Gorey St. Patricks Day Parade

Over the last few years I’ve been playing with shooting relatively blind by keep the camera at waist level, which has resulted in terrible results for the most part. I would always point the camera too low so I ended up with a bunch of blurry sidewalks and half bodies. I think my desire to keep trying it and perfecting it was born from my love of old street photography, back in the day when they had the twin lens cameras that you could keep at a lower level and didn’t have to raise up to your eye. You could go relatively unnoticed, people weren’t fully aware that you were taking their photo. It’s my whole esthetic and goal.

Another part of it is something that one of my teachers told me in college. I can’t remember which one or what exactly they said, hell it’s possible it wasn’t even a teacher. Either way, the point was this: Everyone takes photo’s while standing straight up, get a different perspective. Don’t be afraid to get down low. This is something that has stuck with me since and something that I’ve really been following during my time in Ireland. I’ll do a couple at my regular height then I’ll bend over and get a couple. Sometimes I’ll squat, when I was at Hook Head, I completely laid down. Depends on the subject really. I think that line of thinking, the ability and willingness to look at different perspectives, is something that really sets photographers apart. It’s odd though because, like much of what I’ve discussed here, that bit about perspective setting photographers apart is something I have to work through. Let me explain…

Being uncomfortable approaching people and taking a photo of them, I find it easier to do so during a large event such as a parade or festival. It’s a comfort zone of sorts as it’s a place where there are already multiple photographers roaming around. People let their guard down and are almost expecting their picture to be taken or to be in the background at the very least. But it’s a double edged sword as I become a little self conscious when I see these other photographers. My mind immediately goes to thoughts like

• Okay well they already got that shot covered and that one over there has that one. Oh well.

• I can’t get my own shot, there’s too many other people taking photos.

• Their photos are going to be better so why try.

Which is a bizarre line of thinking because it’s not like we’re working together. I shouldn’t let myself get discouraged seeing that someone saw the same shot that I did. It should be a sense of encouragement, like “you were right to think that would make a good photo.” Someone having the same idea as me doesn’t mean it’s going to look the same. Everyone has a different angle, different equipment, different expertise levels, and different editing skills. A different perspective. It’s very difficult for two people with different kinds of equipment to take the same exact picture. Especially when all I have is a 10 year old camera with a 50mm lens and a strap that always comes undone sitting at the bottom of my bag under a couple of books and a low tolerance for editing. You can’t match that. You can try but it won’t work. I almost always briefly think “who gives a fuck, get your shot.

I do get genuinely annoyed by other photographers when everyone is going after relatively the same shot. During my first time at the Feast of the Assumption in Cleveland’s Little Italy (which I’ve mentioned frequently and promise I will share a shot eventually), I had a pretty good spot at the front of the crowd along a point where the processional turned off the main street. If you don’t know, the processional starts on the main street in Little Italy then winds it’s way through the neighborhood, going up and down side streets. It’s made up of children dressed like religious icons, people in traditional Italian costumes, and a large float with a statue of the Virgin Mary that they stick money to. A swarm of photographers, a mix of professionals, amateurs, and middle aged white women with iPads. swarmed around me right before the parade started. Apparently this was the ideal spot but they were everywhere paying little regard to each other. I got frustrated after a few minutes and headed further down the street where the crowd thinned out considerably. And by considerably thinned out, I mean the only people here were the families watching from their porch. I became much more relaxed and comfortable here and it shows in my shots (again, I swear I’ll share something soon.) My shots from the first spot were fine but you could tell I was trying too hard, trying to make the people around me take me seriously or something. Here, I had no imagined judgement, I could move freely and was able to capture people at a more relaxed moment. So while it was the exact same parade everyone else was seeing and capturing, I had my own perspective on it and I need to remember to respect that.

During the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the city of Gorey, I had a similar moment. I was at the front of the crowd with a family of 4 with camera phones to my left and a couple to my right with a large camera. It took a bit for me to shake the idea of “what are they thinking of me every time I raise my camera when they don’t or vice versa?” I finally listened when I said “who cares?'‘ and did my own thing. While my shots of the parade itself are fine, the stronger images came from when I turned my lens to the crowd around me. I took a few shots of the crowd while the parade was going but I took most of them as they were dispersing.

So, as I made my way around after the parade ended I kept the camera in my hand and never raised it up past my stomach unless felt I needed to. I’ve learned that when I feel like I’m tilting the camera back too much, that’s usually the right spot, so I made sure to stay around that angle. When it comes to focusing, I’m able to hear and even feel the camera focusing and settling on the focal point. It can be a little tricky with it being on autofocus because it won’t always focus on what you want and I tend to shoot with my aperture at it’s highest so I tend to end up with like a tree trunk in super sharp focus and all the people directly behind it in a large blurry mass. Of course this could all be resolved if I just adjusted the aperture but one step at a time folks.

This image is one of my favorites from the parade. I love the boys kind of creeper stare and that he just happened to step into the light at the right time. I love the girl with the balloon filling up the rest of the frame. She draws your eye but doesn’t overwhelm the image or create tension. Your eye goes to his face first, then the balloon then up to her. Tell me if this is offensive but they look like kids dressed as stereotypical Eastern Europeans for Halloween, no? Do you see it?

I’m gonna end this post on that note and also because I’ve been working on this post for like 2 weeks and I just want to be done with it.