Subway Series

It’s now the fourth week of the photography class. (I have a few previous assignments that I’ll post soon.) We have to choose our own project to work on for the next four weeks. The photo above is from the second assignment, though I kind of cheated about the boundaries of where to photograph. It is one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken this year, and since I like taking candid pictures of people (though it’s also kind of scary sometimes!), I let this be my inspiration to work on subway photographs.
Now of course, I have a few project ideas within the broad area of subway photos. I like the idea of a purer series with plenty of constants to better focus on who’s in it.

1. First would be just people sitting directly across the train aisle, taken from ‘the hip’, just like the one above. (None are as gorgeous as that first one; in that the subway lights flickered off for a moment, which gives it that gloomy glow.)

Here are a few others that I liked from my outing this week that I could shape into a specific project.

2: Portraits through train doors or windows. Like peering into another world.

3.  General subway portraits (other places on the train or platform).

3. Platform benches. (This is when I wish I had that wide angle after all.)

4. Exiting the train from directly in front of the doors. I like the chaos and movement, but I don’t know if there’s too much blur. Also, with my positioning, some people look at me. However, more ignore me or don’t see me, and go about their business, which is the part I like to see, how everyone is in his or her own world.)

Assignment 1: Taking a Walk

I finally signed up for another photography class! It’s at the Education Alliance and it meets once a week. The focus is on street and urban photography. I am hoping to get some good inspiration and critique. So far it’s going well.

For our first assignment, we had to take a walk and take one (and only one!) photograph every certain number of steps. What an interesting challenge! First, it was hard in some places to find something interesting at that step. I definitely had to look around at times, turning around or leaning to a different angle. Second, taking only one shot in each place! I definitely had to look carefully for the angle and perspective I wanted, to get it as right as possible the first time. Third, there were a few intriguing scenes I saw between stops that I couldn’t shoot. Fourth, it can be difficult to shoot strangers in the street. (Er, you know what I mean!) When people are walking toward me, I waffle about pointing my camera straight at them. I’m not sure what I expect to happen, and nothing terrible has ever happened. Sometimes I’m brave and shoot away, and sometimes I’m too shy. (For example, this afternoon, the woman next to me on the train had a head in her bag! A mannequin head, but still. A face peeking out of a bag! It would have been a fascinating photograph, and alas, I was too timid to take out the camera.)

Here are a few that I liked from the set.