Philadelphia Street Style: Cameron, 18th St

Cameron seemed to me, when I spotted him from across the street in front of the Rittenhouse Barnes & Noble, to be a poster boy for the mix 'n' match aesthetic. He combines high and low, has no fear of clashing colors. "I am the definition of an individual," he told me of his style. He has little interest in being grouped according to type. His musical taste, similarly, encompasses "everything from alternative to hip hop to jazz." "I'm not too big on country, though," he said. 

The trunks he's wearing here are Polo by Ralph Lauren. The shirt is Fossil. The cardigan is H&M. The two different socks are both from Urban Outfitters. The shoes are Penguin. One of his watches is Burberry, the other Emporio Armani. The jewelry, if I actually got the spelling right, is Xzoomi, though correct me if I got that wrong, Cameron. 

I got the idea for how to shoot this shoe shot from the new book Street Fashion Photography by the bloggers behind The SF Style, Dyanna Dawson and J.T. Tran. It's a how-to-guide for those just getting started in street style blogging. To be honest, I didn't find it that helpful this late in the game. And I flat out disagreed with some of their advice, say, their preference for shooting with a wide-angle lens. To me that's just begging for distortion. But they had a few ideas that had never occurred to me. For example, when shooting shoes they suggest setting the camera right on the ground and angling it blind. You can't, after all, look through the viewfinder when you're doing it. I liked their shoe shots, so I tried it on Cameron. I'm pretty happy with the angle. Concrete is minimized, background interesting. Next time I'll try with deeper depth of field.