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Street

10 Reasons I Love Street Photography Digby cover

I have been dreading this day. You have probably noticed that we three Streethunters editors take it in turns to write a ‘big’ article every week. We call them feature posts, and it’s a chance for us to wax lyrical about anything street photography we like. Andrew will often put out an awesome book review or a comprehensive under the influence analysis of some cracking street photographer, and Spyros will review some street photography gear, launch a new street hunt video, or debrief about the latest street photography jaunt he’s been on. Well, this week was my turn, and I had nothing. Zilch. Nada. I was utterly bereft of ideas of what to write about. I’ve had some things going on over the last few weeks which has meant that street photography has had to take a bit of a back seat. Without being able to get out and about with my camera I’ve been a bit stuck for inspiration. So I started to look through some of the old articles on the streethunters.net website. And I hit a goldmine. Both Andrew and Spyros have picked the 10 reasons why they love street photography, but since I’ve joined the team I haven’t got round to it. And what better way to rekindle my passion and get myself back in the groove than remind myself why street photography is so awesome in the first place? So, strap in for the 10 reasons why I love street photography!

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Introduction

So, what is Street Photography? I’m not going to get into genres, types of street photography, history of street photography or what is, or isn’t, considered street photography as these subjects have been talked about, discussed, agreed/disagreed and argued over so much in the past, present and, no doubt, in the future too.

Besides, who am I to decide what is, or isn’t, street photography?

So, what I want to write about is what street photography is to me personally. What it has done for me personally and what I choose to photograph and not to photograph.


ATTENTION

The following views are mine personally and do not necessarily represent the views of the StreetHunters team.


Introduction

How do I define street photography? At the root, it’s a “style” of photography. Genres and styles. Seems to me that all forms of art are categorized by genres and styles. I don’t like to be categorized, and I believe most creative folk do not, either. But, I can understand why it’s a necessary evil. If any style of photography pushes the confines of categorization, street photography surely does!

Categories are good for the marketers, from the top all the way down to the retailer, promoter, etc. They know where to place the “product”. They know how to promote it. How to sell it. And it’s good for the booking agent at the club or the gallery owner. To get similar genres and styles together. To appeal to a certain crowd. To know what section of the book our music store to go to. It’s a degree of homogenization that effectively helps to sell or bring our notice to something.


ATTENTION

The following views are mine personally and do not necessarily represent the views of the StreetHunters team.


Introduction

Street Photography is a genre of photography that can’t be easily described to others. The understanding of the definition of it varies from individual to individual due to the fact that each person simply understands it in a different way. I don’t know who originally named this genre of Photography “Street Photography”, but as time has passed, more and more additions to the definition have been made. Street Photography has changed and maybe that is why for some, the actual name “Street Photography” is now a bit confusing.

How to file for easy retrieval in Photoshop

Introduction

With a strike rate of one in a hundred, the storage of digital negatives for street photography is critical. I have a method based on the wise words from Don Han and his co authored book ‘On being a photographer’, which every photographer should spend the few pennies and sharpen up their skills.

Storage these days is easy, with external hard drives and the cloud but the process should be equally simple. This is how I do it from SD card to save and close.

Introduction

Are you suffering from a lack of inspiration? Do you Street shots look the same? Are you in a rut?

Often enough we plough our own furrow and on occasion what used to inspire only confirms we’ve reached a stepping stone in our street photography and it’s time to scale new heights but we don’t know where or how.

I come from a fine art background and have painted for a number of years so rather than incestuously digging over photos again and again, although this very much has it place, I reach into other visual media to inspire.

The Fears of Street Photography and how to get over them

Note: The following views are mine personally and do not necessarily represent the views of the StreetHunters team.

Introduction

Many of us Street Photographers find Street Photography intimidating for various reasons. Some of us fear that our gear will be stolen or broken, others fear that we might get beaten up by a big bad stranger or a gang of thugs and others fear more things! It depends on each person’s imagination really. No matter what the fear(s) each one of us faces, there is a way to manage to control or suppress that fear. I say control or suppress because in my opinion fear never goes away, we just learn how to better control it and how to use it to our advantage. In this post we will take a look at the most common fears we Street Photographers face and we will also take a look at some nice tips that will help us overcome those fears so we can focus better on what we love most, which is shooting photos of the events of life.

Note: The following views are mine personally and do not necessarily represent the views of the StreetHunters team

Introduction

Rules are made to be broken.” Nowhere does this hold more true than in the creative world. Great artists, in any genre, break rules all the time. Sometimes, the act results in failure. Sometimes, it’s a game changer. And sometimes, it’s a different means to an end.

From what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, shooting with a fixed prime has long been a commandment of street photography. Using a 35 or 50mm had been gospel. Why? The most popular reasons I’ve seen are these:

  1. all the great street photographers have used them.
  2. fixed primes produce the sharpest images, and
  3. a fixed focal length lens helps the Street Photographer know what he / she will see in the viewfinder before the camera hits the eye, enabling them to focus faster then they would with a zoom.

All very, very valid reasons. Using a fixed prime is the the best way to get the street feel and to isolate and capture your subject within whatever composition you’ve dialed in. But, it is the only way? I’m saying no, it’s not.

Posed Street Portraits vs Candid Street Portraits in Street Photography

Introduction

When out on the streets, a Street Photographer can shoot anything from random scenes to portraits. Every type of shot has its level of interestingness. In this post we will talk about the later, portraits.

Specifically we will get to know the two basic types of portraiture that can be shot on the street and once we have done that we will take a look at the differences between them. At the end of the post, I thought that it would be great if I shared some tips on how to snap awesome portrait shots. I think the average street photographer will find them helpful.

Introduction

I’ll be honest, I prefer my street photography mono. It’s classic. Like Rob Heron has said, it has a timeless feel to it. However, I’m slowly warming up to shooting color. I believe this is because I’m technically becoming a better shooter. I have found my beginning shots that are simpler, more stark mono compositions have yielded some pretty palatable results. However, the more I shoot, and the more I grow in my skill set, the more I like the more vivid, rich color pieces. Let me try to explain why.

Being still very much a novice to street photography, and photography in general, I keep things very simple. I shoot JPEGS only. The reasons why is this: Due to schedules, I have an extremely small window of opportunity to shoot every week. So, I spend what free time I have just shooting a TON of pictures, practicing my composition skills and working on building my technical skill set. Eventually, when I think I’m ready, I’ll shoot RAW, and that wonderful world and the full glory of post processing that goes with it, will be a new bag of tricks to play with.