Despite the ongoing rainfall and a cloudy, permanently gray sky I decided not to wait much longer for a more varied lighting mood but to grab my camera and get going. After a long break I also took my reliable SIGMA 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HS lens along, which is perfect for such excursions in particular.
On my photographic discovery tour I ended up on a long street in the city that is so colorful that you still won’t know everything even if you keep strolling along many times. Ranging from hipster fashion boutiques to little Italian insider tips to exotic supermarkets and many different cafés, pastry shops and restaurants to foreign language bookstores you can find everything here. Of course, this is also a challenge for photographers because – what really leaves a great impression in a photo?
So instead of shooting through a shopping window only to capture some colorful food cans inside a delicatessen shop I also tried to highlight the reflection of the street in the picture. This will add an exciting touch to your subject while putting it into a larger context as well.
As you can imagine new subjects turn up after every few meters. That’s why I tried to have more of a concept in mind on this photo walk, thinking about what this street actually means to me. The coffee shops, that was pretty clear… But also different kinds of shopping windows, the people walking along day after day, and of course the cyclists. Beyond this, the street is a zone open to street art, which makes the temporary paintings on the walls of houses change on a regular basis. Another point of attraction in this street is the different kinds of quite colorful and thickly painted doors matching perfectly with their close environment and still sticking out at first glance when you look more carefully.
The important thing about photo walks of this kind where you start off playfully and without any detailed plan is, of course, the subject that allows enough flexibility when you make your choice. The SIGMA 17-50mm f/2.8 is predestined for capturing all sorts of subjects with its broad range of focal lengths – from easy wide-angle shots to portraits of people passing by on the street.
Even if you don’t believe in it at the first moment – you can still have lots of fun on short photo walks even under continuing bad winter conditions, trying out new things and using the last bits of this season before spring provides us new and wonderful lighting moods.
Foto[GEN]ERELL 