Shooting from the hip

As you may remember, earlier this year I set myself a number of photo challenges, and one of these was shooting from the hip. On a lovely evening I set off on a walk around my neighbourhood to try this out!

I gave myself a few rules for this challenge:

1. The camera must be held at the end of its strap, around waist level. I allowed myself to vary the angle, but not the height.

2. I must not use the viewfinder or screen to compose the shot - I had to do it by instinct.

3. I could slow down as I was taking a photo, but not stop or go back to something I'd already passed.

4. I must not look at any of the photos until I got home.

As I walked around, I occasionally saw something of interest, for example a post box or a cat, and would point the camera in the rough direction and press the button.

I was actually amazed with the results of this challenge! They may not be great art, but they are quite special to me. Firstly, it was a real surprise to see what was on the camera when I got home - it was like when you used to collect your prints after having a film developed! Also, I felt that the photos gave a real flavour of the area where I live, because they caught a lot of details that I might not have thought to photograph usually. And there were a lot of unusual compositions that I wouldn't have thought of, with the lower viewpoint and jaunty angles.

Finally, it was a great way of taking photos in places I wouldn't have usually dared to, for example near people's houses where they would perhaps have thought I was being nosy or acting suspiciously (in the past I've had people ask if I'm from the council when I've been out taking photos around the area!).

Now I'm keen to try this challenge in other towns and cities to see what results I get!