Alright, so I’ve been meaning to share this for a while. You know how sometimes you just hit a wall with your photography? Well, for me, I literally started looking at walls differently. I’m talking about street photography, but really zooming in on how walls can totally change a shot, give it that killer perspective.
Getting Started with Walls
It wasn’t like I woke up one day and thought, “Walls! That’s the secret!” Nah, it was more gradual. I was out shooting, like I always do, and I kept noticing how much character some walls had. Peeling paint, weird shadows, graffiti that told a story, or just the sheer size of them making people look tiny. I realized I was treating them just as backgrounds, not as a main player. So, I figured, why not try to make them a bigger deal in my shots?
My first few attempts were, well, pretty rubbish. I’d see a cool wall, snap a pic, and it would just be… a picture of a wall. Flat. Boring. I wasn’t getting that depth or that feeling I saw when I was standing there. I’d get frustrated, thinking maybe this was a daft idea.
Figuring Things Out
But I’m stubborn, you see. I knew there was something there. So, I started to really observe. I’d find a promising wall and just watch it for a bit. How did the light hit it at different times of day? How did people interact with it, even if they just walked past? This was a game changer.
I started to actively hunt for walls with strong leading lines – you know, like the side of a building stretching into the distance. Or walls that had interesting textures that could catch the light. Color became a big thing too; a bright red wall behind a person in muted clothes can really pop.
- Scouting locations: I’d actually walk around just looking for walls. Sounds mad, but it helped. I’d make mental notes, or even quick phone snaps, of places to come back to.
- Playing with angles: This was huge. Instead of just shooting straight on, I started getting down low, making the wall tower over everything. Or I’d shoot along the wall, so it would zoom off into the picture, pulling your eye with it. That’s your perspective right there.
- Waiting for the moment: Patience, patience, patience. You find your wall, you find your angle, and then you wait for the right person or element to complete the scene. A cyclist whizzing by, someone pausing to look at their phone, even a stray dog.
I remember this one time, there was this long, kind of grimy alleyway wall. Nothing special on its own. But the way the light fell at the end of it was just perfect. I waited there for nearly half an hour, feeling a bit of a fool. Then, this old fella with a bright umbrella walked right into that patch of light. Click! The wall framed him perfectly, and its length just exaggerated the distance. That’s when I knew I was onto something.
The Gear and The Feel
I mostly used my trusty 35mm lens. It’s wide enough to get a good sense of the wall and its surroundings without too much distortion if you’re careful. But honestly, the gear isn’t the main thing here. It’s about how you see the wall and use its perspective.
What I found was that focusing on wall perspective made me think way more about composition. It wasn’t just about capturing a subject; it was about building a scene where the wall was an active participant. Sometimes the wall was the main subject, and any person in the shot was just there to give it scale or a focal point.
It’s kind of changed how I walk around the city now. I’m constantly spotting potential wall shots. It’s like a whole new layer of the urban landscape opened up. So yeah, if you’re feeling a bit stuck, try looking at the walls. Really look at them. You might be surprised what you find.
