Hitting the “Zone” – Shot-by-Shot street shooting with a Hasselblad 500CM

Going out to shoot still photos can be a bit of a ‘hit or miss’ experience for me.  While always starting with high hopes to shoot beautiful and/or memorable photos, I’ve had many outings where it just isn’t happening no matter how hard I try.  Whether it’s the conditions on a given day or an environment that isn’t offering much to draw the eye, heart or brain, the single biggest factor is always ultimately…  me.

If I’m ‘switched on’ I’ll probably figure out a cool way to shoot something in even a pretty mundane situation, but if I’m not feeling it, I won’t be able to get much out of even the most gorgeous days and locations beyond bland ‘snapshot’ photos that don’t do much more than remind me where I was when I shot it.  Unfortunately, I can never really predict in advance which version of me will be behind the camera when I pack up the gear to head out, or even how long it will last when it comes around.

Some days I’ll wander the streets with my camera in search of, but not finding people who invite my attention or draw me in.  While I’m learning to burn less film on those days, I’ll usually still shoot something.  But the shots are usually from a greater physical and emotional distance from the subject and rarely of anything memorable unless I stumble onto something by sheer chance.  In that mode, I tend to feel more introverted or ‘shy’ about taking photos.  But it can also feel like the world is also a bit withdrawn and everyone is kind of pulled back a bit.

But sometimes it all just comes together and I’m feeling relaxed and confident and I happen into a place where there are lots of fascinating people who are happy to make that connection.  And the shots just flow one after another…  I had a magic hour like that pretty close to actual magic hour on the Friday evening going into Labor Day weekend when I decided to go to Washington Square Park to try some street shooting with my Hasselblad 500CM.  I spent a lot of the spring and summer focusing on street shooting with my Leica M3 and I felt ready to give medium format a try.

What follows is literally every shot, good or bad, in shooting order over the course of about an hour, sometimes swapping between the two film backs; the black & white shots were with a 645 back on Ilford XP2, with a Yellow/Green filter unless noted otherwise, and the color shots were on a 6×6 back with Portra 400.  While I had the 150mm Sonnar f4 in one pocket, I’m pretty sure everything was shot with the 80mm Planar f2.8.

I took a couple of ‘warm up shots’ en route, here catching the famous view of the Manhattan Bridge from Washington Street in Brooklyn.

The light was getting quite beautiful on the Manhattan side as I made my way down Fifth Avenue heading to the Park.  This shot of Washington Mews has what I used to call “Hopper” light when scouting film locations.  We used to joke that the film would get made if someone mentioned Edward Hopper.  I already had a good feeling that this was going to be a good outing…

Once I got into the Park, it didn’t take long before I was approaching people to ask for photos.  First up were some nice young woman who were part of a group selling second hand clothing laid out on the paving stones.

They seemed sweet and cool and had a kind of timeless “Greenwich Village” vibe, like people the Fugs might have written a song about when my camera was new.

Next was a ‘shaman’ type who was offering “Fitness, Mynd, Spiritual Assessment & Remedy” services for anyone passing by.

He looked even more timeless, like someone who could have been around a thousand years ago…

…or maybe a thousand years in the future.

While definitely leading an alternative lifestyle, I think this gentleman seemed quite physically fit and may have been having the best time of anyone in the Park that night.  He was fully aware of being photographed and gave me consent for every shot, including getting pretty close up.  Who knows, he may be on to something with his spiritual ways…

Next up was a fellow balancing a broom stick on a fingertip without drawing too much attention.  The park was hopping that night.

I took another shot to lose the man in the foreground with the iPhone, but I probably should have reframed entirely to get “Broomstick Man” clear of the trees.

But my attention was drawn to the incredibly dramatic sky that moment, so I put on the red filter and lined up a cityscape showing the view up Fifth Avenue including the Empire State Building framed by the Washington Square Arch.

This might be the best graphic compositions I’ve shot since coming back to New York.  I’m envious of people who excel at making great shots of architecture, and I can see a few places I’d try to improve if I have a second go, including getting a clearer view of the Empire State Building with less foreground obstructions.  But it will probably be hard to beat the drama of this shot in that light in that sky.    I hadn’t set out that evening to do graphic cityscapes but it’s good to keep your eyes and your mind open for what the world is giving you at any given time; many of my favorite shots are things I grabbed on the way to shooting something else.

Next I saw a young man who had a bit of a soulful look sitting on the side of the Fountain and asked him for a shot, which he obliged.

I realized that I had miscalculated exposure a bit, forgetting to compensate for the Yellow/Green filter, which was back on after code-switching back to ‘street portrait mode’, and asked for another take, which he also obliged without much fuss.  (What a difference changing filters makes on the buildings and the sky for shots taken in the same direction a few minutes apart!)

I like the exposure better on this one which gives a slightly stronger read of his face, while the composition of the first one is probably better.  I think I may have rushed a bit on the re-take because I probably felt a bit awkward asking for a second one (he was quietly friendly, but also pretty deadpan.)

There was a strange little scene playing out on my periphery with a young woman being ferried about in a shopping cart by a group of friends which I kept wanting to grab.  But they were on their way out of the park by the time I was ready to shoot that direction, and I fell short (or long) of nailing focus on that one.

Next up, I found these two young men, Taji and ‘Cam1’, and ended up doing a series with them.

They had an interesting style of posing for shots.

I decided to swap film backs to get some color, this time including EJ, who is a photographer himself and recognized the Hasselblad as the camera that went to the Moon.

Coming out of my chance meeting with the great Jamel Shabazz, I’ve been developing a style of street photography/portraiture that I think of as ‘High Engagement’, where I’ll try to collaborate with the people I meet in a kind of ‘Five Minute Film Friendship’ where they play an active role in how they are shot.

EJ was super excited to see a Hasselblad in action and asked if he could try taking a shot.  I was happy to let him have a go.

First he grabbed a two shot of Taji and Cam1.

And then a three shot that included me hamming it up a bit…

EJ was unfamiliar with the controls of a Hasselblad and accidentally misfired while he was lining up a solo shot of me…

But when shot as intended I was surprised, not unpleasantly, by his framing with me pushed over  to the right edge of the frame.  He mentioned that he likes shooting with a Fujifilm 690, the ‘Texas Leica’ which has a more panoramic format than the square frame of the ‘blad, so maybe he’s used to having a lot of negative space in his compositions.    Or perhaps he had noticed the much more interesting and intense girl in a stroller center bottom of frame who might be a tad sharper than me.

Maybe it’s actually a shot of her…

In any event, I like the depth and layers of life in EJ’s frame that give a feel for the atmosphere of the park on a very busy late summer evening.  On the subject of atmosphere, these photos don’t include the soundtrack of the park which included a rapper who started singing about us taking photos.  We were drawing a bit of attention with our poses and antics, including from the gentleman in the head scarf in the background of EJ’s shot.

It seemed like he wanted me to take a shot of him, so I asked for one and he proceeded to choose the environment of the outdoor chessboards and struck a very interesting contemplative pose.  He more or less co-designed the shot, my input was limited to deciding to shoot him pretty close from a low angle to get the soft focus chess pieces as a foreground element.  One of my better shots on the night…

I felt like this was a pretty cool portrait and decided I wanted to try doing another one in black & white.  While I was fiddling with the gear swapping backs and mounting the Yellow/Green Filter, we made a some small talk.  When I asked where he was from, he said “The X”, which meant the Bronx.  When I was finally ready for a second shot, he said he had only agreed to do one and that was that.  Luckily I was pretty happy with the one I got.

Next, I tried a shot of a young man offering “Free Bad Dating Advice”, but missed balancing exposure between his skin tones and the bright white sign, frequently a challenge when trying to shoot handmade signs.

How could I resist taking a shot of this character from Austin, Texas who mixes 21st Century Metro styling with Gilded Age Dandy?

It didn’t seem right to move on without grabbing a shot in color, which he happily obliged.  Head to toe, with those Texas ropers anchoring the look, he almost comes off like one of those Surrealist ‘Exquisite Corpse’ drawings where they folded the paper three times and a different person drew each section.  But somehow he was managing to pull it all together with panache.

Then I was called on some timely family business relating to our travel plans for the impending Labor Day Weekend and had to leave the park.

On the way out, some colorful characters asked me to take a shot of them, so I took two…

First a group fist bump for some people having a great time that night in the Park.  I wonder if they had undergone a Fitness, Mynd & Spiritual Assessment?  It seemed a distinct possibility…

And finally a cheeky send off for me that the fellow on the left said he wanted to submit to a T shirt contest.

After I stepped out of the Park, things went immediately back to ‘normal’ and the magic spell that had lasted about an hour was gone, disappearing into the night like this fellow in the Chinese hat.

After my family missions were accomplished I stopped at an outdoor table to sort out the gear and make sure I hadn’t lost anything in the general hubbub a very dynamic session of street shooting.

Fortunately, everything was there!  Here’s my Hasselblad ‘street kit’ —  the camera, two lenses, a spare back and a small stack of filters (and off camera the lens caps and a smaller hood for the 80mm Planar.) Next time I might not bother with the 150mm, since it didn’t go on the camera once that evening.  You might notice that both lenses are equipped with focus handles, which is an absolute must for anyone who might want to attempt street shooting with a Hasselblad, especially with the O.G. early edition C lenses.  The throw of the sharply knurled focus rings on those brilliant Zeiss lenses is endless, especially on the closer end of the range which is critical for doing portraits.  Adding that lever handle makes it possible to focus with a quick major ‘sweep’ to rough in, followed by a small bit of fine-tuning to lock in focus that feels almost comparable to the speed of focusing on my 35mm rangefinder.

I have to say that the Hasselblad is a brilliant camera for my emerging style of doing street portraits — it is a bit of a magnet for people who are open to being photographed.  Even people who don’t know its glorious history are drawn to its distinctive look and sense that it’s a special camera.  While large, there’s a stylish elegance about a ‘blad that feels kind of inviting compared to a big digital SLR with a giant honking zoom lens.

While I was taking my inventory, a server from the restaurant asked what I wanted?  While I was actually keen to hightail it back to the Park to catch whatever was left of that gorgeous light, I sensed my moment was over.  So I ordered a cool beverage and reflected back about the amazing time I’d just had, which I knew was one of my best-ever NYC street shooting sessions.

I wish I could figure out how to bottle the inspiration that puts me into a photographic ‘flow’ state.  It doesn’t always happen when I want it to happen.  And I can’t make it happen.

It just happens when it wants to.

For now I have to live with that, and be happy that it happens at all!  As a dedicated hobbyist, I am taking the photos I want to take, and sharing the ones I feel happy to share.  So I suppose I can afford to wait for those special moments where a special photo unfolds in front of me, or those exciting sessions when cool shots seem to flow like water, and endure the days when it’s more like pulling teeth to get a single shot — or maybe it’s more like looking for a tooth that you lost under a pillow and can’t find.  It’s a game of enduring the many lows to get to the memorable highs.  I suppose what separates a happy amateur like me from a professional may be in how much they are able to raise their ‘floor’ so they can get at least a 7 out of 10 every time they go out on assignment, no matter how much or how little their personal muse is singing in their ear.

While I’m pretty new to shooting film stills as a serious hobby/avocation, I’ve been in and around creative pursuits at least since dropping out of the engineering program at Cornell University about two weeks into my freshman year and wandering over to the Theater Department, if not going all the way back to when I was four or five years old taking acting lessons from my grandmother who was a silent film extra back in the late ‘teens and early 20’s.  Having been blessed in my day job to work professionally with world class talents in a number of fields, I don’t pretend to have that kind of gift in any of my creative pursuits.  There’s no accounting for genius, and some people just have something special that the rest of us can only dream about.

For the rest of us mortals who still like to try to be creative, I think the most important factor — more than talent, luck or inspiration — is just figuring out how to stay in the game.  That is the key to whatever success I’ve had professionally in filmed entertainment, and will be key to making the most of my new hobby.  That evening in Washington Square was made possible, first by showing up with a loaded camera, but also by the ten or twenty previous photowalks I took before that one.  From those first landscape shoots in Canada where I learned that a boring or ugly shot in a viewfinder isn’t going to turn out great because I shot it with a famous camera, to all of those outings in NYC when I first started dipping my toe into street shooting on 35mm, to the day I ran into Jamel Shabazz who opened up a whole new way to think about shooting photos of people, and also importantly, through all of the dull and uninspired days where even the dull and uninspiring shots I took were helping me develop the physical muscle memory of how to handle the controls of the camera and the mental muscle memory of how things look in different lights with different film stocks, lenses, filters and camera settings.

At this stage, I feel happy to have raised my ceiling as much as I have to be ready to take advantage of a magic evening like the one in Washington Square Park, even for the short hour that it lasted.  And I’m learning more and more, the price of admission is “Just keep showing up…”

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