Do Street Photographers have Superpowers?
There was a scene in the original Spider-Man movie that Sam Raimi directed in which Peter Parker, Spider-Man, has just gotten his superpowers and he gets into a little bit of a ruckus with the school bully ‘Flash Thompson’. Flash starts wading into Peter but peter, now with his powers, is easily able to move aside and dodge all of the blows.
The way it’s directed is it shows us how spider is now seeing the world around him. It’s like everything is in slow motion and he is able to manoeuvre through life in a totally different way. everything else is in slow motion. He doesn’t have to hurry. He can just easily full into synch with life in a way he wasn’t able to do before and take control of the situation.
Now of course I’m not actually saying us street photographers have spider senses but … that scene does remind me a little of how I feel when I’m out shooting.
There will come a time, and this happens on most shoots, when I am moving, not any slower than I usually am, but it’s like the world slows down. I see things almost in slow motion and it’s like I am seeing 2-3-4 shots ahead. Whilst I’m taking a photograph of a stall owner serving someone here, I am already noticing, on the peripheral several other potential shots, maybe that’s someone just about to walk out of a shop, or a window cleaner passing a bucket down to his colleague across the street.
It may seem to people around me that I’m moving quite fast, possibly in a hurry, but for me I’m not hurried in the least. I’m present, totally in synch with life, with this moment and when I’m in that space it’s a beautiful thing.
Camera: Fuji Xpro3
Lens: Fuji 16mm f/1.4mm
Edited: Custom Edits in Adobe Lightroom
View YOUTUBE video here.
I was in the Angel of Islington with Katie. She was getting a little tattoo done.