Workshop with Alan Schaller in San Francisco
Black and White Workshop
During the weekend of March 23-24, I attended a 2-day black and white workshop with renowned street photographer Alan Schaller. It was a fun but tiring weekend and I learned a lot, probably more than from any other workshop or class I’ve ever attended.
We met at Flickr HQ on Saturday morning around 10 am. Alan got there before half the class had arrived so we all hit him up with small talk. I took a photo of him with my Leica M6 eating a bowl of cereal which he seemed to think was rather odd. I shrugged my shoulders as I wanted to document the entire experience.
First morning meet and greet and photo walk
Once everyone had arrived, we gathered upstairs for a presentation of Alan’s history, work, and shooting philosophy. And yes, he really doesn’t like color, like, at all. After the presentation, we took a quick bathroom break and met out in front of the building. We then proceeded to walk down toward the SF Ferry Building as the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market was taking place and it would likely be a good place to get some good street photos.
Along the way, we all just kind of stopped here and there and took random photos. Once we got down by the water, Alan bolted away from the group (something he would do several times throughout the weekend) and ran over to a lady with a dog. He chatted with her briefly and then bent down, with his Leica Type 246 Monochrom and 24mm lens, and lowered the camera almost to the ground to get a level shot of the small dog. This was something Alan was keen for us to learn, to take shots without looking through the viewfinder and instead to shoot at waist level. He told us it would make us less conspicuous to people on the street.
As we reached the outskirts of the Farmer’s Market, we broke up to scrounge up food for ourselves and we were to meet back at the same spot in 30 minutes. I picked up a bagel sandwich and headed back to the meeting spot. When we were all together, Alan spent a while talking more about settings and approaching people and how he likes to shoot dogs whenever he can. We then headed out to the pedestrian pier that juts out in front of the Embarcadero.
After exhausting all the available shots there, we headed over to Justin Herman Plaza on our way to the walkway that connects the four Embarcadero Center buildings. Alan gathered us together at a spot where there were some stairs and a wonderful triangle of light. He had his assistant go up and down the stairs while we all jostled for position to get good shots. The contrasting light, angle of the stairs, and the triangle of light made for a great photo. Alan told us that he was not above manipulating scenes with good light by having people he knows (or strangers) walk or stand at a certain position to get the shot he envisioned in his head.
We then found another spot with oval light underneath some stairs and he had a few people from class act like they were casually walking through while the rest of us took the shots. It went on like this at various spots until we left the Embarcadero and stopped at a coffee shop for a break. While there, Alan asked us all to pick out one photo and show them to us on our cameras. I was embarrassed because I had been having a hard time wrapping my head around the technique and look he was hoping for. I showed him the shot I picked out with some trepidation but he explained what could have worked better and how I could improve the shot next time.
By that point, it was getting late in the day so we started heading back in the direction of Flickr HQ. We found several more spots of good light and once again several students acted as models for the rest of us. By the time we got back to Flickr, I was exhausted. After getting our stuff and agreeing on a meeting place for tomorrow morning, most of us headed to a nearby bar for some drinks.
Second Day Photo Walk Through Chinatown
The next morning we met in front of the Leica store in SF, which is located right across the street to the entrance of Chinatown. I walked there from my hotel room so that I could get in some practice using stuff I had learned the day before. After processing all the knowledge Alan gave us on Saturday, by Sunday morning my brain was starting to grasp more of his concepts and strategies.
Alan and a small group of attendees had stayed out pretty late the night before and seemed to be a bit hungover. That was precisely the reason I declined to go out with them after drinks at the bar. I knew it might be a late night and I wanted to be fresh for the next day of shooting and post processing.
Once everyone arrived we headed down Grant Street and into Chinatown. Today was a bit more relaxed. It felt as if Alan had imparted most of his knowledge the day before and today was the day to try and implement what we had learned. We walked through Chinatown to the lower part of North Beach before turning toward Market Street. Alan then sent us all on our own for 45 minutes to go and capture some shots using the techniques that he had shown us throughout the weekend. This was fun as street photography is not really a group activity and is best conduced when one is alone.
Post Processing and Image Review
I felt much better today and was able to capture more of the types of shots Alan had shown us than I was capable of doing the day before. After our time out shooting by ourselves, it was time to head back to Flickr HQ and go through the post-processing part of the course. Alan showed us a few of his images and how he would go about processing them. I was surprised how little he spent processing photos as he liked to get as much as possible in-camera.
After he was done showing us his process, we were tasked with trying out the same techniques using 2-3 of our own images from the weekend. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could review and critique each other’s work, which I was pretty bummed about. However, my brain was exhausted and I was physically beat after such an intense weekend of learning.
I absorbed more about black and white photography that one weekend that in the past 20 years of shooting. If you get the chance to attend one of Alan’s workshops, don’t pass up the chance. You won’t regret it.
David
