Photo taken from the hip
Posted on by Debbie

Shooting from the hip – Week 42 of 52 week photo project

Shooting from the hip

Welcome to this week’s wrap-up post 

This week was all about shooting from the hip, a style of photography I hadn’t heard about, let alone any experience with. I found this explanation online that helps explain the concept. I really should have read this prior to taking my shots for this week!

The technique is called “shooting from the hip” and it literally means what it says on the tin. It is as simple as holding your camera at waist-level while focusing your attention and vision away from your hands and camera. It’s an approach that allows you to capture more candid images without being noticed by raising the camera’s viewfinder to eye-level. Most people will be oblivious that you are taking pictures, therefore giving a much more natural result. It also gives your street photographs an interesting perspective shooting from different points of view.

It’s worth noting this style of shooting is very difficult, and it’s also important to realise that for every 100 shots you take from the hip, you will likely only nail a dozen or so keepers! But this is normal and also part of the excitement once you start shooting from a new point-of-view.
Read more here

Photo taken from the hip
Taken from the hip

Here are my accompanying words to my photo:

I haven’t had much luck with taking any decent shots ‘from the hip’ this week, although I’ve tried hard. From the hip means no setting up or framing of the shot, no looking in the view finder for how it looks or even what you’ve captured. It’s very difficult but also quite liberating. This is about the best of a bad bunch but it kind of appeals to me with its quirky simplicity.

My shot was taken in the backyard just pointing the camera up and out and pressing the button.  I had no real idea of what I was shooting. My sister kindly called my shot ‘abstract’ which I took as a compliment 🙂 But then that’s what this project is all about, trying new techniques and experimenting.

This was another attempt I made which wasn’t too bad but I think I should have gone out and taken some street photography shots after reading the information above, as it seems more suitable for that sort of photography.

Sunlight through the trees, photo taken from the hip
Taken from the hip

Photos from the group

The photos from the others in the group were very creative.  

Here’s a summary (in my words) – you really need to click the link to read their words as well as see their photos for yourself!  We always appreciate hearing your thoughts 🙂

Daniel’s shot was a shot of the sky too but with a plane in the frame. It’s a really lovely photo.

Grant’s photo was a beautiful landscape and he enjoyed the different perspective shooting from the hip gave him.

Melanie’s photo was a gorgeous shot of Ozzy her puppy enjoying an ice cream.

Sharon captured a lovely shot of a young boy collecting autumn leaves.  He seems completely unaware of her taking the photo which fits in with the explanation above.

Tim’s photo and words expressed his enjoyment at shooting from the hip and seeing things from different angles, in this case from the dog’s perspective.

You can read more about the story behind the project here: 52 week photography project  – but basically I have joined with 5 photographers, of varying experience, to take a photo every week for a year, one theme at a time. That’s 52 weeks of photos!

 From the hip was quite a liberating experience.

With each photo we also submit some accompanying words, which can be just as interesting as the photo itself some weeks! This can include the subject, the setup, the story behind it and even the process we have used to get our photo for the week. It’s certainly extending my creative thought processes!

The main posts goes live on Sundays at 8pm and I tend to share my wrap-up posts on the following Saturday.  It’s so good to be involved in something creative. I can’t believe we only have 10 weeks to go!

How did you like our interpretations this week? Have you tried this photography technique before?  What do you think of it?

Next week’s theme is: Golden Hour

Enjoy your week ahead.

Deb 🙂

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36 Replies to “Shooting from the hip – Week 42 of 52 week photo project”

  1. Pingback: Shooting from the hip – a photo walk round Castle Park – Losing the Plot

    1. Thanks Desley! It was quite fun I must admit, Melbourne would be a perfect place to use this technique. Guess what? I’m off to see Lucile as part of our Odyssey (my name for our big trip) we leave tomorrow 😬 and will stay with her in June after a week in Iceland. Can’t wait to meet her after all this time!!

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  5. Ye Gods, I’m not that good at ordinary photography and now you toss in this hip shooting thing. Crumbs it’s a goo£ thing it’s all digital media now…I’d be broke using film versions just trying to get one shot where I was actually hoping to point the camera! Never mind it being all focussed and picturesque!

    Fascinating idea though and I guess since you never quite know what it will capture then it’s a bit like opening a gift covered in wrapping paper when you look!

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  8. Hi, Debbie – Thank you for letting us know about ‘Shooting from the Hip.’ I’ve seen people do this but really had no idea what they were doing, or that it was an official technique. I look forward to giving it a try!

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