Street Portraits in Casco Viejo
Me with my Sony A7III in hand in front of the Catedral Basílica Santa María la Antigua.
A few months ago, I built up enough courage to do my first street portrait challenge in Clearwater Beach, Florida. For those of you who may not be familiar with this challenge, basically it’s when you go up to random strangers on the street and ask them if you can take their portrait. At first it was very intimidating because when I’d get out there and start asking strangers for their portraits, I really had no idea what type of reaction or answer I was going to get from them. I went into this expecting to worst, but honestly it’s not as bad as you might expect.
After doing this type of challenge a few times, I have quickly become comfortable asking strangers for their photos. Of the few hundred people I’ve already asked between Tampa, New York City and Panama City; I would say about 25% of them have rejected me. So in terms of getting rejected, it’s to be expected. However, it’s not a big deal because it’s part of whole experience. When you put yourself out there you have to be ready to deal with rejection, it will happen! Guaranteed!
If you want to see how I did on my first challenge, watch: ¨My First Time Doing Street Portraits¨
This is one of the most Instagrammable spots in Casco Viejo
Below is a photo of two girls that I actually asked if I could take a portrait of them, and they politely said no to me. It was all good, no issue with that! This is something to keep in mind when you’re out doing these type of photography challenges/shoots is that you must respect people’s decisions on whether or not they want their portrait taken. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t include them in a street photo. After all, they’re in a public place and in in this instance I was in no way violating their privacy or personal space. To be clear, after I asked them for their portrait they said no, I kept going about my business and as I turned around to talk to my nephew, it was then I noticed this would make a good street photo shot.
So during my last trip to Panama City, I decided hit the Old Spanish Quarter, in Casco Viejo, which is by far one of my favorite parts of Panama City. I packed up my GoPro Hero 7 Black, Rode Wireless Go mic system, and my Sony A7 III along with my Sony 85mm f/1.8 lens. The GoPro and the mic was for the “Street Photography with the Sony 85mm f/1.8 Lens” vlog that I filmed that day, but my choice of weapon for the actual portraits I took that day was the Sony A7 III.
As I started to walk around Casco Viejo, I realized that I wasn’t going to have much luck capturing the locals. There are very few actually living there as a lot of the locals have been displaced due to the gentrification of this area. And the ones that were still around would probably be hesitant to let me take their photos, it’s just the way it is in Panama. People aren’t too keen on posing for a stranger.
This is the first person I photographed in Casco Viejo.
The first guy I approached was a Panamanian man sitting on a bench in Plaza Herrera. I figured this would be a good way to gage what my day was going to be like. He had a long face on him, looked like he didn’t want to be fucked with, he looked tired, but I still gave it a shot. To my surprise he was very laid back, and told me to take the photo. He really didn’t care what I did. I think I did a good job capturing his mood.
This actually boosted my confidence, in the sense that I was ready to ask anybody and everybody for a portrait shot. Plus I had my nephew helping me film the vlog which helped me tremendously as I didn’t have to worry about filming and taking photos at the same time as I usually do when I film these videos. We continued to walk around Plaza Herrera for a few more minutes and my second shot was of an American tourist. She was caught off guard by my question “Excuse me, can I get a portrait of you?”. I took a few minutes to explain to her what I was doing, I told her I didn’t want her to be weirded out. I feel like this is key when you’re out there doing this challenge, this isn’t pure street photography where you want to capture the way of life of any given place, those candid moments of people on the streets or where you’re capturing an event playing out naturally. This is a street portrait challenge, where you actually want a legit portrait of a stranger. So I like to make people as comfortable as they can be and by communicating to them exactly what and why I’m doing this is makes things a lot smoother for all involved.
The good think about shooting in Casco Viejo is that aside from it being a really nice place to visit, you also have a really nice mix of people. We walked around for about 3 hours, and I can’t remember exactly how many people I stopped and asked for them their portraits. If I had to guess, I would say it was around 30 people, but I was probably rejected about 50% of the time. It was still cool to meet so many people, some I connected with on Instagram and was able to send them the photo I took of them. If you’re into photography whether you’re an enthusiast or a pro and have never done street portraits of strangers, you should give it a try. Especially when you’re traveling, it’s a great way to connect with people. Check out the rest of the shots I took that night.
And make sure you check out my vlog HERE.
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