I'M AN INTROVERT.

There. That's my confession of the day.

I'm shy in real life and it translates directly into the way i take pictures. In a sense, I photograph the way I live: trying to be as low key as possible and, above all, trying not to interrupt anything.

In fact, I found that the way you are -your personality- usually translates quite a bit into the way you take pictures.

A couple of years ago, I spent some days in New York with a good friend from the university.

He is:

a) Not a photographer at all.

b) The walking definition of an extrovert.

So, there we were, just spending some time together after not seeing each other for a while. I was -of course- carrying my camera everywhere with me. At some point, the trip turned into an ad-hoc photo workshop; he had his simple P&S with him and started to show a real interest in pictures. We discussed and shared shots for the whole 3 days we spent together.

The point I'm trying to get at is that he, being absolutely inexperienced, took some really good pictures. He did so because he (apparently) lacks any sense of self-consciousness. He just does not care what other people think, so if he has to go up to someone and just blatantly shove his camera up this stranger's face, he'll just do it. I'd probably rather miss the picture than face the fact that someone knows I'm taking their picture.

When you have this kind of personality, you can either let the shyness get in the way and prevent you from taking the pictures you know you want to OR you can use this knowledge to your advantage and actually grow as a photographer.

I know my shyness limits my photography, but I try to use my photography to challenge (and overcome) that shyness.

I also try to use what comes naturally (to me) to my advantage; I mentioned on my first post that everyone has a style no matter how "good" or "bad" a photographer they are. You just need to really look.

In my case, if you look at my photography you'll quickly notice an abundance of pictures such as this one:

I have TONS of shots of the back of people. TONS. They just come naturally.

(Indeed, it's easy to see why a self-conscious guy who loves people pictures would have lots of pics from this point of view).

In the case of this particular shot, the perspective gives it that kind of mystery that attracts me so much to pictures. You see just enough of these people to ask a lot of questions. The setting helps too, the antique look of the huge door, the old school clothes they wear, it all adds up.

I like the picture.

I would frame it a bit differently if I had the chance, but it's not bad considering it’s the only shot I took and had some seconds to think focus and expose. I like the diagonals (again) every line intersects at that bright spot on the right, where you see two out of focus dudes walking. Every time you look at the picture, no matter what you focus on first, your eyes will end up following the lines that end there.

Click the read link to see some more "back" pictures.

Now THIS is one picture I think works perfectly taken from the back. Much more than it would if it was from the front. The only thing I would change from it is the 3rd lady. I'd rather it be the mother and child alone.

I like the framing. Not showing the girls head (mystery again!) and I also quite enjoy the way the dress of the other lady and the handbag match perfectly. Polka dot heaven!.

In this pic, your eyes tend to gravitate towards the center of the frame. Lines converge in the mother's ass :)

I think this one is extremely cute. The ass crack just makes it work. When you look at the situation, everything is just cute: the pink socks, the typical sweater, the cap, the red hear, the duck feeding. Everything is just... I don’t know how to explain it, but IMO it works.

Finally, the door picture. Pictures of doors are extremely popular. Search "door" on flickr and you'll get an overwhelming amount of door pics. And I get why... doors are fascinating objects. They tell so much, they are so symmetric while at the same time maintaining a tiny bit of disturbing asymmetry. They are just fantastic.

This is my take on the door picture. I think the woman makes it work. Again, the whole mystery of why she's there, what she's looking at, etc. draw my attention right in.

In the end, what I'm trying to say is that you need to look into how you are. Analyze what your vices are, what comes naturally. Once you found that, exploit and challenge them.

Exploit them by taking that which comes naturally and work on it. Try to go out and really perfect the way you "naturally" take pictures. Maybe next time you are about to take your typical personal "cliche" picture, you realize what you are doing and consciously experiment on that.

Of the four pictures I posted, only the second one was somewhat planned. The situation was such that I actually had some time to think about it and frame the picture in the way I really wanted. The other three are just spur of the moment things, where you just have a split second and just do the best you can. I like to think that you can tell that more thought went to the 2nd picture, but as usual, I can be mistaken.

Finally, and this warrants a full post of its own, there's the "challenge" what comes naturally part. I have just mentioned that in passing, but it is a really awesome exercise to do. Say you usually tend to photograph picture from the back, then go out and make it your mission NOT to take one single picture of the kind. Get out of your comfort zone.

It will be awkward at first, but in the end, you may discover a whole aesthetic style you didn't know you could actually pull off.