I went up to SF on a long weekend back in January to visit some pals. It was one of those trips where I was tagging along with someone else’s plans, so there was no planning or expectations from me. I was there just to chill, hang, and take pics of course. During that trip, my friend Arvanh asked me to explain to him “what makes a good photo?”
I was a bit stumped initially, I feel like snapping a picture has almost become a bit of a reflex for me. It has been a minute since I’ve given deeper thought to why I photograph certain things. So I wanted to try something different in this post and share the photos I took in San Fransico and include some of the reasons and thoughts behind why I decided to click the shutter. All these photos were taken on film on a little walk around the Outer Mission neighborhood.
I shot this because I liked the colors of the houses, I am always drawn to the houses of San Fransisco when I am there. I especially loved the flowers blooming on the house to the left.
I took this picture because I liked the light that was being cast on the house and liked the various shades of green.
I liked the colors and geometric shapes. I shot the photo zoomed in because I wanted to emphasize the lines running through the photograph.
The first thing I noticed was the texture of the tarp, I shot it up close because I wanted the subject to be a bit ambiguous.
We were on this bridge and the photo was taken through a chain linked fence, I liked the vantage point and that you could see rows and rows of houses.
The blue and pink house caught my attention initially. Ended up cropping this photo significantly to focus on the colors.
Leading lines, duh!
This one may be my favorite photo, I noticed the bright fence and all the straight lines in the photo.
There were two old cars covered by this tarp, I thought the way the tarp was fastened to the car was interesting, and I liked that the strap was yellow. I framed it tight enough for someone to see what was going on.
I liked the colors of these two houses next to each other, reminded me of Cosmo and Wanda. Then saw a man on his bike approaching, I waited briefly for him to cross in front of me and snapped the shot.
I really liked the shadows that were being cast, and I wanted to see if I could meter my camera correctly where the shadows and highlights are properly exposed. Think I did a decent job (-:
I noticed this basketball hoop in this alleyway and found it cute. I ended up cropping this photo a lot to better draw attention to the hoop.
I was incredibly happy when I got this roll of film back. It was fun to also reflect on my thoughts and reasoning behind why I snapped some of the pictures. I think these are my top three photos.
I would love to hear your thoughts! Which photos were your favorite? If you take pictures what are some things that catch your eye?
As always hope you enjoyed the photos.