When I first became serious about photography in the early 1970s I started hanging out with others who were just as passionate about their newly-discovered medium as I was. I found a new (to me at least) kind of photographic study that I described as street photography.
Those who practiced it spent their days searching out subjects in and around the city: buildings, people, plants, shadows and so on; anything that appeared in any form on a public street.
There were rules (sort of). The photograph had to be unique and interesting without cropping the original, and had to be shot using black and white film. The photo magazines of the day had lots of examples from around the world, and one could expect to see individual exhibitions hanging on the walls of different establishments at the time. It wasn’t unusual to walk into a small café, order food, and spend the next 15 or 20 minutes looking at the images captured on local streets by some photographer.
Serious practitioners of this type of photography disdained cropping, and preferred to use 50mm lenses because that focal length was closest to what they claimed the human eye saw. I can remember a friend criticizing me of cheating because I had one of those newfangled zoom lenses that let me change the focal length at will.
He was certain they couldn’t be very sharp and would never be used by serious photographers and looked down on the new Vivitar 70-210mm zoom lens a friend had brought for me from his trip to Japan. Zoom lenses were just becoming popular then. and the Vivitar was one of the sharpest. I lost touch with that guy, and I wonder what he is using now.
As I sat down to write and think about those early days I remembered wandering around the streets of Port Townsend, Washington with a newly-acquired 18-200mm. My wife and I were on our way back to Kamloops after our trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon. We had over-nighted at Ocean Shores, Washington during a storm, and after the morning’s three-hour scenic drive found a nice place to stay in Port Townsend.
The town is a photogenic coastal town with lots of historic 19th-century Victorian buildings located on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula, about a six-hour drive and a short ferry ride from Kamloops.
My wife chose to relax in the motel room, and I eagerly began by walking along one of the higher lanes above the town taking photos with my 18-200mm lens of a lighthouse in the strong, contrasty light. I wonder if that years-ago-friend would have been critical. That lens was so versatile. Gosh, what a hassle changing lenses would have been.
I then went searching out interesting shadows and buildings in a tree-lined neighbourhood before venturing down into the city centre. I walked along alleys, main streets, and along the small harbour, choosing different subjects and angles, taking some photos horizontally down the street and some looking up at the interesting old buildings.
For a time, I walked along talking to a couple visiting from China, but they were more interested in posing tourist-style in front of the buildings, so I wished them well and continued in a different direction.
My street photography walkabout lasted close to three hours before the low evening light faded. I did try some shots of a couple of double-masted ships moored in the harbour, but they were too distant for my lens. I suppose if I had wanted to photograph sailing ships in the ocean, it would have been fine, but the buildings in that town and the shadows they were creating were more interesting.
I wandered the city’s streets discovering, and photographing what I found. A camera is the best tool for discovering a new place and I recommend Port Townsend for anyone interested in a fun short excursion. I can’t think of a better way to end that last day in Washington before our drive back to Kamloops the next morning.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
