High Contrast Street Photography with the Ricoh GR IIIx

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High Contrast Street Photography with the Ricoh GR IIIx: Mastering Light, Shadow, and Flow

What’s poppin, people?
It’s Dante. Currently walking around Philadelphia today, photographing with the Ricoh GR IIIx — high contrast, black and white, small JPEG files.

I’ve been on this black and white game for two and a half years straight, and it’s completely transforming how I view the world, let alone the way I photograph.

Drawing with Light

So essentially what this is doing for me — by returning to light and shadow and photographing in high contrast black and white — is I’m returning, I believe, to the essence of the medium of photography.

Photography: “phos” meaning light, “grafia” meaning writing or drawing.

I’m drawing with light.
Treating the world as the canvas.
Everything is photographable.

This is an abundant mindset I adopt now. When you’re on the street, you want to enter a flow state — constantly creating new photographs, not overanalyzing or thinking too much.

Light Is Information

When I look at light, I remind myself that light is information.

I shoot in highlight-weighted metering mode. I expose for the light.
I reveal the information in the light.
I crush the shadows.
I leave out the superfluous details.

“Light is my medium. Light is my subject.”

This mindset transforms how I walk, how I observe — how I live. I see light glimmering, bouncing off surfaces, cutting across people’s faces, casting long, dramatic shadows. Everything becomes beautiful again.

Foreground, Background, and Flow

I tried getting a photo of a guy just now — he liked my shoes — but the background was too sloppy. The shadows swallowed him. Sometimes, you just can’t separate the subject from the chaos.

But when you find that clean backdrop — when light and shadow work with you — that’s when you get a powerful frame.

What I like to do:

  • Find choke points.
  • Watch people enter and exit the frame.
  • Let the background and light do the heavy lifting.
  • Press the shutter when instinct hits.

“It’s all about your physical body in relationship to life itself.”

This is street photography to me.
A visual game.
It’s about geometry, form, and intuition.

Master the Visual Game, Then Break It

Photography is visual. You have to understand:

  • Light
  • Shadow
  • Form
  • Timing
  • Human behavior

Once you understand the foundation, then break it.

“I’m not out here hunting for my next best photo. I just know my next photo will be my best photo.”

Photography is this endless stream of becoming.

The Spirit of Play

By following curiosity, by keeping that childlike wonder, you unlock the flow state. That’s the goal.

“Forget everything you think you know. Let go. Let the chips fall where they may.”

I’ve hit my plateau before — making technically good photos.
Now I’m after something else.
I just want to let go and spontaneously create.

Macro Play and Crop Mode

Lately, I’ve been using the macro mode on my Ricoh GR IIIx. I get up close to mundane things — locks on dumpsters, textures on the wall. I underexpose. I crop in-camera.

  • 71mm crop mode is clutch.
  • High contrast baked-in.
  • What I see is what I get.

Or rather:

“What I get is what I didn’t see.”

I’m surprising myself again.
Letting the camera show me things I didn’t plan.

Photography Has Nothing to Do with Photography

“Photography has nothing to do with photography. It has everything to do with how you engage with humanity.”

What you get in the photo is a reflection of how you live.
Your interactions.
Your presence.
Your soul.

The street reflects it back to you.

Gravity-Bound

Another thought I had:

“The best photos remind us that we’re bound by gravity.”

We’re flesh creatures.
We bleed, we lust, we grieve, we rejoice.
We build skyscrapers, but we are not gods.

We are mortal.
And photography — when done right — reminds us of that.

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