Is street shooting easy?

[silverbullet]

- 1

it's 33% talent, 33% anticipation of people's behavior and 33% guts.

No technique or luck here!

You must to be very close to your subject, very quick, and able to affront difficult situations.
For me it's a political act because you're showing some people in the real life and dynamic action.
No esthetic here, only meanings.

100% d'accord!

 

[Ming The Merciless]

Nothing good is come to easily. With street there is a strong element of luck, being at the right place at the right moment; guts, having the nerve to get up close and personal and photograph; and a skilled eye, knowing what might make a good photo which includes good composition. I'm fortunate to be able to photograph every day since I retired -- I only wish I were about 30 years younger. 🙂

 

[daninjc]

Really? I feel it's almost the opposite, a lot of aesthetics, and not necessarily too much meaning.
Well I guess the meaning would add additional layers to the picture, making it potentially more powerful (truly enough there can be a big overlap between street and social documentary/reportage)

For me it's a political act because you're showing some people in the real life and dynamic action.
No esthetic here, only meanings.

 

[Monz]

Difficult to get good results... you have to feel comfortable and un-selfconscious. Anticipation, speed and luck all help.

 

[damien.murphy]

Good points, Damien!

Maybe your words imply certain inherent difficulties...

Cheers,

Juan

No personal difficulties pertaining to street photography, but mainly because I don't shoot very much on the street. I do have a growing penchant for the value of photographs as historical document though, and capturing little snippets of life is very much a growing curiosity for me, although not something I've practiced too much of so far.

My main inherent difficulty in my own photography to date, is the false importance of talent over just getting out there and shooting. I don't find it the easiest thing to rectify, after spending much of my initial shooting years immersed in contemplative subjects like landscape and architecture.

As the author Stephen King is quoted as saying - 'What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.'

I am quite fond of informal portraiture though, and very much appreciate the challenge in capturing fleeting moments. As such I disagree with those that denigrate the role of technique, although perhaps others shooting styles vary.

What has worked for me personally, is minimising any elements which come between my eye and the subject. The camera is something that is such an obstacle, and the best way I've found to minimise the distraction of the camera and its controls, is through mastering them. Ergo - technique.

 

[Neare]

I've only recently starting shooting 'street' type photos. I find it extremely difficult -

1: to have the courage to get in peoples faces
2: to actually make a great photograph.

It's easy to take a picture of the street, but to make an image that has significant meaning to it is extremely difficult. I'd say it is actually the hardest form of photography as much of it comes down to luck. It's all well having techniques down, but you have to be in the right place and the right time to find that subject.

So now I wonder how many photographs do street photographers throw away? Famous photographers certainly have a handful of great photographs... but these people would have been photographing for decades - would most of their shots have only been mediocre?

 

[FrankS]

So now I wonder how many photographs do street photographers throw away? Famous photographers certainly have a handful of great photographs... but these people would have been photographing for decades - would most of their shots have only been mediocre?

Editing is one of the skills that separates "good" photographers from "mediocre" photographers.

 

[damien.murphy]

It's all well having techniques down, but you have to be in the right place and the right time to find that subject.

What is technique if not learning how to give yourself the best chance of being in the right place at the right time 😉

In relation to one of his shows, Edward Steichen was once asked:
"If you were to take out of this show all the 'accidents', how many images would you have left ?"
"Not many, perhaps" answered Steichen, "but have you thought how many great accidents have been made by great photographers?"

Famous photographers certainly have a handful of great photographs... but these people would have been photographing for decades - would most of their shots have only been mediocre?

I believe 100,000 images a year, is one of the figures I've heard bandied about with regard to Salgado's shooting volume. Given his average projects are 6- 8 years long, that's 600,000- 800,000 frames to be eventually refined down to the final selection chosen for each of his major project exhibitions/ books..

 

[silverbullet]

Mr. Damien Murphy,

here's a recently shot 'street' especially for you as a "Thank You" from my side for the wonderful time in Ireland around 1972.... ;-)



Seen in Cefalu, Sicily in the morning.

 

[sanmich]

I find landscape or portrait much more difficult.
Not because of the setting, but because I find it incredibely difficult to let your personality, your mood or your vision be the major actor in these disciplines.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

But to let your personality, your mood or your vision be the major actor in street shooting, even if we all anticipate, we can't choose between lots of beautiful cliches or still subjects, and we can't guide our model easily, and we can't choose between different weather and light for the same scene, and we can't return to what's vanishing... All fields require lots of hard work to be well done, but street shooting seems to dictate a few more laws above the rest of photographic fields... Maybe that's why decades insist in considering icons those photographers that reflect instead of transform reality... Winogrand seems right about just reflecting with your camera, and reflecting reality just as it is... I think both for the reduced chances we have -in general- to have an incidence on street subjects without changing them, and for the short time we have for registering them, street shooting makes not just a difference, but a huge one compared to most other fields...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[sanmich]

But to let your personality, your mood or your vision be the major actor in street shooting, even if we all anticipate, we can't choose between lots of beautiful cliches or still subjects, and we can't guide our model easily, and we can't choose between different weather and light for the same scene, and we can't return to what's vanishing... All fields require lots of hard work to be well done, but street shooting seems to dictate a few more laws above the rest of photographic fields... Maybe that's why decades insist in considering icons those photographers that reflect instead of transform reality... Winogrand seems right about just reflecting with your camera, and reflecting reality just as it is... I think both for the reduced chances we have -in general- to have an incidence on street subjects without changing them, and for the short time we have for registering them, street shooting makes not just a difference, but a huge one compared to most other fields...

Cheers,

Juan

Juan

You are right about all what you say, but in my case, it doesn't work.

I do not know what I want, or how to get it.
street photography is intuitive, and quick reaction with a good measure of anticipation is required. It's a dance, it's hunting the frame, it's adrenaline driven, and the result reflects you abilities of the moments. Some days, I am blind to good frames, others, I am more lucky.

In most cases, I can get, from time to time a decent frame when I shoot a small camera intuitively.

In ALL cases, when I stage, when I have total control, I get only crap.

 

[user237428934]

I've only recently starting shooting 'street' type photos. I find it extremely difficult -

1: to have the courage to get in peoples faces
2: to actually make a great photograph.

That's exactly my problem too. In 9 out of 10 occasions I avoid raising the camera to the eye because someone directly looks at me. Sometimes I try shooting from the hip but that's cheating, isn't it?

 

[Arjay]

I do not know what I want, or how to get it.
street photography is intuitive, and quick reaction with a good measure of anticipation is required. It's a dance, it's hunting the frame, it's adrenaline driven, and the result reflects you abilities of the moments. Some days, I am blind to good frames, others, I am more lucky.

+1. I'd even like to carry this a little further:

Most of the time when I'm out shooting street, I don't have enough time to think before the crucial moment is happening.

I feel I have to be ready instantaneously, and therefore I have been working for a long time on being prepared - being able to read light from subconscious experience, recognizing image composition from having a repository of thousands of previously seen pictures in the back of my mind, and concentrating on social interaction among the people in front of me.

For me, it's the social interactions that are at the center of my attention, because they provide an almost instantaneous trigger to take a picture.

Here's a truly wonderful example of what I mean:

To capture such an image, I feel I need to be in a flow situation because seeing things like this requires a very special eye. I noticed this when I spent five evenings on last year's Oktoberfest in Munich - an event that provides more occasions for situational/interactional shots than any other that I experience during the year. If I see enough of these occasions in a short period of time, I experience some kind of flow which makes it a lot easier to be open and sensitive for seeing these little dramas that unfold constantly around me (and which I normally do not see).

 

[_larky]

Whatever you do, don't do what this guy does, you'll get punched 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjmiU18UvK0

Skip to 1:40.

 

[Arjay]

Whatever you do, don't do what this guy does, you'll get punched 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjmiU18UvK0

Skip to 1:40.

You won't if you're open and confident about it and if you're ready to amiably enter the conversations you're invariably going to have with strangers. Of course, it helps to have the guts to explain what you're doing in a way that isn't defensive.

 

[sanmich]

Whatever you do, don't do what this guy does, you'll get punched 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjmiU18UvK0

Skip to 1:40.

Maybe it's OK if you look just like Martin Scorcese 😱

 

[Neare]

Though I wonder if he shoots exactly the same way without the video cameras justifying his shots to the subjects 🙂

 

[Bill58]

It takes guts, a sense of humor, and an ever-watchful eye too.......... Juan, you ought to hook up w/ Luis Ripoll in Barcelona as he strolls thru La Rambla. He's on the Leica User's Group (LUG) forum and a real master of street shooting. I'll bet he can give you some tips.

 

[Spyro]

Reading the thread the concensus is that the problems are courage, hard work, technique, talent, luck. I disagree. The problems in my opinion are
1. understanding what is street photography and what isnt
2. recognising a good street photo
3. understanding why it is good

then one can start worrying about talent etc. Most people (again IMO), dont go past 1.