Talk on Street,Travel and Wedding Photography by Mark Seymour, Tuesday 20th March 2018

Hi Folks,

Tuesday night Mark Seymour (three times wedding photographer of the year) gave us a talk on Weddings, Travel and Street Photography.

The evening started with Mark showing us a video of a collection of photographs taken from start to finish of a couple’s wedding. These shots included the  bride and groom preparing for the wedding to the reception and the cutting of the cake. Mark tends to take a lot of his pictures with a 35 mm lens allowing him to get in closer and get brilliant pictures by selecting the best angles and getting the best moments.

Mark then  talked about street photography and we were shown a series of pictures mainly in monochrome and some of them from speaker’s corner where Mark used to attend on a regular basis. Mark did say that he stopped going there as people recognised him and some of the shots did not have the same impact. However, a newly built hotel in Marble Arch requested a series of his prints to adorn their walls.

Mark says in street photography first overcome the fear, be friendly to people and get in close to the action. Develop an eye for getting great shots. Mark will often find an area which will have some potential and then waiting for a person to walk / appear into the scene.

Mark mentioned various Photographers that have developed a style of street photography

We were told how to programme the back button on our camera which will automatically focus on a subject and held down will continue to keep that focus. The fire button then just has to take the picture without refocusing on the subject. After a while this button becomes second nature. I use this button after a tip on it by our Des Fox. Mark also uses the burst button, manual exposure and ISO.

Position yourself well, said Mark, usually stay kerbside and point your camera inwards as you will have shops and walls as background and it avoids harsh sunlight. Use the 35 mm lens and walk in or out of scenes to be more creative.

Mark always goes out with a list of tips to watch out for in getting good photographs

 

And some advice of street photograph

 

On the travel pictures Mark talked of layering his pictures by lining up various subjects in a picture to fill spaces.

Another style is called two worlds , the opportunity of taking two pictures in one image where the image  has two different spaces and each of  the subjects in the picture are not aware of each other.

Another style is mirror reflection where the subject is captured in a reflection like a mirror or in a puddle of water. We were shown a picture where Mark got down low into a puddle to capture the reflections of the people above.

Story telling, try and make a picture tell a story. Mark showed a picture of a lady washing her clothes on a railway line. A train on another line was approaching and a child ran to greet it not much health and safety but a life they are used to . Another lady walked into the scene to give the picture an end on the left to make the perfect picture.

If photographing people make sure the majority of people’s heads in the picture are facing you.

We were shown a picture of a place by a river bank in Hanoi where brides and grooms are often taking photographs and selfies. In a particular scene Mark spotted about ten people all unaware of him and all doing their own thing and he was able to captured a great picture. Mark said be friendly, stay around and people will get use to you and they will start doing things normally as if you are not there.

Mark likes to use the style of ‘random hands’ where a subject in an image taken normally would not create much interest but a random hand or leg coming into a scene adds to the picture.

Finally be creative take pictures through other things like arches or legs  to create interest.

As a personal project Mark photographed the latter part of his father’s life who was suffering with dementia and we were shown a video of pictures that touched all of us. After Mark’s father past away he was advised to show the video to various people in the field of dementia. Making contact with these people was difficult but the video went viral when the Mail-on-line told the story. Mark was invited onto Sky News to talk about it.

Finally we were shown a video of images in mono-chrome of an event in Sicily where Mark was invited  to a ceremony as an insider. Giant floats are made for this event which is run by almost a secret society, large numbers of people in groups have to carry a really heavy float around for 24 hours, and it is said the people are made to feel the pain Christ suffered.

A big thank you to Mark Seymour for the talk, he has a website for travel  info@travelphotographyadventures.com

and a website under his name for weddings and street photography

Next week is

Competition – Winner on the Night (3)