Cast a long shadow

Simon Tagger on his love for street photography

Iam fortunate to have lived in three different towns in the past three years, which has been fantastic for my street photography. It’s a form of mindfulness for me – I forget about any anxieties and just focus on creating.

During the pandemic, walking every day around York with my camera, I noticed that people were lit up for short moments by street lamps and bright shop windows, briefly bringing the subject out of the shadows. Now, walking the streets of Cambridge, I choose not to wait for a long time at a location for someone to fill the scene because I know I can return in the future. You can’t force a composition to work in the light or scene you’ve found.

Knowing your patch is the key: look for the light – identify where it is by going out and exploring your town or city at different times and seasons, noticing how pools of light and shade are created. People in my images aren’t aware of the shadows and reflections they make, and this develops another element to their story. I look for a composition that inspires viewers to ask questions and complete the story.

I choose very specific conditions to shoot in: I utilise the high-contrast light of the blue-sky days we get frequently in Cambridge. Highlight-weighted metering allows me to create silhouettes easily; as the meter is biased for accurate highlights, the shadows will naturally be darker. Aperture, shutter speed and ISO in manual mode give me fine control over the exposure. I use Single-point AF, often pre-selecting the approximate area for the focus point.