2022 FXBG Street Shoot-Off

Sep. 17th, 2022 I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the last (and first) FXBG Street Shoot-Off. At the time of that competition, I was in the middle of what was probably the best streak of my photography career. From August to November of last year, I was shooting more often, taking better photos, and most importantly connecting and meeting more street photographers than I ever had before. For me, the highlight of this stretch was the opportunity to travel down to Fredericksburg, VA to the home of the thriving FXBG Street Photography Collective. This collective is made up of tons of incredibly impressive street photographers, despite the small size of the town, and hosted a bunch of cool events including meet-ups, gear exchanges, and the inaugural Shoot-Off, an in-person street photography competition. Many great street photographers converged on Fredericksburg both to compete and judge the competition. I was lucky enough to take home an Honorable Mention from this competition for this photo:

Now as I mentioned, last year was the best year of Street Photography I had ever put together, and the Shoot-Off was one of the first times I ever got to compare myself to my fellow local photogs. That being said I was ecstatic to come home with any recognition at all.

This year I have admittedly been having a much slower year, apart from my France trip I really haven’t taken any photos that could hold a flame to my 2021 work.

But I also feel like I am a much better Street Photographer now than I was last year, and even though I’m not on a hot streak I still fully expect myself to produce much better and more intentional work in a short period than I did last year. I went into the weekend with ambitions of a medal, with an outside shot at a win.

Now, I have to be honest, for most of my life I have never been a competitive person, but when it comes to the very few things I’m good at, I like to win. Not in a mean or nasty way, but for me leaving with some sort of hardware was just as important as connecting with fellow photographers and having fun. It’s just who I am, don’t judge lol.

I arrived in Fredericksburg around 2 PM, about an hour before the event started. I met up with some friends, Mark Holl, Aaron Cabitto, and Damien Santos of the FXBG SPC, as well as some folks who had arrived early from the Hampton Roads Street Photography group.

Right: More of my photos from the 2021 FXBG Street Shoot-Off

My Honorable-Mention submission to the 2021 FXBG Street Shoot-Off

As is tradition, Damien and I immediately hit the antique shops to see what old cameras we could find before the event started. We struck out a few times, but at our last stop, we were lucky enough to stumble onto an incredible collection of photobooks at Southworth Antiques & Rare Books. Unfortunately the store is closing soon, but fortunately for me, that meant all photobooks were half off, and I walked away with a nice little collection of classics, including a Magnum Anthology, A Best of Photojournalism from ‘84, and a FREAKING FIRST EDITION ELLIOTT ERWITT STILL IN WRAPPING!!!

I haven’t figured out if it’s worth anything yet, but I’m just happy to own something rare and unique. I’m going to keep it in the wrapping for now, but I’ve already read through the other three books quite a few times. I especially like the David Graham book, which reminds me of something of a mix of Alex Webb meets The Americans by Robert Frank. Very classic 1980s American photography.

Ok..Ok.. I know you want to hear about the Shoot-Off, let me get back:

Damien and I made it back to the Curitiba Art Cafe (the home of FXBG SPC and a great place to get a coffee, lunch, or drink) with about 1 minute to spare before Aaron started reading out the rules. We had 3 hours to shoot, edit, and submit 2 photos. We were each assigned a number so that the judges wouldn’t know who was who, and could only base their decisions on the photos themselves. I guess I should also introduce the judges: legendary photojournalist and music photographer Jeromie Stephens, DC SPC member and award winning photographer Marci Lindsay, and Curitiba owner, musician, and FXBG SPC founding member Cori Blanch.

I didn’t rush out, instead taking some time to catch up with some more people like TJ Torres from the Hampton Roads group, before I eventually strolled out with Mark. Together we walked down the main street of Fredericksburg, took a detour down to the new kids park on the river where I snapped this photo:

Nothing particularly special, but I like the wonky lines and repitition. Next we made our way back to the busier streets where I continued warming up by playing with the harsher afternoon light:

Continuing on, I spent a lot of time taking advantage of the many shop windows and interesting light along Caroline Street. I was able to take advantage of reflections, textures, light, and interesting human subjects. Here are my results:

These photos are definitely some of my favorites, and I think if I was going to shoot in Fredericksburg in different circumstances that is where I would put most of my energy, but I had a sneaking suspicion the judges for this contest were going to favor wider, more traditional street photos. Things like emotion, pattern, and humanity would get me much farther than composition and mystery. So I decided to pull out my secret weapon - my 21mm Voigtlander mounted on the full-frame Nikon Z5 to give me a unique perspective and to push me closer to my subjects. Here are some of my results:

These are alright, there are a few snaps I think could have made the cut. Most notably: the black and white photo with the hands statue, and the low-down shot of the guy in the fedora. Both were great shots, the others were alright, but I didn’t think they would get me on the medal stand.

Finally, as my time was running out, I returned to Caroline Street and noticed a family passing out fliers about salvation, including several young kids whose heads were all shaved in uniform. I regret not asking about their denomination, but they had caught the attention of several other photographers and I didn’t want to disrupt any scenes or alert them to their model status. I wandered through the group several times, getting close with my wide lens and snapped the following:

The former of these two was instantly my favorite shot of the day. The colors of the two red shirts, the blue shirt, the green and red of the flowers, the green of the pharmacy, as well as the perfect lighting and the many characters made it feel like a painting or stage production. The kid was yelling out, using his bible as a microphone. The scene really came together and I got lucky.

Unfortunately, my time was up and I had to head back to Curitiba, where the whole group gathered and edited, nerves were high as our deadline approached and people asked for advice on photo selection. I was no exception, I narrowed my selects down to the following 4 photos and probably asked a dozen people to help me choose:

I decided to hedge my bets on my earlier guess about the judge’s preferences and selected the two wide, landscape images. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after I submitted that Mark pointed out that my 2nd image would look much better in black and white (and he was right). In retrospect I wish I had submitted the black and white reflection shot, which has grown on me the most out of any of my photos, I love the textures and layers in the photo. Anyways, I submitted my photos and the wait began. In the meantime, I conducted some interviews of my fellow competitors and the judges for my YouTube video (stay tuned…).

Finally, the time came to gather and announce the winners. Slowly we watched as some spectacular photos were called up for Honorable Mention (much better than last year in my opinion). I was a little nervous when we made it through 5 honorable mentions without my photos coming up. This meant one of two things for me, either I was SOL or I was on the podium. Oh lord, it would be a little embarrassing if I walked away from here with nothing…

THIRD PLACE!!! You cannot believe the relief I felt. I had come with one goal: to improve on my 2021 finish and land on the podium. Mission accomplished! For me it was incredibly validating to be able to set a goal and match it with my photography. This hasn’t been the easiest year and my photography has fallen victim to the crazy that is the rest of my life. To know that I still have it in me to be able to mix it up with such a talented group of photographers was a much needed confidence boost. And I would add that the stakes were definitely raised this year, the quality of photos across the board was MUCH higher than last year’s. It may seem silly, but for me this was incredibly important.

The judges also shared some very helpful criticism of my photo, Jeromie pointed out that if I had taken a half-step to the right, I would have better framed the man behind and to the right of the subject. This one small move could have added a lot to the composition of the photo. Additionally, Cori pointed out that I had reached the exact maximum amount of saturation before it became too much. I have to agree with this, with the caveat that my laptop’s screen was stuck in power-saving mode and the colors weren’t calibrated properly. So basically, I was very lucky lol.

I want to also shout out the incredible photos that came ahead of me. I have to say I really think the judges nailed the order of photos in the top 3:

All in all, I had an absolute blast once again at this event, I was honored to have been chosen for a podium spot, and to top it off I also found a gold mine of cheap photobooks. But the one important element of this event that I haven’t touched on enough is what an incredible experience it is to come together with 30+ other street photographers from all over. The atmosphere of the Curitiba and the FXBG SPC group is one of camaraderie, friendship, and desire to learn and improve at the art. I have never heard of another event like this anywhere, so to be only an hour and a half away is a huge blessing, and every year this event reminds me how photography can connect us all. I already can’t wait until next year.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

Cheers