Uptown Whittier Street Photography
Whittier has been my home for most of my adolescence, growing up in the area and attending high school nearby, one could definitely say that i’m a Whittier local. I like to think i know this place like the back of my hand but when looking around there’s always something new you can find. On this particular summer day I was in town for a haircut, as the heat in the weather was starting to pick up. I headed to a local barber in Uptown Whittier called ‘American Vintage Barbershop’ where I have gotten my hair cut before; super nice and helpful guys that work there. Before I headed on down however I had the idea to take my camera along, as well as my GoPro, to walk around Uptown and take some street photos.
Gear & Process
Prior to taking my gear I already developed the concept in my mind that I was going to Vlog this experience. Finally starting up my Photography YouTube channel that i’ve been aspiring to create. I personally find that when I travel light, I can focus more on what’s going on around me and not on if all my photography gear is in it’s right place. My main camera that I brought along with me was the Canon EOS RP mounted with the EF 50mm 1.8 lens often dubbed as Canon’s “Nifty Fifty” or “Plastic Fantastic” because for being an affordable lens at just over $100, it can actually take some pretty stellar images. I should note to mount a Canon EF lens to an RF body you do need the Canon EF-RF adapter, which I have.
In order to get that point of view or “POV” footage of me walking and raising my camera, I utilize the GoPro Hero 7 Black. I use a chest mount strap to position the action camera on my chest so it captures clips of my view as well as when I raise my camera to shoot a picture.
Settings
I shoot with my camera set to RAW to maximize the quality of my images and so when I edit them later in Adobe Lightroom, I have the most pixels to work with. I always shoot in manual exposure so I maintain complete control of my camera functions. As for video, I set my GoPro to shoot at 24 frames per second at 1080p, to get the most natural motion blur. I also set the GoPro’s focal length to Linear as to Wide that way I don’t achieve much of a fisheye effect.
Experience
Once I have all my gear set and hit record I began to walk around and explore Uptown Whittier. As I said before I do know the area pretty well so I already had a few locations in mind that I knew I wanted to photograph, Including the Nixon building which stands tall right in the middle of Greenleaf Ave. Looking around you quickly realize it’s not an immensely busy area during the day. Certainly not like the shops around Old Pasadena that are always booming with hundreds of shoppers. However, Uptown Whittier has a certain undeniable local charm to it. People who walk around look as though they also know the area quite well, exactly where they’re doing and who to see about their business, whether it’s shopping or finding a place to eat.
Local kids walk around and remind me of my own time being in Highschool. Wandering around with my friends after class to Central Park and seeing if we all had enough money to grab an iced coffee or catch a movie at the Starlight Cinemas. This part of the city lends itself beautifully for street photography, from the historic architecture to catching a classic car every once in a while. I think there is always something new to see here and photograph.
If you watch this Vlog on YouTube please consider liking and subscribing to my channel. If you have any questions as well please feel free to leave a comment and i’ll be sure to get back to you.
