Street Photography Do's and Don't's

[jan normandale]

my two cents;

I usually take my shots with my camera very evident to all around me. I take the shots as if it were nothing other than normal behaviour. Some people come and ask me what I'm doing. I'm usually glad to tell them and they are usually interested. It works for me. A lot of people take cameras where they probably are invasive, as a photographer I use a rule if I wouldn't appreciate a camera in this place then why would I take shots here. Typically theatres, restaurants, stores, etc.

Like most I have had confrontations; but like Toby I find that most situations are emotionally aggravating but physically safe. I have had more ‘physical excitement’ in bars than in the street taking pictures.

I find being open, approachable and engaging works best for me. I use my smile a lot. It’s my first ‘weapon of choice’. Talking to the person is my next step. The others have already been covered in this thread, except Bill’s which I had never thought of. But he is way more original than most.

 

[bmicklea]

I just started doing some street photography and can echo the advice above of not hiding and remembering to smile a lot. I'm a little guy which helps in that I think a lot of people figure I'm a poor student (I always dress down when shooting).

However, I don't take pictures of street people, drunks or anyone who seems a little off without first asking them - it's amazing how often people will agree. In the case of street people I'll give them a little money before I start shooting ($2-5). This also works with my style in that I like it when people are looking at the camera.

The last and most important rule I learned while traveling, but I believe it also applies to street photography: Trust your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe stop and retreat. I've shot in some very dodgy places (though not with axe-wielding maniacs) and felt very safe but once high-tailed it out of the Toronto subway when a group of drunk 20-something suits started getting a little too beligerent in their questions about what I was doing...

 

[hoot]

Same here... I find that a friendly smile is always disarming. Respect the people you shoot. 😀 Ever since I started to be less sneaky, I've had a lot less trouble (i.e., none). And while dressing down is a good idea, I find that sometimes, dressing *up* is even better. Suspenders ("braces" for you British) and a newsboy cap go well with an old camera, and people are so charmed by the quaintness of it all that they sometimes ask if they can buy the photos.

 

[Toby]

Same here... I find that a friendly smile is always disarming. Respect the people you shoot. 😀 Ever since I started to be less sneaky, I've had a lot less trouble (i.e., none). And while dressing down is a good idea, I find that sometimes, dressing *up* is even better. Suspenders ("braces" for you British) and a newsboy cap go well with an old camera, and people are so charmed by the quaintness of it all that they sometimes ask if they can buy the photos.

Maybe you should get a job in a theme park Mr Hoot 😀 😀

 

[simonankor]

Use an old camera 😉 The older and quirkier, the better. When using a TLR, I had a lot of people just come up and talk to me, because they were amazed such an "ancient" camera still worked! The same applies to old Leica threadmounts and copies - people assume you're just too poor to get a new camera sometimes 🙂

My only angry response was one guy who came up to me when I was taking photos of street scenes around here and asked "How dare you take my photo without asking me!?".

I was feeling a bit belligerent myself, so I said "How dare you walk into my shot!?"... his attitude changed completely and he admitted to having been "a bit of an idiot"!

 

[jan normandale]

quote simonankor ..... I said "How dare you walk into my shot!?"... his attitude changed completely.....

I have usually had to 'roll my eyes' in exasperation when that occured now I have a backup response for the confrontational passersby. I like it.

 

[simonankor]

You're quite welcome to use it, Jan 😉 Just send my royalties by cheque 😀

 

[kiev4a]

Same here... I find that a friendly smile is always disarming. Respect the people you shoot. 😀 Ever since I started to be less sneaky, I've had a lot less trouble (i.e., none). And while dressing down is a good idea, I find that sometimes, dressing *up* is even better. Suspenders ("braces" for you British) and a newsboy cap go well with an old camera, and people are so charmed by the quaintness of it all that they sometimes ask if they can buy the photos.

If you are sneaky, some people will think you are being sneaky for a reason. I'm not a big believer in "street shooting" unless it's a public event where people should expect they might be photographed, but I always make it very clear that I have a camera and go about my business with a smile and acting like I would be shocked if someone took offense at my activities.

Someone mentioned having pepper spray hanging on you camera strap. I think your just sending a message "I'm looking for and expect a confrontation." Might as well just carry a Glock in a shoulder holster🙂

 

[jan normandale]

You're quite welcome to use it, Jan 😉 Just send my royalties by cheque 😀

I can't afford the postage to down under! But I'll buy you a pinta if you come to Toronto, how about that?

Jan

 

[simonankor]

Well Jan, I'll let you know if I'm ever just passing through!

If only a holiday like that were likely. Ah well, no rest for the wicked! 😀

 

[Erl]

When last in East Germany, I had some fantastic light for some of the pics I stumbled across. I had just left a gallery with works by some artisans situated in a derelict dump yard. I actually stumbles across the dump and started taking pics. I was shortly confronted by 5 or 6 or 7 'thugs' claiming I could not take pics here. I rejoined by saying I just had, so what is the problem. They demanded my film, or risk my life and camera. I calculated all the other pics on the roll (valuable to me), and decided I could retrace my steps and re-shoot most of it. In the light of weapons produced, I begrudgingly removed the film from my camera and ceremoniously pulled it all from the cassette and held it up to them saying, "see, their is nothing of you or your's on it and threw it at them.

I then deliberately turned my back and crouched down over my camera bag and proceeded to to subversively load another film. I then did a series of 'ankle shots' with the camera pointing backwards in an attempt to capture ID pics of them. The resulting pics showed them walking away with one looking back over his shoulder. I never looked back. I shook for some considerable time. I still feel cheated, because the light was not as good for the re-shoot that followed.

In retrospect, I lived.

 

[dmr]

I wonder if it's an advantage or disadvantage to be a female street shooter. I'm thinking maybe people would be less inclined to do violence? Or at least less suspicious of her?

I'm not really what I would call a "street shooter" although I do a lot of urban scenes and night scenes and such. For the most part I tend to live and let live and I try to respect peoples' privacy. I seldom make a stranger the subject of a photo. (Ironically, even though I'm an avid photographer, I'm somewhat shy about having my own picture taken. It seems like I always look old, stoned, or like I'm having a bad hair day.)

I'm having a hard time remembering of any incident where I've been asked by anybody to not take their photo, or being told in the past tense that somebody didn't want their photo taken. The closest I've come is having a transit maintenance employee tell me it was forbidden to photograph in subway stations (I know this was not the case, I had read the service bulletin about it but I did not argue) and last week when I started to aim my camera inside the Westward Ho Casino (it is soon closing) and a guard asked me, very nicely, to not take any photos indoors.

More times than I can count I've had third parties tell me that certain things were off limits to photography, but I've never been confronted in the first person. Buildings, bridges, the Las Vegas Monorail, and even the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park in Chicago.

There are only 2 times I can remember when I didn't feel safe or comfortable street shooting. One was when I was back in high school and took some photos of homeless people for a school project. I had by brother and his friend both with me just in case. My parents had a cow (YOU DID WHAT?????!!!!!) when they found out. 🙂 The other time was recently in Las Vegas when I was venturing a couple blocks off the main part of downtown and a wino started giving me dirty looks. I quickly ducked into the side entrance of a casino. 🙁

Oh well, enough ranting on and on for tonite. 🙂

 

[richiedcruz]

If you are sneaky, some people will think you are being sneaky for a reason. I'm not a big believer in "street shooting" unless it's a public event where people should expect they might be photographed, but I always make it very clear that I have a camera and go about my business with a smile and acting like I would be shocked if someone took offense at my activities.

Someone mentioned having pepper spray hanging on you camera strap. I think your just sending a message "I'm looking for and expect a confrontation." Might as well just carry a Glock in a shoulder holster🙂

Yes, I know that pepper spray displayed on a strap can be a bit extreme, and I rarely bother. But, being asian, I do not always blend in all that well in all places, even in California. There are just some places where having a camera of any kind draws the same kind of attention, and, since I aways have some in my pocket, putting it where people can see it just makes my life that much easier. 😉

Richie

 

[ch1]

As a fellow GAS sufferer, I recently received my CLA'd Yashica Lynx 14e back from Mark Hama, and immediately left for Philadelphia with several roles of Provia 100. I'm an admirer of Winogrand. I love the angles in his images. Anyway, as I normally do, I was walking through Center City shooting away when I was suddenly spun around from behind and slammed into the wall of a pharmacy I was standing in front of by a beefy, younger gentleman who demanded that I give him my film. I normally always try to get images of people from the back where possible, and tried to explain this to the young man. His response was to reach for my camera's lens.

Thanks to Uncle Sam's tutelage some thirty years ago, I was able to assist the young man to a horizontal position on the sidewalk. At which point Philadelphia's finest arrived. They witnessed my assault, and apparently knew my assailant.

Rather than dwell on the particulars of the incident, I would be very interested in whether any of you have had uncomfortable or similarly scary experiences out there!

I always carry releases with me, but rarely need them as I am an amateur, and do not take many frontal shots. Are there any do's or don't's I may be missing. I look forward to your thoughts and advice. Thanks in advance..

You were in Philly, right?

Except perhaps for Buffalo, Philly is the most unredeemed, decayed and worthless northeastern city in the US.

Point of fact - it has almost no immigrants (legal or undocumented)! No one who wants to achieve a future for his/her family will go there. The place is the "pits".

If you ride the train down to there from NYC you will go through miles and miles of abandoned urban wasteland. Twenty-five years ago it was just the miles of "bombed-out" factories (which said something about the lack of remaining job-base). Then, about a decade and a half ago it was obvious that the abandonment and decay had spread throughout northeastern Philly including the residential communities.

Well, as if that wasn't enough, to the west, the one time "fancy" neighborhoods of Chestnut Hill and Germantown have turned into "looser lands" where no one who could do better would stay to live. Successful people have long since "sprawled" out of Philly and keep going farther and farther away from it.

Meanwhile, Philly continues to "cling" to Center City as its "attraction" along with U-Penn district. Motion pics like the "Rocky" series and the presence of Independence Hall with the Liberty Bell have helped to "mask" the reality of Philly's decay.

Oh yes, now the latest real estate "tout" here in the US northeast is that Philly is about to be happening!

This seems to be predicated on the fact that there is no place left that is as or more godforsaken and so, having achieved "rock bottom" in urban decay, Philly is now all "upside" from here! Sounds like R/E broker "hype" to me!

You are lucky you weren't killed - be glad for that and stay the hell out of Philly - it's a dump!

Regards,
George
(a NYC'er - the Northeastern US city we did save!!!!) 😉

 

[SolaresLarrave]

How about South Philly? It's a colorful place to shoot... At least I wish the day I was there had been nicer and sunnier.

BTW, I'm partial to Geno's too! 🙂

 

[jano]

Smiling and good intentions help.. as does knowing obscure languages. Last year while visiting montreal, I gave myself courage by speaking slovak to people, pointing at my camera, pointing at them, and asking to take their photo. Works great with the girls, and actually saved me from a fight against these guys who walked into my frame and noticed I took their picture (had I yelled in english, there probably would have been a fight with the twerps getting their butts kicked by by me 😀)

 

[CleverName]

I do most of my "street shooting" in a bar. I'm a regular there and most people expect to see me with a camera. I usually shoot the band, but I'll take any shot that presents itself.

I was on the street once taking photos of the Skelly Building, an art deco building that was slated for demolition (there is a beautiful parking lot on that site now 😡 ) I was there on a weekday afternoon when there are acutally a few people in downtown Tulsa. I had my GSN around my neck and a Canon FTb on a tripod with a telephoto lens. I have never felt like such an outcast. Everyone who walked by gave me a dirty look. The few people who asked what I was doing were generally pleasant and concerned when I told them the building was going to be torn down.

Now my scary story. After the bar closed one night I still had about half a roll of 3200, so I thought I'd walk around downtown and take some shots at 2:00am (first mistake). I was walking around, looking for shots, kinda in a daze, not really paying attention to my surroundings (second mistake). I had just clicked a couple of shots then heard a guy yell, "Hey, man!" I looked over and three guys were approaching from across the street. I did what any sensible person would have done. I turned around and ran as fast as I could. I don't know if they followed me, I didn't look, I just ran.

I've also been known to sneak a few shots at somebody elses photo shoot. Probably not ethical, but I've got a thing for redheads. 😀
(not a professional, just a mom with a P&S)