Capturing everyday life through a camera lens. Life is but a series of unrepeatable moments. I attempt to capture them through the photography of people in their natural element.

2 Stellar Days with Eric Kim Street Photographer Extraordinaire

Posted: October 24th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Street Photography | Tags: , , | 9 Comments »

First things first. I really don’t make a habit of writing on this Blog. It’s more about me showcasing my photos (more on that later).

I just spent 2 excellent (long, tiring, taxing, stimulating, educational, stressful…) days with some of the most amazing Street Photographers one could hope to meet. Leading the charge was the effervescent LA based street photography guru, Mr. Eric Kim.

FaberFoto - Eric Kim Street Photographer

Eric Kim

If you are into this sort of stuff, you will know who Eric is and have an idea of his uniquely cultivated style of in your face handheld street flash photography using a manually adjusted flash complemented my a lowly Leica M9 (WOW!). Eric has the formula cracked on how to get into someone’s personal space, take a few well-frames shots, and get a thanks from his subject… Just like that. I watched him do it dozens of times during our walkabout in various areas of Toronto. The results were amazing.

I went into Eric’s 2 day beginners course thinking I knew what I was doing with respect to Street Photography. I left the course realizing that I was wrong, and that I had only tapped the surface of the immense knowledge base that is also known as Eric Kim. I learned things that one can only pick up if they spend some time with a pro and a group of equally enthusiastic wannabe street photographers.

The class was also blessed with an amazing array of photographic talent and skills. All of whom aggregated into a unique and positive learning environment. I met some new people, and made some new friends. Sweet!

I had many takeaways in the course. One of them is to be able to brutally edit your shots and only publish the absolute really super duper good ones. Rewind to the start of this post. I have come to realize that my exuberance to publish what I think is a great shot may actually be me being too excited about something I felt whilst taking the shot. Lesson learned – and thank you for that great piece of advice Eric. I will attempt to restrain my desire to publish daily.

If you are wondering why I wrote this post. Simply put, I am inspired by the beauty & uniqueness of Street Photography and people like Eric Kim who display such a passion for their trade. Get the word out!

Thank you again Eric. My brain is indeed rewired. ;-)

  • http://erickimphotography.com/blog Eric Kim

    It was my pleasure Les! Having your positive energy and enthusiasm really helped inspire everyone else at the workshop. See you soon, eh? ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003735321 Brian Bonitz

    Hey Les! Very nice well written blog about workshop. I am totally in agreement with you, Les, and Eric. It was just a blast experience. Wish that the workshop, in/by/for itself, lasts three days. I felt that two days is not suffice. But introductory workshop probably need two days. For future more advanced workshop, it should be three days with some bootcamp work involvement. More hands on experience. PLUS, group discussion and critique participation. All in all, Les, you said it all rather eloquently.

  • Anonymous

    Take note of Brian’s comments (above). Time for an Intermediate workshop next year in TO?

  • http://erickimphotography.com/blog Eric Kim

    You know it baby!!!

  • siri_t

    hey Les – it was so great to meet you and spend time shooting with you on the “mean” streets of TO (and thanks for walking me back to the car – total gentleman you are). I learned so much – if you’re back in TO please give me a shout and we’ll go out and take some shots.

    Eric Kim intermediate workshop (yeah babeeeeeeeeee).

  • Anonymous

    You too Siri. I thought everyone was wonderful. We’ll have to send over the shots we took of eachother (LOL). I have a couple of good ones of you!

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