Street Photography: Hollywood Zombie Walk

Shooting people is not something that appeals to me. There's some dark humor you.

The Real Hollywood

But really, photographing human subjects puts me on edge, especially when they're strangers. I just don't know how they'll act if they think I'm taking their picture surreptitiously. I don't like confrontation, which I always anticipate when I point my camera at a person.

So here is an anxious introvert's guide to street photography... so far.

Kit

• Nikon D7200
• Nikon AF 18-140mm f/3.5
• Twilight red filter (didn't use it, though)

Things I Learned about Street Photography

• Don't act like you're taking someone's picture
• Never make eye contact
• Try to position yourself so that people are unsure of who (or what) you're pointing your camera at
• Once you've got the shot, keep walking as if you didn't take a picture
• Try to go to places where people want their photos taken
• Good practice for getting over fears of confrontation
• No one will get mad at you for taking photos
• Try to create/capture scenes
• Let the people tell a visual story through their actions
• If it helps, think of the people as part of the landscape or as a foil for the architecture
• Makes for a much more interesting photo
• Have an anchor for the photo
• An object or background feature that can help tell the story of a scene
• The anchor may draw the attention of passerby, and catching those reactions can make for a great shot
• Keep moving
• Move with the subject to create a natural sense sight--like you just looked up to see the scene
• Standing in one place takes away from the dynamic movement of the final shot

Story

It was a lazy Sunday, and I wasn't yet ready to do my readings for class. I was pretty bored of watching YouTube and looking at my phone. Still, I wanted to make one last-ditch effort to get out of my apartment. I hopped on my phone again and opened an app that I usually forget about: MeetUp. I searched for photography MeetUps and stumbled onto The Ambulant Photographer--Photowalks. And there just happened to be a meet up near me in a few hours.

I got my kit ready and walked about 20 minutes to the meeting spot. There, I met Phil, an older gentleman with an amiable personality. I ended up sticking around with him most of the time because he was sympathetic to my fear of shooting people. We were joined by another half dozen or so people by the 3 PM starting time.

Eventually, the organizer, Chris in the Red Hat, showed up and gathered us around for a debriefing of the light state and for general tips for street photography. It was an overcast day, perfect for taking portraits and other subjects that look better in diffused light. We decided that we needed to be back to the Metro station at 4:45 PM to prepare for the incoming zombie infestation, which was to begin at 5.

Off we went. I stayed with the core group because I was still too nervous to do anything on my own. It was the core group that taught me a lot about how to be inconspicuous when taking photos of other people. And Chris in the Red Hat, a professional street photographer, taught me oodles about what to focus on for my photos. The rest I learned from observing Chris in the Red Hat and taking note of how he was getting his gorgeous shots.

The disparity between the imagined glitz and glam of Hollywood and the reality of it.

I tried my hand at photographing a tweaker near the Metro station, but he saw me and started acting even more strange. OK, so don't let them see you. That's when someone in the group, whose name I totally forgot (sorry!), taught me how to sneakily take a photo of someone: act like you're focusing your camera at the ground and then lift it just in time to snap the shot; then walk forward without making eye contact. Doing so makes it look like you're minding your own business and that you just paused briefly to do camera stuff.

Ladies walking by a haunted escape room

I sneaked some photos that didn't turn out especially well, but it was good practice for the sneaky-shot technique. The same guy taught me another way to get a shot of someone: lift your camera so that 2 or 3 people are in front of it; the real subject won't know who you're trying to take a photo of. This technique proved much more difficult, but I gave it a few shots nonetheless.

Two young ladies out for a stroll up Hollywood Blvd.

After about an hour of shooting and practicing and learning, we all make our way back to the Metro station. Everyone hooked up fancy flashes to their cameras (or in one case, a handheld light pop). I felt extremely out-of-place using the flash that came on my camera. And I felt even more out-of-place for taking 10 minutes figuring out how to open the flash. I normally shoot with natural light, so I had to fiddle around with my camera to find the way to open the flash. It turned out that there's a little button near the flash. Duh. Of course it would be something that simple and that I'd look for it in the most complicated way.

Anyway, my camera was ready, and I was ready at the top of the stairs where the zombies were to come. And there I waited--we waited--for a good 20 minutes. And then...

The first zombie of the day

A zombie stumbled up the stairs, the first of many. Instantly, camera lights popped from everywhere, and I was only too happy to join in. Zombies soon flooded the square in front of the Metro station, posing and pausing for photos.

The grossest zombie of the day

I followed the zombies for 30 minutes before I realized I was getting tired, which was evident from my photos: most of them were out of focus by now. I guess 3 hours of photography will do that to ya.