WHAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALL ABOUT

I have been “living” in street photography world for the last 2.5 years. My definition of “living” here means: Constantly seeking artistic moments on public space everyday and everywhere.

In this blog I just want to write about some things that define what I feel to live in street photography world, since I learnt street photography from the very first time till now.

It’s all about learning by doing

If we want to earn skill in street photography, there is simply no shortcut but make an effort.  Want to learn street photography in “express” way? Walk a lot in our city. Use no car, only our feet and public transport (bus/train). Always remember to have camera in our bag whenever we go out.

Try to use our time as efficient as possible. Busy at working place in weekdays? Try to shoot before/after working time. Shoot while we walk to office, or while going back home. Also can try to spare 15-30 mins a day to shoot in lunch break. Bring our camera with us everywhere. Who knows when Sun decide to (beautifully) light up our favourite lunch place?

Want to master our camera setting? Do take shoot everyday. Want to train our eye to see how light able to create artistic scene? Do take shoot everyday. Want to sharpen our senses about surrounding to catch unique moment? Do take shoot everyday. The more we do it, the better the result.

Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times. I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. – Elliott Erwitt

Feel free to read a thousand article about street photography tips, nothing will matter unless we start to practice it in reality. Street photography is simply about learning by doing.

Appreciate different perspective

Give five cameras to five street photographers, and told them to shoot the exact same scene. Most often than not, we can see five different perspectives about how they shoot a subject. Some prefer to shoot close to get intimate effect, some prefer step back a bit further to capture more stories around subject, while some may place their camera in extreme low/high angle, and so on.

None of them are better than the others. They are simply has different approaching to snap a moment. Just because one photograph does not match to our artistic mind, does not mean it is a bad image.

Always try to see things in different way, and to understand other people’s artistic mind. There is a chance people create a piece of art based on things that ever happened in their life. We may not easily understand their work unless we know their life’s story. Appreciate other people’s perspective.

Keep experiment

Never be afraid to start a new experiment. We may not always like the results, but who knows if we may find something interesting as well. There are things that we never know whether we will like it or not unless we try it ourselves.

For example: I never thought I will fall in love with street photography when I purchased my first camera. In fact, I bought it only to try if I like to shoot with camera or not. I used to a huge smartphone believer (a person who think smartphone’s camera is always good enough in all condition, and bringing a camera is too hassle to be true), but now I become a person who can not imagine my life without camera on my hand.

Keep experiment with new things also can help us to find a new inspiration. Start to feel like our photos have similar looks? Perhaps we can try to use different focal length. Personally, I am a person who actively use four prime lens: 24 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm and 85 mm (full frame equivalent), and have tried 14 mm, 21 mm, 135 mm, 300 mm in street photography too.

Although recently I prefer 35 mm and 50 mm among them, I can understand more about other angle of perspective. I may not liking all of focal lengths after tried them, but more importantly, I know why some particular focal lengths are more/less favorite than the others. Why some of them works with my artistic mind, why some of them is simply fail in the process.

For a person who infuse street photography with documentary style, perhaps may try to shoot street to create a “fine art style” photos, and vice versa. We have nothing to lose, but absolutely will get extra knowledge while trying new way of shooting.

Always shoot street with people as main subject? Why not try to shoot street without people?

Always shoot in black and white? Why not try to shoot only in colour for a month?

Dare to experiment and always remember not to bash other people’s work because it has different philosophy than yours.

Continuous learning

“ Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow. – Imogen Cunningham

Feel happy with our photography result is a good thing. However, never feel 100% satisfied with our current skill. Always stay hungry to keep learning new things. Personally, I feel there are other million ways that I can learn to improve my photography skill. My entire time on earth may not enough to learn all of them, however I will keep push my self to keep learn how to develop a better / more creative skill to create an artistic photograph.

Related article:

Street Photography is about freedom

Street Photography bring you happiness

Street photography is art. Art is not competition.

Personally, I do not treat street photography as a competition to get more “likes”, fames, or to show off to other person. But, it is more like sharing my artistic mind to other people through photography as a medium.

My photos show the way I see the world with my eyes, then processed by my mind. They are simply the reflection of my soul. Whether other people will like my photos or not would totally depend on how their artistic mind “judge” my images. “Pushing” other people to liking a certain image through a long and complicated explanation is simply meaningless.

Stay hungry and keep shooting!

Nico Harold