Street Photography Tips: Tropical Neighborhood of Barrio Granada - Cali, Colombia

Vibrant, gritty, glamorous with tropical overtones, Barrio Granada will grab your heart and if you're not careful will make you never want to leave. So many colors, strange architecture that wants to be Spanish but feels like something else. Telephone and electrical wires litter the landscape above and below.

At the end I give some great advice and many tips on street photography

Photo Above:

Local model from Cali inside a fashion boutique. She was doing a fitting for an upcoming show and I grabbed a few images. Shop lights added some interesting lighting on her face. Okay...not much to do with the neighborhood architecture but it lured you in. LOL...now back to the hood...

Armed with a Canon 5D MKII and a 50mm 1.2 lens I walk the streets of Granada in search of architecture on a Sunday morning. I also had a Blackrapid camera strap which screws into the tripod hole on the bottom of the camera; the strap allows for the camera to hang upside down which gives you quick access and you can sort of hide the camera along your waste.

Sad to say it: In the big cities of Colombia it's not exactly a good idea to walk around with a nice camera

Photo Above: The guy who lives in this house repairs furniture. I guess his wife doesn't care that there is tons of over-spray on the front of their house. He was out there every morning repairing furniture. Nothing goes to waste in Colombia, they even repair basic household electrical appliances that normally we would just throw away in the US. Sort of old school like the 1950's TV Repairman.

A cat flies across my feet and runs into an entrance of this house and scares the hell out of me.

I was prepared to start swinging thinking some "atraco" (robber) was going for my camera. My heart races as I realize it's just a damn cat. He's just as freaked out as I am. I relax and continue my walk. Sunday mornings are pretty quiet and a good time to walk around without freaking out too much as I just did with the cat.

I climb up to a rooftop that I have access to get a view of Granada from above. It looks like a mix of decay and new. The tropical climate takes a toll on a city. You can see old buildings starting to crumble from years of rain, humidity and a lot of equator sun. I love the old tile roofs and I wonder if there are water leaks in the houses below. There has to be, these old houses look like they are falling apart.

Tropical plants also grow out of everything. I dig this place.

Granada is a trendy place for the rich to live; their are boutique shops, fancy restaurants, salsa bars along Avenida 9. Walk two blocks on the other side and you're in the hood. Homeless, drug addicts and just pure weirdness. At night kids come up and just hang out. It's real Colombia, I go hang out amongst the chaos at night with friends. It's safe when you're in large groups; just don't go out by yourself with a camera at night. Not a good idea unless you want to get robbed.

Often times live electrical wires dangle along the sidewalks making for an adventurous walk

A really nice house littered in electrical cables. It cracks me up to see this, but for Colombians it's totally normal. I love the old colonial style architecture, flowers, plants and colors of the houses.

More decay on top of this apartment building. A brick wall stained in years of tropical heat eating it's way through the brick. Green paint peels off and every damn building has an antenna or dish. I like this image a lot, I want to print it. The negative space and colors...yum.

In the distance you see a modern building. Steel and glass. I went a little over-saturated with the colors. It works with the tropical feel.

A close up image of the wall in decay. There's something beautiful about decay. I live in Southern California and the desert does a good job of preserving old buildings; I can't get over the decay.

**Let's revisit the model from the beginning. Shot with a 135mm lens in Granada. Electrical wires and decay surround her, but with a long lens you can hide almost anything. Cool model and very natural to shoot; I barely had to give any direction. Look at those eyes.

A last look from above. Looking down on the vibe of the city. I have shots from ground level which I will post on another post. I hope you dig these as much as I do. I'm actually more of a portrait photographer, but on occasion I like the solitude of walking the streets shooting whatever I see that strikes me as interesting. It's therapeutic and I way to look at things with a different perspective. You don't have to go to Colombia to shoot like this.

In a mile radius of where you live, there is an untapped world of images ready to be taken

Get out there and shoot. Have fun...go by yourself and look for light, color, texture and interesting subjects that otherwise you'd miss. Take a camera and one lens; no need for a giant camera bag. Bring some nice walking shoes and be comfortable. Experiment with different lenses on each outing.

A photographer must know his lenses

Go and shoot for a few hours with one lens. I like prime lenses, zoom lenses make you lazy and don't train your eye. If you have only a zoom lens, stick in a fixed position and learn that focal length. Switch it up when you go out a second time.

I suggest prime lenses

Primes are fast and light weight. Fast? My 50mm opens up to 1.2 (that's fucking fast my friends)

Primes are also sharper

The zoom is in your feet. You want to zoom in or out...move your body. Visualize the shot.

Move around - you have 360 degrees to work with

Pre-visualize your shot. Then get on the ground or find higher ground; eye level sucks.

I'll say it again, eye level sucks

The time you go out and shoot, try to not shoot any images at eye level. It will open up your world to photography in a different way.

Ok Steem friends! Ask questions and contribute. Share this post.

Cheers!
Michael