Englishman in New York - Street Photography POV

Part 3 - In this video, I explore the streets of New York with two different cameras: a Bessa R2. I show you how I captured the city’s vibe and energy from a first-person perspective.
Join me in my new mini series as I take you on a POV photography adventure in the Big Apple!
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A leap back into photography after a few years out, this time with a difference
Before I lost my passion it was all about the mega pixels and sensor size, and I became all consumed with getting "the shot", instead of enjoying the location, the walk, the company, this time however its different, its about the adventure and going back to the beginning, relearning film in 35mm, 120mm medium format and 4x5 large format.
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Intrepid 4x5 large format with the Fuji 90mm, 135mm, 180mm and 250mm Lenses
DaYI 6x17 back for the intrepid
Mamiya C3 120mm Film Camera with 55mm Lens
Bessa R2 with 35mm, 50mm and 90mm Lenses
Lumix S5ii with 20-60mm and 100-400mm Lenses
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[@martingreenberg870]

Thank you for this video.
The Brooklyn Bridge photos weren’t exciting for me. Lots of negative space in the foreground and the people, I love images with people (I’m a street photographer) are too small for my taste. Having a longer lens would have been ideal for me. Liked some of the images shot perpendicular to the towers.
At ~10:15, the shot of the manhattan bridge, I liked the flairing. People go to that spot for the Empire State Building framed by the tower. You are right, of course, that image has been done to death. One takes that shot to show friends that they were there. For me, the shots come by my photographing the people taking pictures for their UA-cam videos. The same thing for the BB carousel. I like taking pictures of people, kids and parents, on the horses. I drag the shutter to get the colors in motion. Sometimes I can see the people too. I’m happy when I capture that image.Obviously, you were there too early in the morning to capture that. Timing may not be everything but it does go a long way.
Subway. You can spend all your time in NY on the underground. I like dragging the shutter for some of my shots to show motion. I also like being on the subway during rush hour. There are lots of people on the platform and in the cars. The people give me cover to take pictures or portraits without being noticed. Bruce Davidson did a book during the bad old days of the 1970’s in the subway.
Union Square is my favorite place to take pictures in Manhattan. The chess hustlers on the southwest part of the park. Also on the SW part of the park is an entrance to the subway ripe for images. The stairs on the south side of the park has people sitting and there may be people hustling at the top of the stairs. People on the benches are places I like to work. On the north west is an area where ther is a farmer’s market and people selling art. Then there is the subway station. You can view the subway trains from one story above to make interesting impressions. Yes, my favorite playground to make images. Then head west to the High Line.
330 images with your Lumix? I am not a good street photographer. The things that capture my interest aren’t the same as yours. Nor should they. On a good day my rate of OK images is 5%. Typically I am in the 2-3% range. I can’t tell you how many potentially images I’ve missed due to not being in the right place or not being ready for what the street has to offer. Oh well. There will be other opportunities. Also, I’ve given up taking pictures with film. It is too expensive. Press the shutter. $1.00+. Did I capture the image I wanted? Have to wait on that. Plus I’m limited by the 20 or 36 images I can make per role. I love the freedom of snapping away and hoping a few may be good.
There are a few buildings where you can get a bird’s eye view of manhattan. I choose not to use the Empire State building. I want the ESB in the frame. Can’t do that when I am IN the building. I prefer the top of the rock or Rockefeller center building because we can also see Central Park plus the ESB.
When I visit NYC I take thousands of images. I walk the street for 10-12 hours and 10km to 10 miles a day. There is so much to see. Interesting people doing strange and wonderful things. Lots of juxtaposition. People dressed oddly. All sorts of ethnic looking faces. People with their pets. People going to or coming back from work. People at work. What a circus. The interesting thing is most people aren’t aware of what is going on around them. It’s as if the universe has provided me with all this entertainment just for me. I live in Seattle. There is some of this going on here. Seattle lacks the people on the street. There isn’t the energy that manifests in NY. There aren’t that many people dressing or doing magical things as there are in NYC. Of course the same can be said for London. Magical people in magical places.
Can you tell I’m a recovering New Yorker? I have the accent too. You can take the boy out of the city……….
Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

[@andyemmett9930]

Thanks Martingreenberg, really appreciate the message, and wow I wish I could have spoken to you before I went, and some excellent advice on location and techniques. Do you have an Instagram? Would love to take a look at some of your work.
I mention the number of shots taken on my LUMIX for a couple of reasons, the first is that I took a break from photography a few years back, it lasted 2/3 years, the reason was because I would get home with memory cards full of images and just not look at them or do anything with them, so went back to film because I love the feeling of having limited shots and the slower pace and I’ve found it has really helped my photography in general, and the second is that I’m mainly a large format photographer so used to only working with 10 shots on a shoot, so I found the freedom great and strange at the same time.
Like you, I love people in my images, but street photography is not an area I shoot a lot of, but I love people watching and street photography fits that perfectly, it’s just getting the opportunity to do it and get more practice in, but like you the price of film is madness and with such a low hit rate in general with street, it’s difficult to justify shooting film in the street, but I love the process of film.
The other thing I had to do is balance time spent with my partner and my photography, the urge to go out everyday and shoot everything was so strong, if I ever went again I would do less tourist stuff and more off the beaten track photography.