In a quest to improve myself — and learn more about my hometown — I joined Saba Alhadi on her PhotoWalks tours of Boston. Alhadi’s expeditions in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the Freedom Trail, the Public Garden, and the waterfront are part history lesson, part photography workshop using the city as a classroom.
On a picture-perfect spring morning (we hoped), our camera-toting group of eight meets on the steps of the Boston Public Library to explore the Back Bay with our SLRs and point-and-shoots.
After telling us a little about the history and architecture of the library, Alhadi has us take some shots of the bronze statues of Science and Art that flank the Copley Square entrance. “Composition is the first step to good photography, and your shooting position is critical to the composition. Even a few inches can make a big difference,’’ she says. It’s a lesson we quickly learn as she shows us how a slight shift in our stance eliminates a distracting lantern from the background of our photographs.
Throughout the tour, Alhadi drives home the importance of positioning by instructing where to stand to capture the desired shot. “Stand right here on these three small leaves,’’ she tells us at one stop, like a director instructing an actor on where to hit a mark.
In order to be in an optimal position, you have to be prepared to do a little contorting. Alhadi often has us crouch to a low vantage point to eliminate distracting urban elements, such as street traffic, from the background. To snap a bronzed fireman’s hat at the Vendome Firefighters Memorial, we kneel down to replace a busy background of parked cars on Commonwealth Avenue with a verdant backdrop of leafy trees. To get a perfect silhouette of the “Boy and Bird’’ fountain in the Public Garden, Alhadi has me hop down into its partially dry bed.
“I want you to learn to shoot creatively,’’ Alhadi says. “You should always be asking yourselves, How can I take this shot as creatively as I can?’’
