So here goes…the new website is almost done. What’s missing is the Contact page as well as some more street photography categories and relevant content for the portfolio. The Constant Reader will have noticed that this isn’t my first attempt at building a website and an accompanying blog for my photography. I don’t want to make long excuses, but let me just say that WordPress wasn’t love at first sight.

So what’s changed?

Not much, necessarily, but as I was getting more serious about the whole photography thing, I realized that I needed a portfolio site to properly show off the work of the last couple of years. As I explained a little on the About page, I also want to use the blog to provide some behind-the-scenes information on the shots I publish on Flickr, Instagram and Facebook. The idea really came from my Flickr Friends who had asked for explanations on how some of the street shots were created. This means for the future that I’ll have to keep in mind to take additional photos to use for behind-the-scenes blog posts. I’m sure for now I’ll be able to find enough material in my Lightroom catalog, but it’s definitely going to be better to shoot with the behind-the-scenes blog in mind.

If I had to put my finger on it, I’d say that this was my very first street shot. Taken May 20, 2014.

Photograph by Christian Stops ©2014

The image above is, in my mind, the starting point of my more serious street photography efforts. It dates back to May 20, 2014. The link takes you to the shot buried deep in my Flickr photo stream.I re-edited it for publication here, so don’t be surprised to find that the version on Flickr has a split toning effect on it and looks quite different. I guess I can say that I was young and didn’t know better! I liked the slightly warm tone for my street shots back then. Seeing them like that today always gives a pang of nostalgia. In all honesty though, I think the effect has outlived itself. I’m sticking with clean and contrasty black-and-white now. 

I’ve always been good at beginning things and not so much at sticking with them. Photography is an exception, of course. So I’m unsure whether Plato was onto something there! I guess if you don’t even begin an endeavor, there’s zero chance you’re seeing it through.

I also want to make this blog about doing photography when you’re handicapped. I gave an interview to the German street photography magazine Soul of Street a few months ago in which I, for the first time, publicly talked about the topic and I think some people were genuinely interested. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a link to the interview at this point, but I’ll reach out to the good people of Soul of Street and see if we can work something out.
A wonderful source of inspiration I found recently on Instagram: Anthony Carbajal
He’s also got got a YouTube channel where you can learn more about him and the work he does.

Another topic that might be interesting to write about for the blog are those funny/weird little things that happen to you when you’re out with your camera. I think fellow street shooters will know what I mean!

Then there’s the other side of things

Are handicapped people in public fair game for street photographers? In my opinion they are! However, as a rule, I like to depict people in empowering situations and that’s especially true when the subject is handicapped. It’s easy, if not to say cheap, to show, for instance, a wheelchair user in front of a few stairs and boom, there’s your “storytelling” picture that shows the poor guy in a situation as predictable as it gets.

This will, I’m sure, be a topic that I’ll revisit here every now and again. Now I can hardly wait to hear what you think! So please have your say in the comments below! Be sure to leave me a comment even if you dropped in just randomly. It would also be fantastic to see comments from some of my Flickr Friends that may have dared to click the link I’ll be putting in the description boxes from now on!