How I Shoot is a series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process.

Philip Park (@komeda) is a Korea-based photographer whose photos of Seoul manage to capture solitude in the otherwise bustling city. We wanted to find out more about how Philip goes about shooting photos of Seoul, and he was kind enough to share his story with us.

Hi Philip! Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you became interested in photography?

Ten years ago, my doctor told me I need to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. On my doctor’s advice, I started walking around my workplace, and one day my wife bought me a Lomo LC-A film camera to carry with me while I walked. My wife checked the film once a month to keep watch on my walking. This might be my first experience of photography.

Tell us about your photo-taking routine. When do you find time to snap photos?

While I don’t have a lot of time to take photos because of my work, every day I commute on a riverside road, and my workplaces are located near scenic places, such as the river, a palace, an urban park and other places introduced in my photos. Most of my photos are taken during my lunch or on my way home, and sometimes I skip gym for a photo walk. Very occasionally, I take a day trip with my friends to take a photo, but it’s a pretty rare case.

Most of your photos are taken in Seoul. Do you live in the city?

I live in Namyanju, a suburb outside of Seoul, but I commute to the city for work. I come and go between two different environments every day. Such an experience of daily life keeps my view fresh, but sometimes it makes me feel like a stranger. A stranger from everywhere…

Have you always lived in Korea?

Actually I lived in several countries as a child because of my father’s career. Our family didn’t move to Seoul until I was 16 years old. During my childhood, I felt like a stranger everywhere I went. Now, every day I’m reminded of those memories. I believe these memories are reflected in my photography and give my photos a feeling of loneliness and solitude.

Seoul is a very crowded place but somehow you’re able to capture the solitude of the city. Instead of crowded busy streets, you photograph a single person against the background of the city. Do you aim for this?

Yes, right. The population of Seoul surpassed ten million several years ago. Fast Internet and mobile networks connect everyone. Traditionally, Korea was a tight-knit community, but the process of industrialization has trapped Seoul in concrete walls. Most people feel solitude in this city, and I’m also not free from this feeling. In order to express this feeling in a straightforward way, to see things as they really are, I always set my camera at eye-level and emphasize a single person (or sometimes a couple) against the background of the city. You can imagine that the person I capture in my photos is me, or someone who empathizes with my photos. Sharing emotion and feeling is part of the reason I take photos.

@komeda

The whole town was shrouded in mist. The vague objects disappeared and only the essential ones remained. The mist showed me what I must see at that very moment. Nobody wants to believe the simple truth, but the answer is always quite simple.

Here Dumulmori means “head of two waters.” Two river streams meet at this place and become Han River. Those Zelkova trees have seen the history of the river for the last 400 years, but I can capture only a fraction of its story.

The house gets older together with its people. Only a few remain, but there are still some old residential districts like this in Seoul. Unfortunately, this place is on the brink of extinction in a few years. My pictures are still powerless against the passage of time.

Historical Royal Palace is a really strange place, and it is even stranger that this palace is located in the middle of the modern city. Just get over the gate, then you will arrive at another place and time. Although it is impossible in reality, we can imagine.

Sometimes I feel Han River is a kind of border between the real and the unreal. The border divides us from each other, but at the same time it is the point of contact. Man can immerse his bike wheels in water, but the river remains unfordable.

I knew that there were two ways to go at the end of this road. One way to my real world, and another to where you can leave reality behind. I was walking in the middle of the path, but I still could not decide where to go.

How I Shoot is a series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process.

Dan Cole (@dankhole) is a photographer from the Seattle area who has a knack for injecting mystery into his subjects, helping us see something different in everyday objects. We wanted to find out how Dan nurtures this element of transformation in his photography, and he was kind enough to share his insights with us.

Hey Dan! I’m intrigued by how your photos transform ordinary objects into something more mysterious. Can you tell us a little about where you shoot and what you keep an eye out for?

I live just outside of Seattle, in a rural area, but I find myself in the city quite a bit. When I’m downtown, I feel like I have to try harder to find interesting photos. I tend to avoid well-known landmarks, focusing instead on how many interesting things I can find in an alley. I shoot this way wherever I travel.

Some of your photos are shot really close-up. How do you decide what distance to put between yourself and what you’re shooting?

The distance between the subject and my camera is often driven by the scale that the texture or detail is best represented, whichever seems to distribute the elements in a pleasing way to me. I absolutely think the iPhone is a benefit to the type of photos I take. Its compact size allows me to put it in places I couldn’t fit my SLR, allowing me greater creativity and a larger variety of perspectives. The flat back and sides are just another part of the device as a photography tool-set, helping to align and steady the shot.

I noticed that in 3 of the photos featured below, you don’t include a caption.

Initially, I never captioned any of my photos. Part of it was (and continues to be) a conscious choice to not influence what other people see. And, generally I just can’t think of anything clever. Thanks to @lyricyst, though, I found other people are better at captioning my photos than I am. People’s reaction and enjoyment has become one of my favorite parts about posting. Often, I don’t even want to reveal what the subject is for fear of ruining the fun. When I do caption, it’s to share what I’m thinking more than to tell others what to see.

I love how your followers always have creative guesses as to what’s being captured in your photos. Do you ever have this in mind when you’re shooting?

I love it too. It’s one of my favorite things about my Instagram friends and the people who follow my work. @crusso comes up with some of the most creative guesses. I’m not often conscious of their reactions while I’m shooting. Since IG is basically my journal, a lot of it is focused on what appeals to me personally. But certainly, as time goes by, when I see certain subjects or I’m editing a particular photo, I get a feeling for who I think will like it, that’s when I’ll usually tag someone in the caption.

Any advice for people who want to improve their photography? how do you start turning ordinary objects into something more captivating?

I value composition and my advice to others would be to pay attention to the rule of thirds. I believe there is something inherently pleasing to the human brain when elements align to the thirds. I also recommend straightening your photos — it helps ground the elements and gives strength to your shots. As a first exercise, I would recommend changing perspective or distance. Taking the Space Needle as an example, try shooting from below, looking straight up, or focus in on one of the details, like the giant bolts that hold it to the ground. Always be looking around. The more interesting details are often below our feet or above our heads, rarely at eye level. And don’t be afraid to get close; sometimes I’ll even put my iPhone directly on the object I’m shooting.

@dankhole

On the road trip home from California this year, my wife and I stopped at a rest stop just north of Portland. I opened the door to find this cracked planet at my feet. Shapes like these really stand out to me, the force of so many cars parking on this road dot may seem simple but looking closely, it’s incredible to me how it reveals nature’s beauty, displayed in the uneven distribution of each fractured fragment (the beautiful way nature doesn’t conform to symmetrical or evenly spaced shapes).

I was riding my bike with a friend and made him stop so I could take this shot. A bridge was under construction, and the massive amounts of plastic sheeting diffusing the the light and the equipment behind were a beautiful and ominous sight, especially juxtaposed against the common concrete forms of the overpass.

On a particularly windy day, the plastic sheeting covering a storefront had come loose. I stood underneath this one piece for about 5 minutes taking photos while it ruffled in the wind. It was honestly hard to walk away.

This was a fibrous diffusion panel that separated seating sections in a cafeteria. The warm setting sun was streaming through the exterior glass, playing off of other fixtures in the cafeteria and creating these shadows and cool color tones behind the panel.

Sometimes, my original crop is too wide, and once I load the image into Instagram, I try to intensify the focus on the interesting details. I have never seen sap pool and crack like this. I took this at the same time as the other photos in my stream around it (most of my photos are in chronological order, like a journal) while I was exploring a power station. This is a good example of how interesting detail can be found anywhere — I almost walked right over this.

I had intended this to be an interesting picture of a regular power pole, but it just wasn’t gelling. Sometimes I’ll get all the way through the editing process before I decide something isn’t working. It’s usually at this point that I’ll load the image into Diptic to see if I can create something more exciting.

How I Shoot is a series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process.

Pei Ketron (@pketron) is a San Francisco-based photographer whose symmetrical compositions of everything from escalators to tombstones have caught our eye. We wanted to find out what’s involved in shooting photos that are so perfectly centered, and Pei was kind enough to share some of her tips with us.

Hey Pei! It seems like you’re able to find the symmetry in any space. How did you develop an interest in composing symmetrical shots in the first place?

Since reading about it in one of my dad’s art books as kid, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of a vanishing point and find that I look for these lines and perspectives everywhere I go. In any big city, most of the lines you’ll see are present in the architecture that surrounds you. Once you start seeing those lines, you can’t help but to see all the symmetry that accompanies them. A perfectly aligned and symmetrical image just feels balanced and right to me, like there’s no other way this particular scene should be looked at.

I know you live and work in the Bay Area. Where do you end up shooting most of your photos?

I live, work, and play all around San Francisco and the East Bay, so I ride public transit a lot and often find that BART trains and stations are the only things I’ve shot that day. I challenge myself during those long BART commutes to find unique and beautiful perspectives on the trains and in the stations that so many people perceive to be mundane.

What’s the trick to aligning your shots just right? Do you use photo-straightening apps, or do you just have really steady hands?

In order to capture the symmetry in a scene, you have to center yourself, make sure all your lines are straight, and be a perfectionist when it comes to your square crop. I’m practiced enough as a photographer to have pretty steady hands when it comes to taking photos, but sometimes I’m in a hurry or I just don’t get it quite straight and I need to use an app like PS Express or PhotoForge2 to straighten the images. In my quest for as-symmetrical-as-possible shots, I end up with many throwaway images that can’t be fixed with simple straightening.

How many photos of a subject do you usually take before you get one you’re happy with?

The number of photos I take of any one particular subject varies depending on the circumstances under which I’m taking the photo. Most often, I see the shots I want while I’m doing something else and just grab one quick shot before going back to what I was doing. There are times, though, when I either want to try a variety of different angles or when I actually set shots up and in those situations, I may take up to 5 or 10 shots. Once I get an image into Instagram, I have been known to crop and re-crop a dozen or more times until I get the image exactly centered or symmetrical within that square crop.

How long have you been interested in photography? has Instagram changed your photography in any way?

I’ve been taking photos since 2001 and I used to refuse to go anywhere without my DSLR. Since Instagram came along, however, my primary camera for daily outings has become my iPhone, even when I’m hauling around a DSLR and a medium format film camera. The iPhone is the perfect camera because it’s small and no one suspects that you’re doing serious photography with it. I shoot places and things that I would never feel comfortable shooting with my DSLR, so Instagram has really expanded and diversified my subject matter. I no longer have an excuse not to shoot everything that catches my eye because I always have my camera in my hand. In addition, Instagram has connected me with a vast network of hugely talented photographers whose images inspire, motivate, and teach me.

@pketron

I was walking through my favorite corridor at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and stopped in my tracks when I saw this. It was perfect because not only was it left-right symmetrical, but the reflection helped it to be top-bottom symmetrical.

When I took this shot at Golden Gate National Cemetery, I wanted to convey that feeling of never-ending, perfectly-spaced headstones.

I had a long wait at North Berkeley BART station one night and loved the perfect vanishing point created by the lines in the station.

The mausoleums at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland are full of leading lines and nicely polished stone that reflect beautifully. Sometimes, a non-symmetrical scene can be made symmetrical by something as simple as a reflection.

This part of the Westfield San Francisco Centre is one of my favorite places in the city. Whenever I take BART and need to get off at the Powell Street station, I make sure I emerge out of the exit that will allow me to walk through this space.

Sometimes, you don’t need all of the elements of your image to be symmetrical for it to work. The trick to all these symmetrical shots is to just make sure you are perfectly centered when you shoot them.

The photo of Pei at the top of this post is from her Flickr stream.

How I Shoot is a new series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process.

Paul Octavious (@pauloctavious) is a Chicago-based photographer who lives near a hill. It’s a hill just like any other, and yet Paul has managed to bring it to life through a series of photos, tagged #samehilldifferentday on Instagram. By capturing the hill at various times throughout the year, his photos come together to tell the story of the hill: we see it on bright summer days, crowded with people flying kites and picnicking, as well as on cold nights, deserted, the sun setting behind the Chicago skyline in the distance. We caught up with Paul to learn more about his project and how it came about.

Your first #samehilldifferentday photo on Instagram was shared about seven months ago. How did the series begin?

The #samehilldifferentday series on Instagram is actually part of a series I started 3 years ago (pauloctavious.com/hill/). I moved to the northside of Chicago and found the hill in my neighborhood. Ever since I discovered the hill, I have been walking to it and documenting it with my Digital SLR. I find it interesting how the locals interact with the hill.

On Instagram alone, you’ve shared over 30 photos of the hill, and there are several more (including videos!) on your website. Does photographing the same thing multiple times change the way you look at it?

Yes! For me photographing the same thing over time helps me evolve as a photographer. It helps me learn and I start to see things differently. 

How’d you get your start as a photographer?

I bought my first DSLR in 2005. Before that, when I was way younger, my parents would always supply me with a Polaroid. So I have always been interested in capturing moments. 

What kind of camera and apps do you use for photos that you share on Instagram?

For Instagram photos, I just shoot with the camera on the iPhone 4. I use Instagram to edit my photos; rarely do I find myself using a different camera app for editing. When I’m out and about photographing, I tend to photograph a moment with both my 5dMKII and Instagram + iPhone 4. For the most part, I tend to get 2 completely different moments. Though the iPhone 4 + Instagram is nowhere near the quality of the 5D + Photoshop, it gives me the instant gratification of showing others what I just experienced in a fun way.

#samehilldifferentday

This day was the first day I noticed the hill was completely green and summer had arrived!

This was the first day I had woken up to see the sunrise while living in Chicago. After I took this shot I went swimming in Lake Michigan.

For the past 4 years, my best friends have flown in for my birthday! This was the first year I took the 5 of them to the hill.

Every year a kite festival takes over the skies over the hill. This is may be my favorite time of the year.

Every winter kids flock to the hill and sled down it in high speeds. I have yet to sled down the hill myself. Come this year I’m changing that!

When I took this photo, all I kept thinking about was that Windows desktop background.

The portrait at the top of this post was taken by Derek Wood.

How I Shoot is a new series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process.

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Martin (@safesolvent). We first noticed Martin’s photos when he tweeted a link to one of his Instagram self-portraits along with a video he created to accompany the photo. Martin’s videos document what happens behind-the-scenes as he shoots photos around his home city of Montréal. We were intrigued by how video and photography intersect for Martin and asked him to share a little about his process and the challenges of shooting distant self-portraits on the iPhone.

Hey Martin, good to meet you! Tell us a little about yourself…  

I’m a freelance photographer/videographer living in Montréal, Québec, and I’m always looking to use my job as a means to travel around and explore. I’m constantly looking for new locations to shoot for various projects and, believe it or not, the iPhone has become my tool of choice for this.

How has the iPhone influenced your photography?

My first digital camera was a Creative Labs WebCam Go, with 8MB of memory and no display. It was essentially a webcam you could detach from the computer and shoot photos with. Instagram reminds me of that camera in the sense that it’s less about the hardware and more about pushing the limits and challenging the notion of “just a phone camera.”

We notice a lot of self-portraits on your feed. How did you develop an interest in self-portraiture?

Originally, I started shooting self-portraits because I couldn’t find people to pose when I’d want to shoot. I started framing and composing my shots, hitting the 15-second timer and running in to pose. I always saw myself as more of a “stand-in” for showing clients potential ideas but it turned into more of a thematic concept over time. I also find that I’m often seeing beautiful photographs of landscapes but they are so indistinguishable from the next. My way of making many of my shots unique is by being in them.

It’s just you and an iPhone. What’s the trick to getting so far away from the camera when you’re shooting on your own?

I’m fascinated with the idea of being as far away in the shot as I can. This takes a combination of using Camera+’s 30-second timer delay, composing the shot and then running at top speed to reach my mark.

Do you use any other apps or tools?

A tool that I have to say changed the way I shoot is my GorillaPod for iPhone, which lets me attach my phone to trees, ledges and just about anything I can imagine.

Your videos are awesome. When did you start filming your photo-taking process?

I began to document the process when people started to wonder how I actually got so far away from the camera for my self-portraits. I’m also a very big fan of documentary film and decided to document myself with video because sometimes the photo itself doesn’t put into context the environment and moment that I’m experiencing while shooting.

What keeps you shooting and sharing your photos on Instagram?

The community is a huge part of it. I wasn’t too interested in filtering my photos, but it only took about 5 posts before I realized Instagram wasn’t just about the filters but the community. I instantly started finding interesting people all over the world to share photos with.

@safesolvent

Videos: Instagram and Never This Serious - Skyline from *safe solvent™ on Vimeo.

How I Shoot is a new series where we ask Instagrammers to tell us about their photo-taking process. We’re excited to kick it off with Anthony D., who is known throughout the Instagram community for the candid street photos of New Yorkers he shares to Instagram as @takinyerphoto. In fact, he’s taken so many shots of New Yorkers that his followers have recognized friends, coworkers, and even themselves in his photos. We’ve always been curious to learn more about Anthony’s process, and he kindly agreed to share a few pointers for other photographers out there who are interested in learning more about street photography. We’ll let Anthony take it from here…

Working in New York City, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see a photo opportunity. I’ve come to learn that there are three “P”s when it comes to taking candid pictures on the street: preparation, patience, and practice.

Preparation

It’s important to be ready before the moment the you want to capture. That means having not only your phone out, but having your camera app of choice ready to go. Keep your eyes open — in front, behind, to the left and to the right — for situations and subjects that you think would make for an interesting photograph. If you keep your eyes ahead 10 or 15 feet, you’ll be able to set yourself up in the right position to get a strong image. When it comes to taking the shot, make sure to exhale before you shoot and focus your attention on keeping the phone straight and steady as long as you can after you let go of the shutter button. I’ve found this to help produce a stronger image. Tapping the screen to direct its focus might be more trouble than it’s worth; the iPhone does a great job of directing its focus to a subject on its own so the more open space between you and the subject the better. Make sure there is plenty of light on your subject. It helps to be on the sunny side of the street; you’ll get crisper images and much less noise than you would on the shadow-covered side.

Patience

Patience is a virtue, and one you come to appreciate in taking candid street photos. First, it takes time to become comfortable taking strangers’ pictures, getting over the fear of “OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY SEE ME?!” There are no pointers I have for that — either you’re over it or you’re overreacting. People believe that in order to take candid street photos you have to be sneaky and stealthy, but I think it’s quite the opposite. The more natural you act, the better the result; you’re just taking a picture, not their soul.

Practice

Let the pictures come to you rather than going out looking for them. I’d say on average I take anywhere from 30 to 50 pictures a day in 90 minutes worth of shooting. Out of that I turn maybe four or five into Instagrams I’m proud to show to the world. Not every shot is going to be good. This is especially true when you’re first starting out, but with practice and patience you can find your own style that works best for you. On average, I’d say I still miss more shots than I actually get because the picture’s blurry, the subject isn’t looking, or it’s just an unflattering photo. That’s the beauty and curse of candid street photography: capturing incredible characters and situations in their natural state or missing the chance all together.

I saw this fashionable woman hailing a cab so I pulled up probably about 5 feet away and took her picture. The low angle comes from me shooting from the hip.

This photo was taken on an overcast day, which is how you get that blurry background, but the iPhone was able to focus on the man and keep him sharp enough for the picture to work.

As I was walking down 42nd St., I saw this well-dressed man standing on the corner and thought he’d make for an interesting capture. So I walked in front of him as he waited for the crosswalk and took a picture as I passed him. 

This woman was actually behind me. I tried to get as far ahead of her as possible so I could fit her whole body into the frame — I just turned and snapped a photo when we came to the crosswalk. 

I saw the big hat on the well-dressed girl and had to take a picture. I waited for her to start to go across the crosswalk and happened to catch not only her but a few others too. The rainy day really does a lot for the lighting and overall mood I think.

This girl was sitting at the fountain listening to music and the fountain turned against her and she got up to move while I was taking the shot. It’s a case of right place, right time.

The photo of Anthony at the top of this post was taken by @anthonyquintano