Feb 20

Feb 20 Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time

Photo of the Day, Street, Fuji X-Series, Ireland

There’s one thing about street photography that is pretty important to the genre, and that’s the aspect of luck. In commercial photography, or travel, or portrait, or food, you are in control of everything and you can work whatever needs to be worked to get the picture you want. In street photography, you’re somewhat at the disposal of the whims of fate. While you can always get good shots with what you have in front of you, but every now and then, luck is on your side and you’ll be in just the right place at just the right time when the stars align. Recently, I’ve had some pretty good luck. The first time was last week when I was walking around, and I was somewhat frustrated because I wasn’t in the zone and getting the shots I wanted. Just as I was about to give up I wandered into an incredibly colourful protest. What’s more it was positioned in a place where I knew I could get up high and capture it from above. The only downside was that I was stuck with a single prime lens, but luckily I was shooting on my Sony Nex–7 and so the extra resolution allowed me to crop in to get the framing right.

Taken with a Sony Nex-7 - 50mm Sony 1.8 Lens - Click Here for a Limited Edition Print

Another happy coincidence was a few days ago when I was walking by the river in the centre of Dublin city and I happened to come across two workmen hanging from one of the city’s largest buildings taking down a banner that had been there for the past year. An hour or two later and I would have missed it.

Taken with a Fujifilm XE1 - 18-55 f2.8-4 Fuji Lens - Click Here for a Limited Edition Print

But my favourite shot has nothing to do with an event or anything newsworthy or even that interesting, it was simply a guy walking across a building. Nothing out of the ordinary, you might think, but the combination of colours of both the passer by and the building was pure luck and I love the results. I even managed to get my little Fuji XE–1’s quirky shutter delay timed just right to get the framing the way I wanted it. And so this is my photo of the day: