Street Photography - In Constant Motion
What Is The Work About
I originally wanted to do architectural photography, highlighting the different types of buildings in Ottawa, but I couldn't find the time to hit them all so I ended up doing a walk around Centretown to see what I could capture. The Sun was setting pretty quickly plus it was super cloudy so I had little light to work with. As I went along, I notice a lot of the photos I was taking had unintended motion blur. But, once looking them over, they actually looked really good. So I went ahead with the idea of doing motion blur capturing the busyness of the city and attempting to give off the sense of urgency when walking downtown.
Why Did I Decide to Photograph This Series
I used to live and work downtown so I pretty much got used the scenes there. In the city there is so much going on so you have to be on your toes whether you're taking photos or just walking around. I've always liked taking photos downtown just because there is so much to work with and you can never run out of subject material. I wanted to take this specific series because everything can happen so fast that you barely have time to process what it is happening around you. So I wanted to capture that feeling as best as possible. I was also inspired by two photographers that I follow on Instagram - Chris Chu and Alex Kotevski. They both have photos where they used intentional motion blur. To me, their photos look almost like paintings with actual brushstrokes and super saturated colours. With their work in mind, I tried to replicate it the best I can.
What I Learned
The main thing that I learned that mistakes as well as failure are all part of the process. I went out with a completely different idea but it didn't go in my favour. Instead of changing my plan entirely, I adapted and did a different idea. I realized that things aren't always going to go in my favour all the time, so, rather than throw it all away I can work through it and use it to my benefit.
