LTP 143: Urban Photography with Allison Sheridan

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Bart is joined by friend of the show Allison Sheridan from the [NosillaCast podcast](https://podceet.com) for a chat about shooting in urban environments triggered by an intriguing email from Allison.

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Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

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Notes

Allison's Initial Letter

Whilst walking and listening to the latest show, I thought of an idea for an episode: shooting in an urban environment. I’m not sure there’s a LOT of meat on them bones, but I thought about different things you can do in this realm.

We were in Fresno seeing [family]. I took this photo outside of our hotel.

A pond under a blue sky with a line of trees on the far back, the trees are reflected in the pond but with a glassy look, and there are a few ducks breaking up the reflection near the far bank.

It’s what my eye was drawn to and appreciated. But this is what the area actually looked like.

The same scene as the first image, but zoomed right out to show a background with an industrial unit of some kind next to the trees on the far bank, a tattered chain-link fence in front of the water, and waste ground in the foreground.

The point is that I often am focusing my joy of where I live on the beauty and my brain just throws away the ugly parts. Power poles just aren’t in my vision even though they may block the sunset. 

The two photos I sent [previously] show how the different point of view can entirely change what one sees.

A suburban intersection with a bed of flowers in the left foreground, a yellow pedestrian crossing in the right foreground, and a street with light grey cement pavements each side curving through from bottom left to top right. On the far side of the street are some nondescript back yards a red car, and some trees.

A macro shot of a single one of the purple flower with a soft-focus background showing hints of bare soil tones.

But it’s not always about trying to hide the ugly. I love to take a photo of a pretty fallen leaf on the sidewalk from down at the ground so that in the bokeh you can make out an old rusted out truck and a bunch of power lines.

I like to capture “life finds a way” subject. A rose snaking out from between fence posts, or a crack in the sidewalk with a tiny flower.

During our conversation Allison promised to share a link of a video her husband Steve took of a total solar eclipse using the sounds of the people experiencing the same eclipse as the soundtrack: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9uVwcAqKshY

After we recorded Allison shared this cool map of her walking route, showing a hero photo and a photo count of the various places she passes daily:

A map of an urban area with thumbnails with counters showing how many photos were taken in each area.

Some Additional Ideas and Tips from Bart

I’m not an urban person, I grew up in rural Ireland, and I feel most a home surrounded by nature, so I struggle with urban photography, though I am starting to get better at it.

Here are some things that work for me:

  • Keep an eye out at the smallest scales — lots of interesting shots hide in the small details!

    • Like Allison, I’m fascinated by how nature finds a way, and happens most at small scales in thinks like walls and pavements
    • Proud citizens decorate urban public spaces at all scales, not just big monuments!
    • Proud residents decorate their homes in fun ways, especially at Halloween and over the winter holiday weeks.

  • You can also get interesting results shooting a big scene wide but with something of interest very close to show a place at multiple scales at once

  • When shooting buildings, try really hard to keep the camera face-on and perfectly horizontal and level to minimise perspective distortions, especially when shooting wide

    • If you can’t get your parallels perfectly parallel in-camera, spend some time with those three perspective sliders in post!

  • Or … do the exactly opposite, and intentionally shoot wide and off-square to amplify the keystone effect!

  • Experiment with unusual points of view

    • The iPhone’s superpower is how easy it is to shoot low, the world looks really different from down there!
    • I LOVE combining shooting small things with getting really close, wide, and low

  • Contrasts can make for really cool shots

    • Big & small
    • Clashing colours
    • Textures, e.g. rough & smooth

  • Sometimes the cacophony of colours can distract more than it helps, so remember you always have the option to convert to monochrome!

    • It’s no coincidence a lot of street photography is black & white!

I also see others do greet things in urban settings that I’m trying to get a handle on, but so far, without much success:

  • People! Were a fascinating bunch us humans, and there tend to be a lot of us in urban areas, but I’m just bad at photographing us, you might have more success

  • Look out for interesting shapes

    • Takes an ability to mentally subtract most of the scene, detail, and colour that I’ve just not mastered
    • Colour often distracts here, so I see lots of stunning monochromes that make great use of shapes.

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