05.20. | The Art of Seeing into the Future!

Week after week we seem to turn into real-life James Bonds at the photo club, and yesterday was no exception. This time we explored the world of discreet street photography — naturally in our own slightly ridiculous way. We didn’t even have to go far from Schwedenplatz: the sunny banks of the Danube are just a short walk from our headquarters.

The goal? The art of invisibility. Spoiler: we more or less succeeded.

Before we started, I made a few example photographs for inspiration.

The art of “pocket photography”

The first challenge was for everyone to discover the limitations of their phone or camera from a completely different perspective.

The task was to walk around while photographing with the device hanging naturally in one hand beside the thigh — the way you might simply carry your phone while walking. I thought it would be ridiculously easy. It wasn’t.

It is a little like learning to drive a manual car. At first you are thinking: clutch, gear, road, rev counter — all at the same time. This was almost as complicated.

While our “photo spies” were walking, they had to compose the image entirely in their heads. The camera, already set to the desired field of view, then had to be turned and tilted in the hanging hand so that it would capture the imagined subject from the best possible angle.

That may be difficult to picture from the description alone, but trust me: we witnessed some very entertaining performances.

Once we had practised the ideal distance and angle on each other, we moved to the next level: photographing stories.

The camera stayed in the lowered hand. The photographer had to analyse the environment, what was happening and the background entirely in their head. We started with static scenes: the photographer moved, while the subject remained in one place.

Moving “targets”

Then we raised the difficulty: dynamic subjects.

The task was to photograph a passing cyclist or runner while making sure the person was not recognisable. This caused considerably more head-scratching.

Most people released the shutter either too early or too late as the “target” passed them. They had to learn to factor in the response time of the camera as well. Catching the moment was not enough — the image also had to look good.

Leg position mattered. The background mattered. If the background was blurred, where should the point of focus be? And all of this had to happen without looking at the screen. Everything existed first in the photographer’s head.

So we introduced a small trick: we counted the rhythm of the moving subject.

To capture an elegant walking moment, the front foot should be touching the ground while the back foot is just leaving it. Everyone silently counted “one” on the first foot and “two” on the second.

So the “character” approaches, walking toward you, while the photographer counts mentally. When the subject reaches the ideal distance, you release the shutter on “one”. Because of the slight delay, the camera captures the instant when the back foot is just about to leave the ground.

It may sound complicated, but the photographs explain it better than I can.

The art of seeing into the future

For example: a cheerful cyclist is approaching, perhaps even whistling. You like the mood, so mentally you move a few seconds “into the future”. Most likely the cyclist will pass you — unless they suddenly change direction — so you decide what background and angle you want.

You reposition yourself, observe what is happening and study the person’s rhythm of movement. You think about which body position will work best, and perhaps even count the cadence of the pedalling.

Once the photograph exists in your head — angle, background, mood — you move into position and set the camera in your hand. To everyone around you, you simply look like another pedestrian casually swinging a phone or camera.

If you use burst mode, there is a very good chance you’ll get a world-class frame.

There is only one problem left: if the photograph is good enough that you want to share it publicly, and the person can be identified, you then have to run after them, stop them and ask for written permission to use the image.

So yes — at this point everybody was running after everybody. :)

For the final exercise we became each other’s models again.

On Tuesdays we often practise letting something seemingly “wrong” intrude into the frame. That may sound strange, but the purpose is to create the feeling that the viewer is physically present in the scene.

This time we achieved that by photographing the subject through someone’s legs. It should look as though a person had accidentally walked or jumped into the frame — but had failed to block the actual subject we wanted to photograph.

Imagine us crouching or bending into absurd positions while trying to shoot between our own legs. The passers-by certainly got some free entertainment.

By then we had been photographing for almost two hours, so to wind down we went to a talk by Ágnes Berentés, a master of cave photography.

Compared with our “spy photography” adventures, cave photography is another dimension entirely. I have also written a personal account about it, which you can read here.

Next meeting: 27 May 2025, 17:00–20:00. If this sounds like your kind of evening, come and join us.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.