Overcoming fear

[wlewisiii]

Fear? Fear is the mind killer. The rest is well near irrelevant.

(No, do not take me seriously. I did 16 years taking Uncle Sam's Dollar. I know all to well what fear means. I just really hate that pos comment that I used, half seriously, above. )

William

 

[Welsh_Italian]

Fear is a challenge for my photography. For me, when a picture has people in it, it becomes far more interesting; when they are doing something, this increases. But I'm always concerned about being confronted (though I can talk my way out of most situations) or even getting involved in a fight.

Recently, I went to a market with the intention of taking some pictures for the market's website. So in a way, I had permission and a reason to shoot. That made me feel much better and bolder about doing so. Although it wasn't my first attempt at street photography, it was the first one where I felt comfortable enough to approach people.

Most regular folks seemed confused but also a bit shy that I wanted to take pictures of them, but I wanted to capture something of the left-ish atmosphere of the place (it's an organic foods type market). I asked for permission from the first couple here but the second were just snapped.





The market traders didn't seem to be in the slightest bit bothered and carried on about their business.

(note the people in the background who seem to be watching me - I guess I wasn't as discrete as I thought!)






By the time I left, I was absolutely buzzing and couldn't wait to take more pictures around the city. It certainly helped to increase my confidence in taking pictures of people, and will help me as I seek to learn more about this fascinating artform.

disclaimer - these are DSLR pics (boo! hiss! lol!), but I needed the results to be available quickly.

 

[Matt White]

Hi, folks. I'm new to RFF, but I thought I'd share my recent attempt to overcome the fear factor in street photography. I'm mainly a landscapes, wildlife and architecture kind of person - partly because I've always been quite shy about asking strangers if I can take their picture, and nervous about the potential confrontations if I shoot without asking.

So for the past couple of weeks I've been out and about without any film in my camera, just walking around behaving as if I was taking pictures of as many people as I could. The idea of having no film was that I could deal with a confrontation by saying something like: "It's a new camera. I'm just testing the exposure setting, focusing and handling. I didn't notice you in the frame. Terribly sorry. Look, there's not even a film in the camera."

Having that escape route gave me more confidence than I have previously been able to muster in just using the camera openly in the street. I have been able to test different styles and approaches to shooting. And probably the most significant thing for me is that, in openly taking hundreds of non-photos, not one person said or did anything hostile or aggressive. I've had a few puzzled or slightly awkward looks, quite a lot of smiles, and a few pleasant snippets of conversation, but mostly people just didn't notice, or they ignored me. I haven't had to use my pre-prepared explanation at all.

I now have film loaded again and have been shooting for real. It's not quite as easy with a loaded camera; and it's too early to say the exercise has been a complete success, since I don't have much of a collection of real images to show. But still I feel a lot more confident than a month ago. And I can always go back to no film and work out different working methods if the confidence wavers. The only regret I have now is from the thought of all those shots I didn't get because of the absence of film.