How I Upgraded My Street Photography in a Year

In this video I show some of my favourite photos from 2023 as well as reveal why my street photography has completely changed over the past 12 months.

🔴 If you dig the video please give it a like to help it spread to more people to enjoy – thanks for watching! 🙂

Check out my Morocco digital zine! The best way to directly support me and my work: https://payhip.com/b/VETOD

Instagram: https://instagram.com/tim.d.jamieson
Website: https://timjamieson.co.uk
Support my work: https://bit.ly/3O3kIP5

Gear I use:
– Main photography camera: https://amzn.to/42AUrfI
– POV camera: https://amzn.to/42vifl9
– Video recording / vlogging camera: https://amzn.to/44UjQ5w
– Fujifilm 23mm f2: https://amzn.to/3PiOoXu
– Fujifilm 35mm f2: https://amzn.to/3MoEsvx
– Wrist strap: https://amzn.to/3W3i664
– Neck strap: https://amzn.to/41yGzkz
– Computer: https://amzn.to/3MpFV4s
– SD cards: https://amzn.to/3W7Y8qD
– Portable hard drive: https://amzn.to/42QWJ9Z
– Phone: https://amzn.to/41AhGVQ
(Affiliate links – any purchases made provide a small kick-back to me which directly supports the channel and my work – no extra cost to you)

I’ve been fortunate to have had an incredible year filled with photography Adventures I traveled through Morocco and I went to Amsterdam as well as visited many cities and events all over the UK but there’s one thing that I’ve learned the value of most in 2023 and that’s how focal length Choice can

Completely change the way you see the world and the kind of images you want to make but more on that later in this video I’m going to show you some of my favorite images from 2023 as well as some important lessons I’ve learned including how and why my street

Photography has developed and changed over the course of the year so let’s start with some images from the of the Year very much sticking to and including a lot of abstraction and layering focusing more on the form of the image rather than the content of the photo and

This is a style that I quite enjoyed developing over time but it’s something I’ll discuss a little bit later on in the video and while I enjoyed the beginning of the year and had a lot of success with some images that I really liked I had this increasing feeling that I was

Making photos purely for their aesthetic value rather than including anything remotely meaningful focusing more on making pretty pictures over pushing my myself to try new things I didn’t really address this right away but it was in the back of my mind a lot as I went out

On more photo walks that I was starting to sort of repeat myself and fall back on similar ideas over and over but having said that focusing on Framing and Aesthetics by using the environment can be a fantastic way to turn a boring Place into something far more interesting full of photographic

Opportunities and this is where I learned a really great lesson which is that you can make great photos pretty much anywhere it just depends on how creative you can be and how hard you want to work for it I have wanted to visit Morocco since I

Was a kid ever since my dad told me his stories from years of living there in the early ‘ 80s so I was grateful to get the chance to explore the country for a few weeks in April I was mindful that people culturally in Morocco don’t really like having their photograph

Taken which was fine for me at the time because it meant I could focus more on my aesthetic style showcasing the environment as much as the people who live there up on screen now are some of the highlights from the trip I learned a big lesson here which is when traveling

Is important important to respect local customs and cultures and as such you need to shoot to the conditions so what do I mean by that well if you’re in a quiet and boring location then focus on the environment and abstraction if you’re in a country where people don’t

Want their photo taken then focus on how creative you can get with your Framing and bring the environment more into play or maybe still take photos of people but just try to find a way to frame up your shot so it doesn’t actually show their facial features and then if you’re in a

Place with a lot happening then maybe try and get up closer and see if you can create frames full of action but a bit more on that later on so yeah you can only really photograph what’s in front of you so make the best of what you have

When I got back from Morocco I was really happy with the photos made a little digital zene and I was quite pleased with the project but I still had this sort of nagging feeling that my photography was stagnating a bit and I wasn’t really sure how to address that

So I still went out on more photography trips photographing the same way but thinking a lot about how I could potentially change it up a bit and that’s when I realized I just needed to change something do something new take the risk and see what happens so I

Bought a new lens now I’m sure a lot of you are thinking well that’s not a risk it’s just buying a new lens but for me it was a risk because I get used to shooting in a certain way and looking for scenes in a certain way and framing

My shots because I’m very familiar with the focal length I’m using so it was a bit of a risk cuz I knew that by changing my focal length I would ultimately end up changing how I shoot and that was a little bit daunting you know change in general can just be a

Little bit scary but I was really excited at the same time I picked up the 23 mm F2 Fuji lens so 35 mm full frame equivalent and I never really looked back it was really quite hard at first and obviously it required me to change

How I see and what to look for but I was definitely ready for the challenge so that’s the next very valuable lesson if things aren’t working for you change something with intention that could be a lens camera location style workshops what photography you look at but just

Don’t buy a new gear for the hell of it as I’ve touched on already focal length can completely change the style of your photos so if you aren’t sure of the work you’re making and maybe you want to try something new then just try a different

Focal length stick with it for a while and see what happens like I said it was really hard at first I was hesitant to get close and made a lot of crap photos but over time and practice I was starting to see a few results that

Really excited me to go out and shoot I just started to love the challenge of getting closer and focusing more on the content of photos the moment and subjects much more than the form or Aesthetics of a scene of course I still wanted to make great images with strong

Composition and to be pleasing to look at but I knew that would come with time and practice I’d love to know the biggest photography lesson you’ve learned this year by the way so drop it in the comments below and if you’re enjoying this video and finding it

Useful hit the like button it really helps spread the video for more people to see later on in the year I made a couple of trips to London and that’s when this new approach really clicked for me I started getting closer being more confident and tried to feel the

Frame more and also look for more meaningful moments of emotion at least meaningful to me if you look at these photos compared to the work I was making at the start of the year it’s so different I also know a lot of people won’t like it and may prefer my old work

And that’s absolutely fine for me it’s vital to make photos I want to make and that’s another massive lesson you have to photograph what’s meaningful to you not what other people might like the moment that you try and take photographs to please other people or make photographs that you think will do well

On social media is when you just lose what’s so magical about photography in the first place I took this new approach with me to Amsterdam as well and really started to seek out moments of humanity I started looking for humorous things but also things happening that are

Important to us all which I think should be documented with the camera in some way here’s another massive lesson that was so important to my photography development over the year and that was getting closer getting closer into subjects and scenes with a wider lens but also getting closer to a style

Closer to a scene and purpose with my photography which I can’t wait to explore more in the next year so if you feel your pictures aren’t getting better that’s okay but maybe you might want to think about I mean really think about what you want to get out of your

Photography in the long run and then pursue it and finally my new approach to street photography really clicks on my last few photo trips of the year for a day at the races and the Santa Con event in London both trips were such a great day and fun places to practice the

Approach of getting closer and this is my last lesson of the video and something that I’ve done a lot this year and plan to do more next year and that’s to photograph events events make such great places to practice street photography because no one really cares that you’re there documenting it so you

Can be a bit Bolder in your approach having said that it can be easy to photograph an event literally as it’s an interesting thing happening and you then might end up with event photos which in my opinion are all pretty boring I try to approach it more by looking for fun

And different moments in and amongst the event but also on the fringes trying to find little stories that work well out of context and include moments to trying to find something a bit special happening in and amongst festivities aiming to show the intricacies of humanity in some way not just

Photographing the event because it’s an event some of the photos from the races and Santa Con are definitely the direction where I want to take my photography going forward which for me is super exciting I thought I’d do this sort of format for my photography over the past year rather than going through

And talking over each individual photo one by one which might be a little bit boring so hopefully you found this video useful if you’d like to see how I made some of the images in this video then check out this playlist or if You’ like some tips to take your photography to

Another level for next year check out this video next as always thanks so much for watching I’ll see you in the next one