to sign them, I saw All That Life Can Afford and Think Like A Street Photographer but not the others. I ad taken my Think like… book with me but it was in the bag I’d stored in Gloucester Road. I’ve gone off getting books signed now as it seems weird to me. I asked Matt if he got imposter syndrome from bein gasked to sign books and he said he thought it was odd that people wanted him to sign their copies.
Whilst we were all enjoying a sit in the warm and something to eat and drink, except me obviously, I jsut had a drink, we took it turns around the table to upload our chosen ten photos from the day before, into the Whatsapp group. We took it in turns so that we could all look at each others in order rather than the images all being mixed up together. Matt told us we weren’t allowed to look at each other’s photos until later when we’d do a critique on the lot.
Barbican Critique
A swift walk later and we found ourselves in the bottom of the Barbican Centre sat around a table on three bench seats. Matt took it in turns to look at our photos and give each of us some important feedback about the images that we’d selected to share from the day before. He was kind but fair and was quite thoughtful with the way he worded his feedback. He used words like “graphic” to mean bullshit after one of the group had used it in a description of his image. Matt also said he did not like the use of words like nice, and great shot, as they are a bit meaningless and he would prefer to hear us pulling details that we like out of a photo rather than a quick, “it’s lovely”.
Matt grouped some images from people into genres, some were in a genre he referred to as “Funny, not funny” in that it was funny to the photographer but funny to nobody else in the world. There was another type he called “why are you taking a photograph of me?” in which the eye contact from the subject or someone in the frame almost had an immediate effect of ruining the picture for him.
My Images
The photos I chose to submit to the group are as follows. My reasoning behind the images is as such:
1: For “Making Do and Getting By” warm up exercise.This van driver’s dashboard shows the usual mix of receipts from builders merchants and coffee cups, but in this van the cup is quite an ornamentally decorate one, and alongside it is an upside down model aircraft. Why is this in a van?
I mentioned that I could see myself in a reflection to Matt and the group and Matt said “Actually a lot of the time I tend to wear black, so that I can use myself to fill in the reflection. If you’re wearing a white T shirt you’re screwed but if you have dark clothes, you can put your hand up and make it fit.”
2: This sign made me chuckle inside as I wondered to myself, what is the scaffolding alarmed? what has it seen? I mentioned that it probably fitted into the funny, not funny genre and Matt said “Yes, probably just you, thanks for sharing though” We had a group giggle at this too, which was nice, I don’t mind being self deprecating on this stuff.
3: The CCTV camera outside the photographers gallery was obviously faulty, the bracket had broken but the camera appeared to be pointing straight down at the floor. Who is this going to catch? Matt looked at it and quite rightly said that “The thing about this one, I can’t really tell it’s the security camera which just makes it a bit more difficult to read “
4: For the colour mission, this brolly was black on the top and upon closer inspection the colours underneath were visible. Not sure how I spotted it but I took a few photos under here, none of them brilliant. Matt’s reading of the photo was “Yeah. It’s quite actually quite nice how the umbrella is filling that white space. and apart from that though, there’s not much very exciting. No. Nothing to write home about.” I agree with the comments entirely and it’s nice to get honest critique from someone, especially someone who knows what he’s talking about.
5: In New Bond Street I was trying to layer images, this one of a woman walking past is a reflection across two reflective angled surfaces around a posh clothes shop window. They weren’t happy with me I don’t think but it’s a free country. In discussing the method of the photo and the content Matt said “with this one, her looking at you it just that there and she’s complying with the photograph, but the I quite like your idea of using that as a frame. so not bad.”
For number 6 I was looking at colours and layers, the broken red umbrella on the floor was a good foreground item to detail the weather of the time and I was straddled over a pile of sick to catch this image. Matt said “for this one you pressed the button about a second too late, and the the lady would have been really good to be sort of silhouetted in the white space.”
7: A photo of a young woman walking with the normal London scenery in the background, no real reason other than she stuck out on the street as a subject. I knew what the comment would be likely to sound like and it was this “ I don’t mind it but she’s not doing anything interesting enough. as far as I can see” Spot on again Matt, I thought that as I was bringing it up on the screen to talk about. There wasn’t anything happening in the background either.
8: The guy in the green jacket and sunglasses on a super rainy day also stood out in the crowd and I took a few photos of this person as he came towards me, this was trying to get a character in the edge of the frame to allow for the stuff behind to happen. Matt said “good character. This is it is potentially flick the camera to portrait. Because everyone else in this framing black coats and stuff. not so great.”
9: Is a shot from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) as part of the last challenge of the day on the Saturday. The womans clothes look similar to that in the painting above her on the wall. The white shoulder of her dress reflects the way that the spainting subject’s shoulders and chest are painted pale white too. My fave piece of feedback from Matt on my best photo from the weekend sounded like “the next picture is really great. like amazing, did really well. And I doubt anyone has got something quite as funky as that. that’s really, really good. Well, you know, the the sunflowers match with the dress, but then that white collar, you know, and the hair and anyway, that one’s really good..a keeper so well done.“
10: Whilst struggling for ideas in the NPG I leaned over and captured some shots of people on the escalators, their shadows growing and warping on the wall behind them as the moved upwards to the floor I was on. Matt wasn’t a fan of this one, I framed it as I couldn’t find anyone else by a picture so I reverted to the shadows and Matt said “you did so well with that last picture that you just gave up, but the the last picture is not that great.” He then reiterated about the picture labelled number 9 here and then we had a round of applause.
Out of my shots I think there were two successful images. The best was the gallery image (9) and then the guy in the green sunglasses (8). The critique from Matt was interesting too as he was spotting points that we all had missed when making the images. In much the same way that Dan at the uni spots obvious things in prints when I share them with him, a trained eye must just see these errors glaring out.
My fave images from others
Out of the other members of the workshop there were some lovely images captured and when I started off on Saturday morning with imposter syndrome, I now felt like I was on a par with the other photographers all now being subjected to the feedback.
This photo by Chiu was my favourite from his set, and Matt suggested that it could be cropped square to remove the people on the left, to improve it further. Matt was hypothetically charging us for every crop we made to our images as if to make us think and value the real estate of the frame.
Another of my faves from the group was this one from Salvi, showing two young women and one of them having an umbrella malfunction.
One of the only two females in the group Ali is really into art and we had a good chat about why we like different art and artists. One of her pictures is in my top five from the day too.
Harry Black, a Londoner in the group saw this angle of a beer glass precariously balanced when I was shooting it from an alternative angle. I like the unease created in the scene from it balancing on the edge and being fragile.
One of the two Germans from Berlin shared this image with the group and on WhatsApp, which I really liked too. Not sure anyone else enjoyed it, and it prompted the use of the term “graphic” again.
Once we had finished with everyones’ critique session, Matt suggested goign for a quick pint to chill out before splitting up and closing out the workshop. We walked through the Barbican, now in darkness, to The Jugged Hare on the corner. We stood at the bar and each continued chatting , asking each other and Matt some questions reflecting on which parts of the weekend we found the most useful. Matt had to jump on a flight back to Holland as that is where he lives, and after Matt left a few other workshop members faded away too. Hugs and handshakes were shared and each person went their separate ways. Some returning home that night, like me, and some awaiting a flight the next day.
Reflection
On the whole I would say that the weekend was well worth the money it cost. £500 for two days learning from a person sounds an awful lot, and to me it is a lot of money. Some of the other attendees weren’t put off by the cost and many had done multiple workshops all around the world with some of the worlds greatest photographers. This isn’t my usual sort of crew, but each of them were super friendly and helpful to explain what they were aiming for and how they did it.
The fact that I feel more inspired now than ever before with street photography and have an understanding of what makes a street photo truly worth looking at or including in a book or collection is due to the workshop and the engaging way Matt involved us all in the missions. Unbeknown to me Matt must have been looking at how we were moving and taking photos whilst we were under his direction. Then he was tailoring the missions to suit the weather and how e were performing.
I found Matt’s style of critique to be entertaining, making light of valid criticism by labeling them as a member of a genre or category gets the message across without having to actually say the photo has some major issues. One of the categories was family holiday snaps, and there were a few on display that Matt said looked like you’d asked your brother in law to stand on Oxford street with an awkward smile or snarl while you took his photo. I hadn’t really seen the subject looking down the lens as an issue before, and it is still appropriate sometimes. But I note that he talked about unease when people are looking at the viewer, and even though a subject might be superb, the background of an image can lose it completely. One photo he mentioned was. a lovely portrait of someone in a coffee shop/pub window that was superb, until you notice the lady just behind him was blowing her nose into a tissue. Things like this act like a bit of a splinter to the unconscious mind I guess. The same as how he was unhappy when starts or ends were missing off text that caused a disorientation for the viewer.
Some of the points he raised are self explanatory and common sense, but it was good to hear them reiterated. Matt is an extraordinary photographer and it was also good to witness him at work on Oxford Street, stood in the middle of the flowing pedestrian traffic, occasionally bringing his camera to his eye to capture something.
I also found the zone focussing was necessary when doing this street photography and the Q3 on f8 has a good range of depth of field when on f/8 it dropped significantly when opened to f/4 on the darker streets and poorer weather. My Q3 shows a lot of digital noise at high iso so I prefer to keep it low where possible. Being forced to use the zone focussing was good as I sometimes try it and then change to manual focus on the hyperfocal spot but with little time to change it is an essential skill to pick up. Many of my photos were in focus but there were a few when they were too close or I’d knocked my focus ring.
Would I recommend a workshop with Matt to others? Absolutely. No question, it is an inspirational experience that has refreshed my keenness to get out and photograph on the street. It’s also helped me see some extra skills that I can aim towards picking up and having in my toolkit soon. The geographical experience Matt has in the area is obvious too and he picked some great spots for the missions.
The weather? It was wet and windy but it didn’t stop us. Matt said he was pleased we’d all throwin ourselves into it as some might turn their noses up at going out with expensive gear in this sort of weather.
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