NIGHT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY - Photo Challenge!! (POV)

What is happening team? Now photographers and the city lights of London town are like a moth to a flame. We just can't help it, it's so beautiful. So tonight's photo challenge is to capture 10, okay maybe five, really good street photography scenes that are worthy of being hung on my wall at home. You know the wall I'm talking about. So these images have to be real bangers, top quality images to meet the standards of my wife's taste and you lovely people at home. So I'll be using a combination of gear, my new Sony a7IV, love my new camera and my a7C which is what I'm currently filming you guys on and a whole bunch of lenses. The 85mm lens which is really good for street photography and my 24mm lens which is f1.4 filming you guys on right now, that's great for low light conditions and my 70-200mm lens which is really good for those hard to reach images. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to shoot but that's the beauty of street photography. The sun's just about gone down so it's about to kick off. Now I'm not sure if you can see this, I'll zoom in here. Nelson's column is just poking through those union jacks, should make for a nice image. Focusing on the column and two hundredth of a second should be quick enough to freeze the traffic and of course the 200mm creates some good compression. I've done a 180 degree turn back down the strand and there's some nice light hitting that church in the distance and there's an ambulance blazing its way towards us. The sunlight is taking a while to go down so I'm just killing some time in Covent Garden. I found this tunnel in the piazza with these lanterns bouncing off the cobbles, just needs a human element I think. So let's see what we've got here, ISO 640 looks about right. Make sure I'm on burst mode and I'm just focusing on the cobbles in the foreground. I've spotted this restaurant window, it looks so inviting with those tungsten lights, should make for a nice shoot through image using the bulbs in the foreground. Barman doing his thing there, let's see if I can get a nice action shot. Now this is the back entrance to the restaurant, I'm going to get some detailed shots with my 24mm art lens. Oh that looks really nice. Detailed shots are always good to include in your Instagram post, helps to tell the story of your photo trip. One last shot of the menu board, right I think that's enough shot windows. Let's see what we've got here, nice and sharp. Now I've never really understood the difference between gelato and ice cream other than the ridiculous price difference. Yeah this could make for a nice shot. Instagramming happening and we have the world famous Pineapple Dance Studios down there. I think I might have spotted a reflection shot, nothing special but I do like neon. I've performed a spot of clone stamp removal in this image as one person makes for a stronger composition I think. And the old classic yellow leading lines has to be done. Yeah this manhole cover is ruining my shot though. Let's just move forward a bit. Dancer in view, just finished class, 85mm lens. I think I've just spotted a nice composition. There's a backlit couple just having a gin and tonic here in front of this neon sign. Party like it's 1899. Trafalgar Square is the unofficial skateboard park of central London. That bollard over there is the target area for capturing trick shots. Shutter needs to be fairly quick at 640th of a second to freeze the action. ISO 5000, not ideal but needs muscle. Now here's why I think street photography is such a good training ground for any type of photography. Last week I shot a professional wedding and there are so many similarities between wedding photography and street photography. They both force you to be reactive. Capturing a moment at a wedding is extremely important because usually you only get one chance to get that shot and doing street photography is much the same thing. Sometimes you only have a few seconds to grab that moment. You shoot both daytime and nighttime, indoors and outdoors using available ambient light. You also shoot candid moments between people and often you don't get to pose your subject you just have to work with what you're given. And that's why I think street photography is such a good training ground for all types of photography and it makes you think on your feet and know your camera settings. Covent Garden looking pretty this evening. Two of the most famous telephone boxes in the country. Definitely a composition to be had. Probably a wide angle. So I'm going with my 24mm 1.4 to capture this scene. Lots of activity. Focusing on the red boxes. I decided to composite in a clean plate image and get rid of the boys in the image as I think it's a stronger composition with just the girl in the red dress. I've swapped back to my 85mm. Oh look at this. I think I've got a good one. This is Seven Dials. Another detailed shot documenting my travels this evening. Yeah probably a bit close. Just need to move back. So right at the top there is the famous Raymond Review bar. Never been inside. Probably wouldn't let me take photos. So I've just moved a bit closer. Right down in the gutter now. Some remnants of the platinum jubilee overhead. On the 24mm again. Just spot focusing on the cobbles a third of the way into the scene. Glorious little window scene again. Oh help if I open the screen. Just show you what I've got here. Let's go with f1.8. There's a couple just having a little argument here. Two very famous logos. Now I'm not sure if you can see this but there's a gardener in Leicester Square watering the grass. Let's see if I can grab him with my 200mm lens. My love for motorbikes. That's a beauty. Get some bocalicious background. So that's your lot my friends. I hope you had some fun following me around London tonight and got some inspiration for you picking up a camera and getting out there yourselves. I probably didn't get my 10 wall worthy images. Maybe just a few but that's photography. You fail as much as you win. Thanks for watching. Click that like button and subscribe if you haven't already. Let's catch up next week.