Photowalk with Ira Block and Van Phann

I love that B&H holds a lot of educational events at their New York store. They are free and fun to attend. I always learned something new, even when joining beginner classes. You also meet a ton of nice people there with the same interests. 

One of these events was a photowalk with Ira Block, a Sony Artisan. He was holding a multi-part series at the B&H event space. This photowalk was Part 2 in his Travel Photography Series and was titled – Part 2: Capturing the Feeling of a City Photowalk.

Since I travel a lot and visit lots of cities, I was curious of what I could learn here to capture the vibe of a place.

We started out at the B&H event space with a short introduction of Ira Block and what we will be doing. Ira also introduced us to Van Phann, a model he brought along with him for the photowalk. He also showed how one light can make a difference when taking photos of a person. 

I was a little confused in what the assignment will be, as I thought it would be all about how to capture the city and the people within. To be noted, I wasn’t the only one who was confused now.

But in the end it turned out to be a photowalk with a model and how we could light here and place her into the city. We started out at the B&H store from where we headed down on 33rd Street towards Hudson Yards.

We walked through the shopping center there and got more photos of Van and continued on to “The Vessel” where we got more chances of photographing the model.  

I have tried a long time ago working with models and it was fun, but I just loved nature and landscape photography way more. Let’s see, maybe I try a few more shoots with models in the future. I definitely discovered a passion for street photography in New York.

From here we went to Bella Abzug Park and the subway station there. A very interesting spot for photos. Be aware, when a subway arrives, tons of people will be streaming out of the entrance and most likely ruining your shot. Time it in between trains or just wait a few minutes. 

Our last stop was a food truck parked on the side of the road just outside Bella Abzug Park. I took the photo below. It could be almost a commercial for the food there. Thanks Van for posing and making it such a great photo. 

I am usually not shooting people, I am more a nature, landscape and industrial shooter. However, it was super fun to work with Van, it was just a bit crowded as everyone tried to get a similar composition head on. 

We were about 15 people, not including Van, Ira and the people from B&H. That’s why I stepped away and took photos from different angles – high, low, from the side – to get different images and separate myself a bit from the rest.

Working with a model could be fun, if it’s a 1 on 1. Instructions can be clear and the model only has to focus on one guy instead of trying to look into the camera of 15 photographers…

Even though it missed the topic of what a few people thought it would be, it was still a fun time. 

To this shoot I brought my old and trustworthy workhorse the Canon 5D MkII. It still shows you don’t need the newest camera to create stunning pictures.

While we were walking through the city, I also captures photos of the areas we walked through and the views offered from there. This was more what I thought the photowalk would be. Taking pictures of the city and all the happenings.

I love traveling and want to share my passion for it and the vibe of a place with others. I most definitely will not bring a model along with me. If I find interesting people on travels I would definitely consider that, but this would be more a mix of street photography and documentary photography.

Overall it was a really great time. I learned some tricks form Ira how to light a person. A huge thanks to Van Phann for being so patient with all of us and just being a down to earth person.