Streethunters Local Guide: Become a Guide or Fixer for Street Photographers Visiting Your City!

Recently Gaël Berthon, a street photographer who’s had his work featured in our Street Photo of the Week series, contacted us with an awesome suggestion. Why don’t we create a list of street photographer local guides and fixers who can help out travelling street photographers who are visiting their cities? We thought it was a great idea, and when we asked you what you thought about it on our Facebook Group, you all agreed too. So, now we’re launching the Streethunters Local Guide programme, and we need your help!

The Concept

The concept of Streethunters Local Guide is simple. We will make a list of cities which local street photographers can add their names to by volunteering to be a local guide or fixer. That way a travelling street photographer can look up a city, find a fellow street photographer and arrange a meeting. You get a local’s perspective on the city, a guide to the best spots for street photography, an idea of some good routes, and best of all another photographer to hang out with and shoot the streets together.

An Example

Let’s say I’m planning a trip to London. I check the Streethunters Local Guide page for the entries under London and I find a photographer and their contact details. I grab their contact details from the website, and send them an email, or Whatsapp or Facebook message or whatever. I explain when I’ll be in London, and if we’re both free we can arrange to meet in a public place like a coffee shop or pub. If I’m lucky they might even be able to give me some local advice about airport transfers, public transport or good hotels. Then we can meet up for a beer or coffee and hit the streets together! Together with my guide we can plan some routes, and photograph in some great spots that might not appear on your usual tourist guides. We can even grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant or hit a bar! At the end of my trip I’ve seen some great local sights, got to hang out with another street photographer, and hopefully made a new friend too!

How to become a Streethunters Local Guide

It’s very simple to get your name added to the list of Streethunters Local Guides. All you have to do is send us an email telling us your city, your name and contact details (you can give as many or as few as you wish, we’d advise at least an email address), and also give us a link to your portfolio website, Flickr, Facebook or Instagram.

How it Would Look

Name: Digby Fullam

City: Norwich

Instagram: @digbyfullam

Website: https://digbyfullam.wordpress.com/

Email: digby@streethunters.net

Benefits for the Travelling Street Photographer

There’s several reasons why you might like to use a Streethunters Local Guide on your street photography trip:

• Advice on how to get around in a strange city (e.g. public transport systems).
• Inside tips on the hottest locations for street photography.
• Help planning routes to maximise each day (and not getting lost!).
• Advice on some nice local bars and restaurants.
• Help with language, local currency and customs.
• You get to meet a fellow street photographer and hang out, and even learn from them!

Benefits for the Street Photographer Local Guide

As a guide you’ll be volunteering your time and local expertise to help another street photographer. But there are some great benefits for you too:

• The opportunity to show someone new ‘your turf’.
• Be listed on the Streethunters.net website, with a link to your portfolio.
• Meet and network with new street photographers – exchange tips and hints on styles and techniques.
• Be part of the street photography community, give something ‘back’, and hopefully be reciprocated when you travel to new cities too.

FAQs

Will I be paid?

No. The idea of Streethunters Local Guide is to offer free networking opportunities for travelling street photographers around the world to get to know one another.

Can there be more than one local guide for a city?

Of course! The more the merrier. There’s no reason why there can’t be several local guides for one city. Some cities are absolutely huge, so it might be more convenient to meet a local street photographer who’s based in a suburb where you’re staying. Or maybe some local guides might be busy or have other commitments when you visit. So the bigger the choice of street photographer local guides, the better!

Any advice for me as a guide?

You will be volunteering your free time, so you can choose how much time you spend with your visiting street photographer. You might only have time for a couple of hours of street photography, or you might be lucky enough to spend a whole weekend with them and plan several photo walks. It’s totally up to you. You’re getting to show someone around your local city who shares your passion, so enjoy it!

Any advice for me as a traveller?

You’ll get the rare opportunity to see a new city from a local’s perspective, so embrace it! Make the most of your guide’s local expertise to really get the feel for the city and see a new side to it.

General advice?

Streethunters.net is providing a place where street photographers from all over the world can meet and network. As with all meetings with someone you haven’t met in person before, it’s always wise to be sensible and arrange to meet somewhere very public like a monument, coffee shop or bar/pub. And always make sure that someone else knows where you’re going, and at what time. That way everyone can feel safe, comfortable, and have a great time!

Sign Up as a Streethunters Local Guide Today!

So do you fancy showing a visiting street photographer around your city? If you like the sound of the Streethunters Local Guide programme then you can sign up today by sending us an email at contact@streethunters.net or by using our contact form on our contact page. Use the subject ‘Streethunters Local Guide Volunteer’ and provide your name, city, and contact details. As soon as we have a good number of volunteers, we’ll be launching a page where to put you in touch with travelling street photographers. So don’t delay, join the Streethunters Local Guides and let’s make a global network of street photographers!