Hunter or fisher?

Two techniques employed in street photography. Just in case you think my blog is changing in another direction! I'd watched many YouTube videos by my fave snappers and some had mentioned the differences between the two. The hunter has a more mobile outlook and will choose an area to move around in, looking for groups of people or individuals in the hope of catching an off-guard expression or behaviour. The fisher will choose a location and stay there in the hope that folks will pass through the scene and enhance the composition. Interesting architecture and natural lighting causing harsh shadows and symmetrical patterns etc, can provide compositional foundations that just require that little bit of additional subject matter in the form of human interest to complete a picture.

In my home town (apologies, haven't quite got used to calling Bangor a city yet!) a casino is illuminated in red lighting and its position on the busy esplanade ensures that a stream of Bangorians pass by on their way home or to one of the many restaurants and bars in the vicinity. Even at night, I have a supply of subjects who can satisfy my need for that human element to add a sense of scale to the shot, illustrating the size of the impressive building. It's a place I've always liked but I was never satisfied with my previous attempts at capturing the former Pim's stores and later Pim's restaurant, a favourite of my wife and I (which took its name from the much earlier general store and occupied the first floor). On an evening walk through the city, I stop to look at the 100+ year old building and from across the road, frame it in my mobile phone camera. I take a few test shots and like the view. But, there is something missing...

Just a day later, it's a cold February evening and after checking the weather forecast, I decide to become a fisherman for the night! It's calm and rain isn't forecast so I locate across the road from the casino and wait for the human interest that I deem to be the missing link. I set up the Canon EOS RP on the trusty tripod. The ISO is set at 3200 which gives me 1/80 sec at f2.8. Hopefully, fast enough to freeze movement. The first opportunity arrives quickly and lens opened wide at 40mm to include all of the building, I capture the passing guy with large envelope in the centrally positioned doorway. This adds a frame to encapsulate the figure and I'm happy with the result, I could walk away now and set up a different composition elsewhere. However, I have decided to stay after all and I'm hoping the patience I employ will produce something out of the ordinary. I see a cyclist approach from the left and hope to capture him but a passing pedestrian on the near pavement is also in the line of fire and may block the attempt. I shoot anyway, framing both subjects!. The cyclist isn't quite centred but it works anyhow. After another few of Bangor's citizens are frozen in time, I hear a boistrous female laugh and two humans in love are high on life and unaware of my presence. Their carefree, uninhibited antics result in the young lady playfully mounting her man as they approached my target area and he continues to carry her merrily for a few yards and into the frame I have aforementioned. I employ my remote trigger and manage to record the pair in their frivolous state. This fisherman technique is bearing fruit and I would have not encountered the hilarious scenario I have just witnessed if I had moved on after my initial wide shot. I spend around 35 minutes in total in the fisher position and happy with my images, I head home to edit.

The images look good and I'm happy with my efforts. The human elements in the frame have added an important dimension to the location I had omitted before and my patient 'fisher' technique provided me with the results I had hoped for. The couple did add a particularly spontaneous aspect I couldn't have predicted but the beauty of this patient approach is that if this event happens, the photographer is ready to pounce on any opportunity that presents itself within the scene. I hope to employ it again in future if an interesting host location presents itself and I may even wait a bit longer for that rare opportunity to emerge if the situation requires. Good things happen to those who wait!