A Weekend in Brisbane
17/01/26
I missed out on seeing Viagra Boys last time they were in Australia, and I wasn’t going to miss them a second time, so I made the pilgrimage, along with Evelyn from Peacock Photography, to see them play in Brisbane. This trip gave us a whole day in the city to practise our street photography, and being the muppet I am, I decided to give it a go using a 35mm manual lens. After all, that’s how I shot all my holidays, and I got some images I absolutely loved.
Little did I take into account that most of the shots I got over the holiday period were of largely static subjects, and that I’d been shooting very early in the morning, when I didn’t need an ND filter. Between those oversights and the general heat, I had what some might call a difficult time.
I’m not someone who usually shoots at f/8, but given the bright conditions, and the speed at which people move in the city, I didn’t really have much of a choice. In itself, that’s fine; it’s a great way to be forced to focus on composition rather than relying on depth of field to isolate subjects. The problem with composing in the city, at least for someone like me who mostly shoots in wide-open country, is the absolute chaos.
I really struggled to pick subjects, let alone compose shots around them. My brain just can’t focus with all the hustle and bustle. That left the street photography feeling a bit like a waste, as I really only ended up with one or two photos I really like, but no learning experience is ever a waste. And while most of these shots don’t rock my world, I’m always surprised by the photos people end up gravitating towards.
