![]() ![]() “There was still gunfire so we were kind of dipping and diving trying to get back to our hotel. You want to stop and help but you still hear gunfire, and I have kids.” In the alleys there were people screaming for help. She says she saw things she hopes never to see again, including a young woman she guessed to be about 18 who was bleeding out through an open chest wound. “She was just young - and deceased,” Kindra said of the woman, who was actually 21. “And there was nothing that I could do to help her. I wanted to start chest compressions but she had an open gunshot wound and she was already bleeding out so there was nothing I could do to help her. I think that stays with me the most especially because she was so young.Documenting the everyday moments will always be my first love. When I first adopted my husband’s camera back in 2017, I brought it everywhere with me, afraid of missing a single moment. Some of my favorite images ever are from that year because of the raw emotions and connections. However, I knew nothing about light or composition and struggled to figure out why I liked some images but not others. ![]() Today, I pick up my camera far less but have more images that I love because I try to be more intentional when I do pick it up. In this post, I’ll share six tips on shooting documentary with intention!įirst, let’s do a quick run through of the rules of documentary photography. ![]() ![]() Ultimately documentary photography is about an authentic representation of the scene you encounter, without the photographer changing or directing the scene. If you submit your images to documentary photography contests, these are usually the guidelines laid out: I shoot a blend of lifestyle and documentary, but when I classify an image as pure documentary, it must adhere to specific rules. You can’t tell your subject to smile, look in a specific direction, point somewhere, “do that again,” etc. You let your subjects interact naturally, without interference. Often, when I shoot lifestyle, I will push clutter out of the way, move furniture, or clear off a table. No removing pixels in post-production.Documentary shooting means embracing the scene as you encounter it, messes and all. While you can adjust exposure, white balance, dodge and burn, you can’t remove a light switch or cords. You can’t change the color of someone’s shirt or remove logos from clothing. While in documentary photography, you don’t direct the subject or the general scene, by being intentional about shooting, you still have a lot of control over the final image. I no longer shoot every moment all day long, but I wait for interesting moments. There are reasons to capture the mundane, the everyday. Over the years, I have literally hundreds of photos of my oldest child (now 7) reading as that is something he has loved since birth. But I don’t need to capture it every single day. Now, I will choose to capture that moment when he’s reading in beautiful lighting, or when he’s doing something crazy like lying down reading literally in the middle of the stairs with his stuffed dog. ![]()
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