So last week was the Halloween weekend and although I am in Germany and the tradition is rather young, there are more and more themed parties where people dress up as horror characters. I had high hopes to not only take one good picture that I wanted to share, but many more to follow over the next weeks. Unfortunately, I was not able to catch a single image that was satisfiable. Apparently, Halloween in Berlin is not like I’d imagine it to be and it was a real let down. But what made me unhappy was mostly the dissonance of the pictures I had in mind versus how the reality looks.
Planning Street Photography
I wrote it before, but I can’t stress this point enough. Street Photography is only projectable to a certain degree. For the Halloween weekend, I researched some locations that held parties following horror themes. My goal was to photograph dressed up people in the city maybe surrounded by casual bystanders. The juxtaposition in photography was what interested me most, but as I already told, the goal was missed by quite a margin. For the most part, Halloween in Berlin means dressing up as usual but paint your face white and black. In the area, I was looking for interesting subjects that even meant to wear a suit and tie combined with the makeup.
It was not what I was looking for and the costumes were not as extravagant as I hoped them to be. But what was the actual mistake that made me feel depressed in the first place?
Different Degrees of Planning
The first one is to optimize the conditions under which you are taking your pictures. For me in this category fall things like making sure all my batteries and smartphone are charged, a fresh bottle of water is in my bag and the sd-cards are freed up for new pictures. Basically, everything that could be a major distraction during the time taking pictures is handled beforehand, so I can fully concentrate on taking pictures. With these measurements, I try to develop my potential to the fullest and get the best images I could take.
In the next step, we go a little more into detail. We inform ourselves about events that might be going on today, study the weather report and depending on the circumstances we have already pictures in our mind we want to realize.
Furthermore, you can also imagine yourself already at home editing all your beautiful pictures you took. Maybe you also have a little series in mind, a story you want to tell over the course of multiple pictures that you want to get done this evening.
Underlying problems of Street Photography
In regards to the aforementioned three steps of planning, there are entities you are not able to plan into detail. Obviously, you are able to make sure that anything that is in your responsibility is settled. But having the expectation to get certain pictures can create unrealistic desires that are out of your control to fulfill. Of course, it would be nice to get the full story done in one evening walk and come home happily while editing the trophies. But more often than not the randomness of Street Photography can deny you this success.
Therefore I’d recommend you to only plan ahead the things you are fully in charge of. Getting a handful of “keepers” in one evening is certainly not something that is fully up to you and can create unfulfillable desires.
Inspiration not Expectation
In hindsight, a big mistake I made was to soak up all the Halloween pictures from around the globe. Be it the trick or treating in the USA or Day of the Dead in Mexico. There are wonderful pictures out there from these days and the longer I delved into this strange world the more these images manifested in my mind and they became my minimum standard for the pictures of myself.
The problem is that every region has its unique style. As already said, this year’s trend in the city west was simple makeup combined with high-class wardrobe. So instead of trying to get the same “edgy” costumes, I should have focused more on the light setup and general atmosphere. Again, the costumes are not in my control so I shouldn’t expect to be able to catch the same extravagant dresses like in other parts of the world.
The new dogma
Although I already wrote in previous articles that Street Photography can be very random, unfair and irreproducible, I try to live under the new maxim:
Plan to the fullest – expect nothing
Expectations are reserved for genres that are fully controllable, like still photography or other studio work. Street Photography has too many random variables that can destroy any preparation, but without preparation, you won’t be able to maximize your output when the prerequisites are met.
Try to plan the things you are able to plan, but accept that you can still have days without a single good picture and you will receive more satisfaction in Street Photography when you catch outstanding photos “out of nowhere”.
Stay Curious
Sebastian Jacobitz
