The Craft of City Photography
Photographing a city is made much easier by the new generation of compact digital cameras. They are light and easy to strap to a belt, have their own zoom and flash facilities built in, and you only need some spare batteries to be in business, without having to lug heavy camera bags around with you.
Photographing your own city is a good way of building an archive of a rapidly changing cityscape, or just recording historic buildings for posterity. The local press may also be interested in using your collection from time to time, so there’s even the possibility of a future business.
At Syntagma, we’re beginning a photo exercise around our headquarters in the glorious city of Exeter, Devon, England. Here’s an example :
The Cathedral Close at Lunchtime — April
We are building a photo archive of Exeter over the summer months, in different lights and from different angles. The whole is designed to convey the gorgeous picture-book quality of this very ancient town.
I’ve found the best way to approach this project is by walking rather than driving around. When you walk, you’re free to divert down any interesting byway that may be impossible in a car.
I’m using a good quality compact digital camera : Advent 8MP, which I can slot onto my belt, plus a spare set of batteries.
Two things I’m looking for : the picturesque and the quirky. Both yield interesting images that others will want to look at. Here’s an example of the picturesque :
Lunchtime in an Elizabethan setting
The next pic is definitely quirky. It’s Parliament Street, Exeter, which is little more than 2 feet in width. There hasn’t been a parliament in Exeter for a good many centuries, but the Council still keeps it up — just.
Super-slim Parliament Street, Exeter
Why don’t you try photographing your own home town?
You can see the whole of this set of images on our Flickr Photostream.
