How often do you fish for photographs?

Fishing is where you wander and pick your spot to fish. You set up comfortably there. And you wait. You wait to see what happens or what you can see. You work that spot. You bide your time. You stay while the fish are biting. You reel them in, one after the other.

If you have been there a while, and no fish are biting, you are allowed to move on to somewhere else. That is one of the rules of fishing… If they aren’t there, then they aren’t there. Go look for somewhere else to fish.

Just don’t fall in the trap of wandering. You are intentionally picking a spot and working it. Staying still and working it. Seeing what you can fish out of there.

This exercise is taken from our presentation, ‘Think like a street photographer’. They pick a good background, an interesting spot, and they stay there fishing for photographs. Waiting for something to happen.

Jon Lewis was a dear friend. The last time we spoke it was outside of town hall. We photographed each other. We chatted for twenty minutes. He looked at his watch and suddenly had to leave. He knew exactly where he wanted to be fishing at exactly the right time. He wanted to be walking towards the sun at Martin Place at sunset. The bright light behind people, for maximum contrast. He was going fishing. He said a quick good bye and was off. He was a wonderful portrait and street photographer. I lament not running a workshop together.

So over the next two weeks go fishing… go more than once… try a few different places to go fishing. When it comes time to post, make sure you only post three photographs from one of your fishing spots. For we are very interested in seeing what you can catch from the one spot. By paying attention to seeing, observing, and waiting…

When you pick your spots, you may wish to consider:

• light - a spot that lights up in the sunset hour perhaps

• background - a spot that has a fantastic background

• subject - place that is rife with your favorite subjects.

If you find yourself still wandering looking for that one spot. That is ok, but it isn’t until you stop and settle down, the fishing begins.

Post your photographs in the thread at our forum https://lensclub.discussion.community/post/ex111-fishing-11659623?pid=1325387051#post1325387051