Is street shooting easy?

[back alley]

it might be a cliche but it's new for me...

we all have to practice and learn and create some cliches along the way.

 

[back alley]

and i have to admit...i prefer to create poor street images than great landscapes...

 

[jsrockit]

I myself don't feel that the world needs another picture of kids playing around an open fire hydrant.

Everyone falls for the cliche at times... even you I would imagine. 😱

 

[Sparrow]

and i have to admit...i prefer to create poor street images than great landscapes...

amen, to that

 

[gns]

... doing something new and creative is the challenge.

Yes, and probably equally difficult regardless of the subject matter or "Genre" one chooses.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[back alley]

The craft of street photography came easy to me, but doing something new and creative is the challenge. There are a lot of cliche street images out there now. Doing something to set yourself apart is the hard part.

I myself don't feel that the world needs another picture of kids playing around an open fire hydrant.

but maybe the world would like another kids around the fire hydrant image taken by me!?
it was a part of my life growing up in new york, my dad had a hydrant key...i love the shots from the 50s and someday. someone might like one from 2011...who knows for sure?

 

[chrismoret]

It is really unforeseeable and fascinating, and rewarding, but also sometimes frustrating and disappointing.
Bottomline is there are few things in life that have captivated me more than this often underestimated discipline of photography.

 

[gns]

And street photography certainly has no monopoly on cliche images.

You could just as easily ask, "Do we need another red-filtered shot of thunder clouds over the sierras?", or if you've been to many gallery shows over the last decade or so, "Another portrait of a lonely looking person sitting on the bed in a tacky motel room?".

And Back Alley has a point. As soon as you say something is done to death and over, someone will come along with an original approach to it.

Cheers,
Gary

 

[Vilk]

yes, it's easy. in fact, it's the perfect cop-out. no preparation time, no financial investment, no clients, accountants, bills, no mosquitoes or soggy socks, not even training or education these green-dial days... strolling around under sunny skies, a fresh cup of tea waiting at every corner... and when life, fate, luck or the merciful gods of statistics send you a crumb--"look, ma, the decisive moment!"

😛

 

[tlitody]

yes, it's easy. in fact, it's the perfect cop-out. no preparation time, no financial investment, no clients, accountants, bills, no mosquitoes or soggy socks, not even training or education these green-dial days... strolling around under sunny skies, a fresh cup of tea waiting at every corner... and when life, fate, luck or the merciful gods of statistics send you a crumb--"look, ma, the decisive moment!"

😛

And how are we to know it was the decisive moment? A second later and we could have caught someone punching them in face. We'll never know.

 

[Sparrow]

but maybe the world would like another kids around the fire hydrant image taken by me!?
it was a part of my life growing up in new york, my dad had a hydrant key...i love the shots from the 50s and someday. someone might like one from 2011...who knows for sure?

public fountains work too, as a stake out that is

 

[Sparrow]

And how are we to know it was the decisive moment? A second later and we could have caught someone punching them in face. We'll never know.

it's when I decide to take the snap

 

[DougFord]

And how are we to know it was the decisive moment? A second later and we could have caught someone punching them in face. We'll never know.

that's why I always shoot for the moment adjacent to the decisive moment. i mean, whoz gonna know anyways? 🙄

imo, empathy, intuition and chance are the minimum daily requirements needed for taking pics of people in their environs.
('street photography' is a subset)

 

[isorgb]

Hi,


Today I was thinking I have very few street shooting images I consider really good... And after some experience in other fields I was thinking perhaps street/people is the photographic field I'd describe as the toughest one for getting outstanding results, both because you can't repeat and make your images better as you have almost no time to act, and also because when your main subject is what briefly happens to people around you, you don't depend on your abilities exclusively, but on situations you can't -in lots of different ways- control, prepare or predict...


Have you ever felt street shooting is a hard, complex and slow game? Or do you feel it's easy and get great results all the time?


Cheers,


Juan

Hard, complex and slow game.

 

[sper]

I never said that street photography had a monopoly on cliches, or that I have never made a cliche image...never said anything like that in fact.

But if you ask me, is art difficult? I'll give you the same answer. Being creative is extremely challenging.

Don't know why people snapped to the defensive on that one...

 

[Vilk]

And how are we to know it was the decisive moment? A second later and we could have caught someone punching them in face. We'll never know.

my apologies for the shortcut--by "send you a crumb" i meant the finished picture. and those are frequently "captured" without the button-squeezer realizing what they're doing, there's demonstrably something else than conscious effort at work here, i.e. words like "easy" or "hard" do not apply

😎

 

[uhoh7]

For me, street photographs fall into two very distinctive classes, people-centered, and street centered. You guys probably know better names.

In people centered shots i think: what are they thinking, saying, etc.

even:

In street-centered shots the people are kubrick like ants--walking out of the frame, almost incidental. I feel the place far more than the people--they are an external force. It's more in the direction of "street landscape". But I like them, when they strike me.

Do you even need humans in the frame for street photography?

here's a crappy example, but for some reason I like this shot.

maybe you only need signs of humans...

thinking about that, I guess it's obviously true.

how about some links to great street photography with no people in frame?

 

[d_ross]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]90% of all "street" photographs are pretty boring and pointless to anyone other than the picture maker. Documentary photography as I think you mean, needs to document something, and more than any other genre it is important to study and learn from the great photographers works and working processes as much as you can.

Just like any other genre of photography photographs made in public places like streets, or museums or even malls for that matter, need to contain some narrative, this could be along the lines of commenting on social behavior or ambiguities as with Henri Cartier Bresson, or the humor and visually stimulating observations one sees in the likes of Elliot Erwitt’s work. But whatever the narrative a “street” photograph has to make you think beyond the two dimensions of the print. One social behavior I would be very wary of commenting on is men coming out of brothels, forget the drug crazy hooker she will never remember you on seeing you again..but men leaving the establishment could well be another more dangerous story 🙂
[/FONT]

 

[Nikkor AIS]

 

[gekopaca]

What's different in street photography compared to other fields like urban or portrait or landscape or fashion or product?

A possible answer : the hit.