Tips on Street Portraiture with Glynn Lavender

Glynn gave some interesting advice on street photography and portraiture at the Big Photo Show in LA. What stood out to me from the get go, (besides his Australian accent), was that he advocated for the BIG LENS where necessary to get the shot. Everywhere else I hear people wanting to blend in, never have I heard someone talk about carrying a huge telephoto.

So I sat in on the session, and he had some really good tips.

Glynn's 7 Steps to Street Portraiture (shooting people you don't know)

1. Find great light. Be a seeker of light.


2. Be more than a person with a camera. Communicate.


3. You need to be courageous.


4. Complete understanding of your gear.


5. Lens choice is everything! Zoom lenses are not for zooming, use your feet instead. About viewpoint, perspective, compression and depth.


6. Write with light, shape with shadows.


7. Ability to work fast, people won't wait. Ability to run fast can help too.


8. Honor your side of the connection. Pay it forward.


9. No, doesn't always mean no.


10. Forget composition, focus on vision.

Check out Glynn's workshops here, along with links to facebook, twitter, instagram.

iPhone Photo Tips @ Big Photo Show

I got a few good tips from presenter Michael Sweeney in the short 30 minutes he was presenting:

• For against glass shots (his example was @ Aquarium), just buy some black foam from Michael's, cut a hole for the lens and hold it right against glass.  Cuts out reflection and vibration.
• Use ProCamera 7 - Cocologics, can take focus point and exposure point and separate them.
• Gaffer's Tape to tape on filters for: Infrared (R72 filter), polarizer, ND filter
• Use High Pass Filter for panoramic landscapes
• Olloclip Lenses for wide and macro
• Pedco UltraPod II
• Portable power supply
• Earbuds for remote trigger, can take pictures by pressing button
• Photo Transfer App to transfer images
• Dropbox, every single image goes up to Dropbox

Big Photo Show in LA May 17th-18th, 2014

If you're in LA, or visiting this weekend, and like photography, you may want to get some tickets to the Big Photo Show.  Discounts available via promotion codes at local photo stores like Samy's.

LOCATION 
The Big Photo Show Los Angeles 2014 
1201 S. Figueroa St. 
Los Angeles, CA 

10 AM - 6 PM, Saturday and Sunday

The free education seminars themselves are worth the time and effort to go.  The very first event Saturday morning @ 10 AM with Scott Robert Lim is worthwhile to attend if you are interested in portable strobe flash.  Scott is amazing, and a true inspiration to watch.

Check out the full program here to see what else is available.