Shooting from the Hip

I have just started following a blog by Street Photographer Eric Kim.  He is one of the bravest people I've seen (or maybe just a little bit crazy!)  :)

For one of his posts, he attached a small video camera to his regular camera and took us with him as he went out for a walk to take pictures.  The video is about 6 minutes long, but you can get a sense of how he works by watching the first few minutes.  It's interesting to see the photos at the end of the post that he took during the video.  View it here!


I was impressed by something Eric said, or mentioned, or something... anyway, at some point he talked about shooting from the hip.  When my husband and I went to the local Art Walk a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try that concept.  (I'm not quite as brave as Eric, yet!)

This is what I mean by shooting from the hip.  (These two photos were generously taken by my daughter.)

Me carrying the camera

Me - taking a picture of the picture taker

Notice that my finger is on the button the whole time.  I took her picture while she was taking this shot.  She heard the shutter noise, so she knew - but most of the time, especially in a crowd, people don't notice.

Here are a few shots I got (straight out of the camera - SOOC) from the Art Walk a few weeks ago.  I opened the lens to wide angle (18mm) and just clicked as I was walking by. 

I also turned the flash off... so some of the after dark shots are a little blurry.  Having the wide angle helps gather more light, though! 

So, while they aren't the most amazing pictures, if I had drug out a tripod and set up the shot, the people in the shots would have vanished, or at least not looked natural.

Try shooting from the hip!  I'm going to do it more often!  It's fun getting home and looking through the shots to see what you got!  :)

Don't forget to check out my 31 in July over at my photo project blog!  :)

Happy Tuesday! 

Tiffany