Shooting from the hip
Tynemouth Market is held every weekend in the wonderful Tynemouth Metro station, its a fantastic place to wander around even without a camera and there is always an interesting stall with some oddity or knick-knack to take your interest. It’s a great place to hone your street photography skills too since its packed with character, both the surroundings and the visitors!
I took along my Yashica Electro 35, loaded up with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible.
I’d read a few articles by respected street photographers about the virtues of ‘shooting from the hip’, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Since it removes the ability to compose properly and focus accurately I guessed I’d be more likely to end up with a junk shot, even with a great subject – when I’m using film and have a limited number of shots, it seems like quite a risky route to take. I tried a few from-the-hip shots on this roll and got some ‘fair’ results, but the ones I took through the viewfinder were far superior, they just took a little more brevity since the 35mm lens on the Yashica meant I was up close and often in the personal space of the people I was photographing.
You can see some more of the photos from that day over on my Flickr stream