I've been taking an online course in street photography. I'm having fun, and I have to admit - it's really hard! Hard to take a picture of a complete stranger from a few feet away, hard to make an interesting image. I'm used to having the majority of my lifestyle and posed portrait images be good - enough from a session to fill an album with. Apparently among street photographers, a hit ratio better than two per hundred is considered doing pretty good.

I'm planning on moving into wedding photography, and I've enjoyed looking at the work of street photographers like Garry Winogrand for a long time, so I figured this class would be good for me - help me better capture "the decisive moment" (to quote Henri Cartier-Bresson - probably the best-known street photographer) and help me overcome my shyness when photographing strangers. I'll be walking down the street through a crowd of people, see an interesting image, and my inner introvert takes over and I never raise the camera to my eye. Ugh! I'm such a chicken! I can't let myself do that at a wedding, and doing this is helping me overcome that fear.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from my three class assignments so far. Comments and critiques are welcome.






If you want to see some work by some established street photographers (and not just a newbie like myself), check out iNPUBLiC.

Good stuff Aaron. I like street photography but hardly do it anymore. I shot a couple of rolls of 120 in San Francisco's Chinatown the last time my wife hosted a baby shower. I got them developed and like a few of them, but haven't done anything with them because I haven't scanned them in yet! Funny how digital changes things.

Of the ones you put up I like the 2nd one (girl with trumpet) and the last one because of the bearskin and the 'go play outside' sign.

I think you'll find parallels between wedding photography and street photography. In some ways wedding photography is easier because you HAVE to be assertive and take people's pictures...AND they are expecting you to. Most people really want to be in the pictures.

On the other hand, in street photography you never HAVE to show to anybody and you don't HAVE to get certain shots.

I used to walk around with my D70 around my neck with my tourist (18-70) lens set to hyperfocus. My other hand held the remote shutter release. So I would hold the camera on the bottom and aim casually then snap the shutter with the other hand. Most people never even knew I took their picture. Sometimes at weddings to get a more candid look I'll do the same thing with the vertical shutter release.

Thanks for posting this.

~rc

Thanks for the compliment!

My instructor specifically told us to raise the camera to our eye - it makes it more challenging not to be noticed, though. Making it even tougher, I'm shooting with a 20d - that shutter is pretty loud compared to others. Then, I have a monster of a 20 1.8 stuck on the front - with an 82mm filter size, it looks HUGE! I'd like a Leica, but the M8 is so danged expensive! Maybe someday.....

I'm really working on not being noticed - although one of my favorite shots is #4 above, where the girl is staring at the camera, and I think it makes the shot. In public, I think people look at you weird when they see you taking their picture, because they're not expecting it. At a wedding, I'm assuming that people are expecting you to photograph them, and I'm afraid they'll put on their camera face.