Hip Shooting
Shooting from the hip is something I don’t do very well. I can never point the camera in quite the right direction. Which results in failed shots, wasted film.
Though in fact I do like a few of these with all their imperfections for their spontaneity.
I should probably practice this with a digital camera that I can look at right away and try again and again until I get a feel for it.
All are taken with an Olympus XA or XA2 which has a 35mm lens. I think a wider lens would make it a lot easier. Paying attention to the likely shutter speed would help too.
Seeing the images a couple of weeks later after the film is done and processed leaves too big of a gap to remember what I was doing.
This one I cropped as it was geometric gift, the booby-prize if you like. The photo had only the very top of a chef’s head – I wanted his body, dressed in white, and his cigarette on the way to his mouth.
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This guy appeared to have accosted two women to take their picture, and was bossing them into a pose of his choosing. I am not so insensitive/self confident to do that. Yet.
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At least I got most of the subject in this one, though more of the ferry deck and its railing would have been better.
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If it weren’t for the luscious tones of the slide film, this shot would be a complete dud.
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First shot: Olympus XA2, f3.5/35mm lens, Fuji Superia X-Tra 400
Second and last shots: Olympus XA, f2.8/35mm lens, Fujichrome Provia 400F,
Third and fourth shots: Olympus XA, f2.8/35mm lens, Fuji Superia X-Tra 400
All scanned with Epson V700, edited in Lightroom.
burnt embers 
It’s harder than you think isn’t it. I’ve tried it and have exactly the same problem. I’ve actually tried it with the Nikon and was sure the strap was keeping the camera level – but it wasn’t. The only solution is a wide angle lens with plenty of room to crop a straight image out of the chaos!
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I had that same experience with the DSLR – not level at all.
The brief time I used the Olympus Micro 4/3s with a tilting screen was a bit different – I could look down on the camera with the screen tilted up at me and set it and then hold it steady, sort of, at that angle for a short time.
I have shot a few with the DSLR and a 24mm lens that worked out OK, but not many. I was reading about these methods the other day and someone was recommending an even wider lens – a 15 or so. At some point you are taking a picture with everything in it!
There is quite a lot to be said for just lifting the camera to the eye and shooting and hoping for no confrontations. And I think the funkier the camera, the easier that is. Like the stupidly bright coloured Lomo cameras, or the Olympus point and shoots like the XA which look like toys, or an older bellows camera, or a TLR. People get interested in the camera and like the idea of having it take their picture. So maybe a collapsing bellows camera is the way to go, waist level shooter. Easier to ask permission if one wants with a camera like that too I think.
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I think there’s a lot of sense in what you write about the choice of camera. The smaller the better perhaps – less obtrusive – and the SLR looks maybe too much like a Paparazzo: too ‘in your face’. There is also good sense in a wide-angle. I sometimes use an 11-16mm lens. Sometimes I guess we just have to be bold, but that takes a lot of nerve.
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That’s a fun project idea, ehpem. the 2nd and 3rd ones are appealing to me with their abstracted quality.
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Hi Karen – those are my favourites as well, even though the third one is out of focus it has a lot of other things going for it. The second one is the kind of shot I might take anyway, had I noticed this part of the building. A pleasant surprise.
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I like these images. It is an interesting series. Keep at it!
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Thanks John! I expect I will, though not very much till I find a way of mastering the technique without burning rolls of film.
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It’s a talent I never had, either. I suppose a very wide angle lens will allow cropping and give some room for errors in composition. My main reason for not giving this style of shooting more time is because I don’t like to shoot photos of people at close range. I don’t want anyone recognizable in the photo unless they consent to it.
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Hi Ken. I know what you mean about shooting people at close range. I have tried (a few rare times) asking someone if they mind, but then picture is very posed. Which can be OK too. Street musicians and other performers are fair game I think, but then I just openly take a picture, and they just keep on performing. Performances are not spontaneous either. I have found shooting groups of people that the best shots are when people are posing for a camera holder, but just before and after that other person takes their shot and the group relaxes. But around and about on the street is another matter. These days every single person on the street is being caught on hidden cameras all the time, so it seems kind of normal to join in with the security cameras but it still is a bit nerve wracking. But then so is asking someone if I can take their picture.
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The idea of practice with the digital camera seems a sensible one! But, these photos are alive and spontaneous, as you said.
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Thanks Yvonne. That is the attraction of this kind of shooting. It is harder to catch spontaneous moments when a camera is visibly in play.
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