Street Photography: An In-Depth and Complete Guide

1. CHAPTER 1: Introduction: If you want to be inspired and are hungry to learn the in depth ins and outs of street photography, and save yourself the years and years of time that it typically takes to, bit by bit acquire all the knowledge and experience that it takes to confidently and consistently create powerful, meaningful street photographs. Then this is the course for you. The art of street photography has given me so much unexpected wisdom and helped me aim my passion for life towards something tangible, something that I can revisit. And it can be such an eye opening thing to be a part of. So I wanted to adopt the responsibility of making this course, making it as insightful as humanly possible. And sharing every single thing I've learned in street photography. Deep dive on all the practical tips and tactics and techniques to making great work. We'll talk about all the philosophies of the craft, the problems you'll encounter on the street, all the different photographic styles and approaches you can explore, and why it's useful to dip your toe in those different pools. We'll unpack some incredible work from great photographers, picking apart why and how so many varied styles and approaches can somehow all be equally as powerful, but in different ways. We'll talk about gear, all the tech tips you need to know and how to find the right set up for you based on your specific interests. We'll take a look at where and how street documentary and photo journalism differ and where they overlap. And we'll explore how integrating other genres, sometimes like portrait and landscape, can help your street photographs and take them to the next level. It's my intention to teach you how to be one step ahead of life in the sense of being able to predict what will happen photographically. And how to put yourself in exactly the right place to be able to capture those fascinating once in a lifetime moments. We'll talk about all the nuanced ways that you can improve and refine your storytelling skills at every step of the process, all the way through to editing, printing, and bookmaking. There are so many more topics that we dig right into in this guide. It will be everything you need to know and more. But the bottom line is, if you are deeply passionate about this craft like I am, and you want to fast track your learning journey, dial up your confidence in the craft and start making the work you know you can make. Then let's do it. By the end of this course, you'll be able to show yourself and the world how you see the world. You will be well and truly on your way to finding and expressing your own unique artistic voice. You will be so inspired and excited by street photography that you'll be bursting at the scenes to get out there and explore the world with your camera and start capturing timeless moments. I'm ready if you are. 2. Class Overview & Definition: Hello everybody and welcome to this street photography guide. Thanks for joining me. I'm Troy Baird. I'll be your instructor and I'm truly so damn excited to have you here. I really can't wait to fully dive into some of the things we're going to discuss and share with you everything you need to know about street photography. I won't harp on too much in this introduction. I just wanted to drop in and get the ball rolling by saying hello and thank you for being here. Some of us might already know each other through the Instagram community. I'm at Troy, please. So if we're already acquainted online, that is awesome. But if not, feel free to chime in and say hi or ask me any questions that might pop up as you make your way through this guide. It makes me so happy that there are people out there just as excited about street photography as I am. I find the street community so interesting and so much fun to be a part of. So I'm glad to be chinwagging with some of you here today chatting about the craft. I'll introduce myself and each topic in a bit more depth later on. So I'll keep this introduction brief for now. I say we just get started. Let's talk about street photography. That's why we're here easily. My biggest passion, how do you even define it? Well, street photography is a strange genre of photography and it's a little difficult to define because it's always growing as different people add their voice to the conversation, which is what makes it so exciting. It's often a mix between a lot of different types of photography. Imagine if you bundle together the styles and approaches of photo journalism. Portraiture, Paparazzi, abstract, landscape, architectural, wildlife, sport, still life, self portraiture and fashion photography all into one, but aimed to your lens mostly at candid human ongoings. That to me is street photography. That's a messy way to describe it. Perhaps a simpler way to describe it is by describing it more in relation to your approach. As in, if you are trying to show daily life in a public space with a documentary style approach, then you're probably doing street photography. It's a tricky one to define and we'll chip away at it over the course of this guide. But there are a few loose definitions to start with. 3. Why is Street Photography so Appealing?: H Street photography is becoming more and more popular of a pastime as the years go on, and that begs the question, why does it appeal to so many people? Well, I have a few ideas of why it interests people, and here are a few of those reasons. First of all, I think our world and everything in it is so fascinating. And even if it's only on an instinctual level for some, I think we all know that. And so, to be able to bottle up some of that seems to be a satisfying activity for a lot of us. People have been trying to capture it as long as art and storytelling have been around. There just seems to be something about depicting or expressing or understanding or sharing what we saw or what we felt that feels really compelling and important to us, whether it's through sketching or sculpting, or painting or writing or speaking or filmmaking, or any other storytelling method, we just seem to keep doing it. Another reason that street photography might be appealing to so many people could be that since photography has come along and grown into outstanding popularity so quickly in relation to the history of humankind, perhaps it just excites people to be able to be a part of that, to be a part of that story and that upward trajectory of intrigue and popularity around photography. And to be able to capture some of those once in a lifetime moments is quite frankly, exhilating. It's like, you know how everybody stops and looks and crowds around when something unbelievable or unexpected happens on the street? It's because they're curious, right? Because they don't get to see that thing, that surprising thing very often. Well, another way you could describe parts of street photography is just the deliberate search for that feeling for that experience. Also oozes authenticity for the most part because it's real life. Of course, there's an artistic spin on it, but when you look at a street photograph, you can usually be assured that Whoa, that actually happened or, wow, something in the world looks like that naturally, basically almost kind of, because it's not staged, right? For sure, the artist may have taken some creative liberty in leaving a key piece of information out of the frame that doesn't interest them in the moment, and maybe that changes the context of what you're looking at in the photograph. But for the most part, what you're looking at did look that way from whatever unique angle and perspective the photo was taken from. Doesn't quite allow you to draw concrete conclusions on what happened next or what happened beforehand or even what is happening in this photo. But it does describe visually what it looked like through that narrow bandwidth of life that is the visual experience of the photographer who made the exposure. And that's one big reason that I love it because it opens my eyes to life. Through the active photographer, you will learn how to see. The writer Susan Sontag says, To collect photographs is to collect the world. To be able to say, I saw that, I saw all of those ingredients come together. As unlikely as it seems it happened, that concept seems to slot perfectly into our storyteller nature as humans. All we do is tell stories when we catch up with friends or family, all we do is tell stories, even if it's just pieces of stories. I saw this, I did that. You wouldn't believe this. You wouldn't believe that. When we sit around the campfire, we tell stories. Movies are stories, books are stories, podcasts are stories. We can't help it. Everywhere we go, there are stories. We're natural storytellers. It's how we hand down and pass on our collective knowledge. And I think photography and specifically street photography very much sits perfectly into that process. Photography is the quickest way to tell a story. Books and films and songs tell a story over the course of time, but photography is unique in that it is able to communicate so much in so little time. It honestly baffles me how that classic quote a picture is worth 1,000 words never stops being true, and it continues to grow on me. I think it's a clue to why so many people love street photography because we all have something to say. A lot of the time, we have a lot to say, so to be able to just say it, to be able to express ourselves, to be understood, to convey what our experience is, to show our ideas, to tell our story with our photographs, it is liberating. Street photography is such a beautiful tool to tell our stories in a wonderful new way, and people seem to find that really exciting to be a part of. I think it's also the quickest genre of photography to enter into. You don't need fancy gear or an elaborate photography studio or funding or a client or a cast of models or a groundbreaking idea or to hike up a mountain to get started. You just need to step outside your front door with your camera and you've already begun. Doesn't mean you'll be world class right off the bat, but you can find your voice or your niche rather quickly. And for people who feel creatively inclined, finding a way to express your ideas and the way you see the world is a very uplifting notion. One thought that comes to mind is I was doing a master class with Martin Scorsese, the film director, and I feel like something he said seems to apply to street photography or photography in general, really, in relation to filmmaking, he emphasized, only do this if you feel compelled to do it. He said, only if it truly calls you, if you feel you must do it, only then should you. And Frederick Bekner, the American writer, once said, Your calling is the place where your deep joy and the world's deep hunger collide. And I take that as there can be no greater thing to strive for than something that you truly enjoy and find meaningful that also transforms the world around you for the better. The world is hungry for that type of experience. People are hungry for that, and we will consume it in a good way if you offer it up. Obviously, that all sounds like pretty big talk, and you might be thinking, I'm just here to have some fun. And for sure, you might need to dip your toe in for a fair while to even be able to realize if you feel compelled to that degree. But once you start, if you fall in love with this craft, if you're constantly roped in by it, if you find yourself looking up photographers work or flicking through photobooks about it or watching movies about it, or if you find yourself daydreaming, wishing you had your camera at all times, if you see something, and all you can think is, Dam, I wish I caught that moment. Then dive headfirst into this and you won't regret it. The late Gary Winegran, a street photographer, who you might already know, quite eloquently said, I photograph things to see what they look like when photographed. So simple, but it's completely on point. If you lead with that type of curiosity and passion, this craft will satisfy the hell out of you. And at the same time as satisfying the hell out of you, you'll also inject a big dose of passion and joy and love and all that good stuff into a world that really needs it. 4. Why Do It?: There are lots of reasons why it's an interesting genre, art craft, but why do it yourself? Why not just be an audience member? Well, I've got to start somewhere with the list of reasons. But any of the reasons feel just as good as the next. Firstly, it gives you a front row seat to life. It gives you a reason to enter the room. If you want to see what it looks like inside a boxing gym, say just walk in with your camera and have a look. If someone comes up to you, you might need to say, hey, oh yeah, I saw the sunlight glaring through the window and I just wanted to see what it looks like in here. It reminds me of a movie. I thought I might snap a few photographs. And people will typically respect that You're just curious and you actually have a purpose. Honestly, a lot of the time people dislike that you're showing an interest in something they're doing. Who cares if you end up with a good photo in there or not? The point is it takes you to places that you were curious about that might have felt a bit funny to go into without the internal reason of I'm doing photography. So you end up having these great experiences. Much more immersed in something that you otherwise might be, like a rodeo show or the thin alleyways of a small village. Or it might even just get you to explore your neighborhood a bit better. It wakes you up so many things typically go unnoticed in life. But there's so much to see. All the wonderful details, the moments, the beautiful coincidences slipping in and out of existence. Something happens, it's there for a moment, and the next minute it's gone, and it will never happen in that specific way again. And even if it doesn't seem that special, the fact that it will never happen again is inherently special. And you saw it, you might have even made a great photograph of it. So it's just that joy of being really involved in your life, being interested, noticing the details, bringing that right to the forefront of your experience of life. Another thing is don't do it for money. This will likely not pay. Although there are a few narrow pathways to making some money from it, it's not a gold rush by any stretch of the imagination. And it might seem like there are a handful of successful street photographers from the previous generation. But from what I can gather, most of them made their living from working with magazines, whether it was photo journalism, or fashion, or portraiture or something else like writing, or curating, or teaching, or something in a different field completely that paid the bills and allowed them to be entirely passionate about the art, rather than obliged to do it for money. Typically, a lot of the people you will come to admire made all their incredible personal work just for the love of it, mostly on their own time. And I think that's the best approach. This craft is a way to learn about yourself and life and the world. That's why you need to follow your own interests. When you're out there shooting, Follow your gut, follow your instincts. Because when you look back, if you just emulated a bunch of other photographers work, you might not feel that proud of your work because you don't see yourself in it. You don't quite identify with it completely because the idea didn't come from you. I've made this mistake And it's quite deflating when you realize you haven't actually created anything new. Of course, there's an amount of emulation following in someone's footsteps trying to learn that skill that you can see someone else nailing. There's an amount of that that needs to be done in the sense that you need to learn. You can do that thing through harnessing things you've seen in other people's work like a technique or an idea. But essentially you need to try and use those experiences of emulation as a training ground, a place of inspiration that you can come and go from whenever you see fit. But then try and push through that into new areas of unexplored territory for yourself to find your own voice. And then if you are able to find new territory, you might be able to be that inspiration for others. And that's such a valuable asset and gift to be able to pass on to others. But if you don't do that, you just operate in a bit of an emulation land. You risk not learning much about yourself in the end. And learning about yourself and gathering some of that more useful life lesson esque, zoomed out. Philosophical wisdom is one of the greatest rewards for being involved in this art form. In the sense that in the attempt to learn more about photography, you actually just learn more about life. And truly, as time goes on, you realize it's so much less about the work, so much more about what your experience was and what you learned about life and yourself along the way. So my advice is to not rob yourself of that by doing things like emulating other artists too hard, or even just grinding too hard and burning yourself out for outcomes you don't even really value. One reason that I shoot street photography is because the experience is an interesting mix between thoughtfulness, mindfulness, almost meditatively, kind of grooving with it, and then the excitement of the spontaneousness of everything. You know, you walk around, you get in the zone and as funny as it sounds, you're really in tune with the streets. You're predicting things, moving your body, you're sniping interesting little human moments, finding emotions or connections between people, telling stories. You're creating art on the fly. It's a really good headspace you can get into, at least for me. And you can find yourself drifting off and thinking about life and other people's experiences rather deeply like. That was a strange thing to see someone. Do I wonder why he or she did that? Why do they stop in the middle of the road like that? Or why do they yell spontaneously? What's going on in their life? That this person is behaving this way. Then something else will happen and you'll be surprised by life again, and you start thinking about something else. And on and on it goes and the world keeps spinning. And it's just this meditative, thoughtful, just deep experience of being so present that you're seeing all these things for what they are. You might shoot street just simply because you want to remember how things looked throughout your life. There are plenty of photographers whose interests are more so around creating historical documents, photographs that simply acknowledge how things were at a certain point in time. With, of course, unavoidably an inherent amount of artistic taste and consideration involved. But with the main purpose to record history, that's just as valid as any other reason to shoot street. One of the core reasons to shoot street is because it gives you a vessel in which to be engaged in your life. You start to see things in a way you've never seen them before. You start to see everything a little more artistically. You start to see how everything fits together and how one person's behavior affects the whole scene. If you've always wanted to be an artist, but you could never paint or draw or play an instrument, Street photography will show you how you can create art with the world around you. You're a photographic sculptor and everything, including people, the clay. And you get to meet some of those people. Conversations strike up and you learn interesting things. You don't have to engage so vocally. But if you're an extravert, you might enjoy that possibility. I go through phases where I take more of an inward reserved approach and others where I'm more chatty and outgoing. You can just do you, but you wouldn't believe the people you meet and what you hear like for example, these two had been engaged for eight years and were finally tying the knot. This guy turned out to be an ex world champion surfer. This elephant is this boy's best friend. And he told me that he comes down every day to bathe with him. This is the first pair of shoes that this man has bought for himself in 15 years. The owner of these dogs told me that he bought this little remote control car to drive them around, just purely to bring people and his dogs joy. He hangs way back in the wake and almost anonymously drives them around just to spread some happiness and laughter. Another reason is that it's just time to yourself. Sometimes you might be with others, but usually if you're out to shoot, the majority of it is solo time, time spent just putting foot to pavement, getting some lighthearted exercise. And it's meaningful because you're learning. You're expanding your domain of competence. And there are goals attached. You know, your artistic goals, your storytelling goals. Well, just if you want to learn more about a certain topic and you use photography as your tool to enter that world, it helps you get closer to that goal. Dr. Jordan Peterson, the clinical psychologist, talks about how it's good to have something to aim for, because positive emotion is mostly generated by evidence that you're moving towards something you value. It's not generated so much by accomplishing something, because once you accomplish something, you're just left with the problem of what you're going to do next. So you'll feel that positivity when you move towards those goals you have that you set for yourself in street photography. And I definitely find that street photography gives a really great outlet for that type of unfinishable, yet somehow enormously satisfying goal oriented growth. If you can identify what some of those values or interests are, you can move towards them more intentionally, right? And what a liberating self discovery it is when you realize this specific thing makes me feel good, right? I know we've all had that feeling and you can get it all the time. In photography for me, I realized I love capturing nostalgic visuals. And so whenever I open up a new way of exploring that phenomena, whether it's if I find a location that feels nostalgic to me, or if I create a nostalgic feeling with a strange piece of gear, or adding a physical approach like a movement or slow shutter speed for example, or a certain style of editing, or whatever it is. If I feel like it's making me feel nostalgic, I'll feel a surge of positive emotion. I'm moving towards that thing I value because I'm learning how to unlock and access and capture that feeling that I love more effectively and it fills me up. You're putting in time to improve yourself in something you care about. You're getting incrementally wiser, exploring how you see and experience the world around you. And it's fun. The process is fun. The way life unfolds is so incredibly beautiful. It's just a joy to be there for it. It's the adult version of a child's playground out there. So go and get amongst it. Snap away. Don't worry about the results just yet. Just enjoy being in the sandpit. Because if you don't enjoy yourself in this life, what's the point? It's about the journey, as cliche as it sounds, it's about finding enjoyment and meaning with where your interests and lessons take you mentally and physically. So don't fixate on the potential outcomes or consequences because you'll be living in the future in that sense and life will pass you by. Don't craft your experience around everyone else's expectations or what you think you should do based on what has already been done, or what's being done now, or what the market wants or blah, blah, blah. Just strip it back to you. Remove all of that noise from the process. It's good to have dreams, but don't let yourself get deflated when life takes you towards those dreams slower than expected or in a different way than imagined, just go with it. If you do it authentically and you shoot, what honestly interests you. Photography will reveal who you are and what you love. Someone once said, if you want to know what someone loves, watch what they photograph. So get out there and photograph what you love and what interests you, and see what you find, and see what you become, and find out who you are. 5. What is the Goal of This Project?: The main goal of this guide is to get you inspired and to help anyone who is interested in street photography to find and refine their own artistic voice. I'll try and give you tools and ideas that will hopefully open your mind and get you thinking about your own work and where you want to go with it or what you're trying to say. And to inform you with some tips and personal experiences on the street. To express what I've learned on my own street photography journey so far, and hopefully pass that on in a way that people can find useful and meaningful. There is no dedicated film school or art school type experience that teaches street photography yet, And although there are other online courses and lots of online content about the genre, personally none of my experiences with those things so far have offered a complete overview of every single thing you need to know or want to know. As you're delving further and further into the craft. Usually it's more so just pockets of information you're digging out bit by bit. So I wanted to consolidate all that information and knowledge and put it in one place in a structured, informative, inspiring way for you to watch and enjoy. This craft has given me so much unexpected wisdom and helped me aim my passion for life towards something tangible, something that I can revisit too. And it can be such a meditative and eye opening thing to be a part of. So I wanted to adopt the responsibility of sharing what I've learned so far in photography and specifically street photography as a means of expression, a pathway to learn about yourself, and a way to experience and see the world in a broader way. I want to get you to consider why you love street photography in particular. Why do you do it? What is it specifically about street photography that you enjoy that interests you? And by the end, I'm hoping your sense of why is deeper, more informed, more comprehensive and inspired. Which will hopefully help you hone your craft even further in a way that excites you and makes you want to go out and shoot. Whether you already shoot a fair bit of street photography and you simply need to reignite your spark. Or perhaps you're at a dead end with your photography and want to try a new genre. I don't know exactly where you're at in that regard or what skill level you're at, but by the end of this guide, the goal is to have you feeling inspired, geared up with loads of new ideas, more knowledge, and just an overall excitement to get out there. I want you to be bursting at the scenes with eagerness to just go and explore the world with your camera. We're going to talk in depth about all the ins and outs from practical tips and tactics and techniques to philosophies of the craft, to tech tips and settings. And what to expect on the street to exploring different styles and approaches. And how to find your voice. How to put your emotion into your work. We'll look at street photography examples and unpack them And discuss in detail all types of problems and scenarios that you'll encounter when your photographic style meets the spontaneity of the street. We'll look at lots of incredible work from great photographers and discuss why it's compelling. We'll talk about bookmaking, printing, and dig into loads of ways to find inspiration when you're stuck with your work. We'll talk about gear and editing, and finally, the future of street photography. When you're talking about any art form, it's always going to be subjective. So perhaps not everything will apply to you, but if you found your own way of doing things, that's incredible. And in fact, that's the purpose of this guide, is to help street photographers do exactly that. To help find their own unique artistic voice, and to offer suggestions on how to refine that voice as it changes and evolves. I'll do my best to accommodate as wide a variety of skill levels as possible. In the sense that any ideas or topics that seem like they're for advanced tutors, hopefully those topics land in the zone of proximal development for intermediate tutors where it's a bit out of their depth or not quite practical yet, but they're hungry to learn and expand anyway. And then hopefully any intermediate based ideas or topics serve both as really helpful for the intermediate shooters while also filling some blind spots for the advanced shooters. And hopefully all paths lead to inspiration. One important thing to remember though is that I'm still learning myself. We all are. I'm trying to have some fun here and pass on some helpful practical tips and philosophies and warnings, and tools, and knowledge and ideas, et cetera. And of course, you won't agree with everything, but that's half the fun of it. We're all in this together, adding to the conversation of photography and street photography in particular, I've thought a lot about the topics I'll present and spent a lot of time constructing the best way to describe it all. So the intention is to be as informative and useful as possible. But I'm also using this platform as an opportunity to help formulate my ideas and philosophies further because there's always more I can learn. And I just want to flag that I don't think by any means whatsoever that I know it all. Quite the contrary. In fact, in the pre production leading up to this project, I had a huge learning curve to make because I needed to do lots of additional research to map out some of my own creative blind spots. So that when it came the time to express my overall ideas to you, they were grounded and at least semi solid. Plus I'd never done a project so monstrous before, especially not one that I was literally featuring in. So anyways, I'm hoping you can just trust me on this journey, lean into the lessons with me and have some fun with it. I feel like there are so many avenues you can go down in street photography that it can be quite daunting at the beginning to start to even wrap your head around the genre and what you need to learn to even have a grip on it. I mean, it took me years before I even realized I was doing street photography. I was more into dramatic cinematic portraiture at the beginning, and I just happened to have my camera with me when I'd be walking around. And I'd seen moments on the street that looked right, so I'd snapped them. Then you realize there's a whole genre in that and you go radio. What's that all about then? And that's where the influx of information and inspiration starts flooding in. And it can be quite overwhelming when you start to see all the blogs and vlogs and books and films about technique and gear and style and editing and other artists work and all the intricate detail of opinion and history and blah, blah, blah, whatever. It just takes a long time to get up to speed. So I've consolidated everything here into this guide taken from hundreds of books on the craft, dozens of related movies, endless blogs, logs, online content pieces, and all the master classes you can think of all put to the test over years of experience of shooting on the street and distilled down to the key takeaways. And although it will be long, at least it won't take years. If you decide to bingewatch this, you'll be so far ahead of where you were yesterday, it will blow your feet mind. Or you might decide to watch it over the course of a few days or a few weeks. So that you can start to implement some of the things you're learning. That's for you to decide. But either way, thank you for joining me on this journey. I'm super keen to get into the nuts and bolts of it all and start unpacking some of the things that I know you'll be excited to learn about it. 6. Who Am I?: Let me zip through an introduction real quick and feel free to skip this section or fast forward if you're not interested. But it might be helpful just knowing who you're hearing from and my journey to hear. I'll show my photographs over the top of this personal introduction so you can get to know my work a little bit. And I'll of course, show my work all throughout the guide as well. So you're able to trust that I've experienced the lessons that I'm trying to pass on. And so that I can tamper with the photographs a bit, if necessary, to customize the lessons so that they're as insightful and descriptive as possible without running into any copyright issues. Okay, my name is Troy Baird, I'm from Australia. I grew up there, went to film school there, started my film career there. Then moved to Canada in 2018, and spent the pandemic in Canada. But now I live in London, England. I make my money from film directing, mostly in the documentary space. But originally, I started out making music videos and commercials in Sydney. This will be my longest project duration wise by a long shot. So I definitely expect to ride a pretty steep learning curve in the process of making this. But I'm excited. I'd say my street photography journey started after I had to drop out of Uni years and years ago due to a head injury. My mates and I were being total idiots using this weird new six wheeled skateboard called a freeboard behind my car. That's meant to feel like you're riding a snowboard, quite flowy and fluid. Long story short, I got picked up, I crashed and burned, smashed my head on the concrete, Instantly unconscious. My brain bounced from the back of my skull to the front of my skull and started bleeding, which is a big problem to say the least. And I was hospitalized. It almost goes without saying that I was out of commission for a hot minute, to put it lightly. Great bro, just wait buddy. The problem was I was way too perished to return to Uni for exams. And the heartbreaking part was that those particular classes I was taking in Uni weren't on until the following year. So I was going to have to wait nine months to even begin those courses again. And I was already more than halfway through them when I crashed. So to wait nine months to restart, then another six to complete the course, just to get back to where I was, which is merely a fraction of the overall degree. Yeah. So the whole time line didn't sit well with me. I hated the idea of wasting so much time, especially since I was finally out of high school and into Uni where I could at least craft, more or less choose what I wanted to learn. I had to take it really easy for three months while my brain healed, the huge internal bruise on the front of it. Next, as a surprise, my mom bought me a digital SLR camera and I started walking the streets with the local streets. Because I couldn't go very far with my injury, I had to kind of lay low. So I was taking photographs and making little films with this camera, this little nickon something, something. And then eventually, as I healed, I was heading into Sydney City to explore photography a bit more. Eventually, I got fed up with waiting to go back to Uni. And since I was studying media at Uni, mostly interested in filmmaking and screenwriting, I started looking into film schools that seemed logical, fast forward a few months and I got into film school and absolutely fell in love with it. It was in film school that I started shooting on the streets a bit more intentionally. Not that I knew I was doing street photography per se, but it's because that learning environment was all about visual storytelling. And since our short films barely had enough budget for decent production design, or even any real degree of impressive wardrobe design, I ended up realizing that the street delivered more interesting characters and set design that I could pay for or even imagine. Sometimes when I was nearly finished film school, I took a semester off and I did a big trip around Southeast Asia, all around Australia, all over the US. It was after slash during that trip that I knew I was all in. I was so excited by the world out there in front of my lens. I tried all kinds of cameras, always experimenting all genres of photography. Then went back, finished film school and out of film school, I got hired by a production company as a director, and they worked mostly with documentaries. So I went to Japan, India, Nepal, the Philippines, back to New York and to Europe on documentary projects for them. But I would delay my return flight for an extra week or so and just go and shoot and explore. And by then, I was so ******* feeling excited about photography that I was just shooting all the time. But to be honest, and some of you probably relate to this, I didn't even really know I was doing street photography. In fact, when I created my first website and tried to put my photos into categories so that people could see what I do, I didn't even really know how to categorize at all. The content of my portfolio was so odd and broad. Summer website had like nine categories and it was so dark and dramatic. Fast forward a little more. And I came to Canada because the film industry was quite healthy here. But in all reality, it did way more for my photographic world than my film directing. Because it just allowed me to explore more and more new territory and expand creatively. My four years in Canada were just back to back adventures between directing projects. I went all over Canada, all over the US again to Europe, to Cuba, to Mexico. I was buying photography books Like a Madman, going to the library for the ones I couldn't afford. I was watching anything I could find on the topic, soaking up as much as I could in order to take it more seriously. Then my work visa for Canada ran out, which was inevitable, and my girlfriend and I moved to England, where she's from, to begin the next chapter of life closer to Europe. Which excited the hell out of me because I don't know about you. But Europe definitely has my heart, especially because I come from such a young country like Australia. Being immersed in such rich histories and cultures really bodes well for me and my street photography passion. I think the takeaway for me in relation to street is that it's a journey. You'll go through, long winded learning phases. And then diverse chapters of exploring what interests you photographically. And sometimes it can take years before you even hit your stride or find your voice. So that's why I'm making this guide to help fast forward that learning journey, realization process for some of you out there. So that we can infuse as many inspired, unique, talented, passionate, and interesting voices into the street photography movement as possible. And take the genre into unexplored territory and unlock more of this art forms potential. Thanks for joining me for this introduction. I'm excited to dive into more dynamic topics and start chipping away bit by bit at all of the important, more practical points within this thing we call street photography. In our next section, next up, we're going to cover philosophies, practices and great street photographs with topics like thinking poetically and why it's helpful how to bring your emotion into your work. And why shooting in all weather the necessity of bravery and what makes a great street photograph. 7. CHAPTER 2: Philosophies, Practices & Great Street Photographs: Welcome to philosophies practices and great street photographs where we're going to talk about thinking poetically and why it's helpful how to bring your emotion into your work. And why shooting in all, whether the necessity of bravery and what makes a great street photograph. 8. What Makes a Great Street Photograph: What makes a great street photograph. I'm going to chip away at this question over the course of the guide in different ways because really that's the underlying question that we're attending to here. And it is, of course, subjective. But I thought I'd just get the ball rolling by spending a quick chunk of time to discuss some top level reasons that makes certain photographs work across a variation of styles. Unfortunately, I can't show the copyright work of all of my favorite photographers. In fact, I can't show their work on screen at all in this guide, or I'll get slammed. But I do have a plan for later on when I'm talking more specifically about each of the great street photographers independently. That will allow you to follow along with me with their work in front of you as I speak about what you can draw from their work, so don't fret. But with this particular section about single great photographs rather than bodies of work or artists in general, it breaks my heart to not be able to show specific photographs because I wrote an entire section referencing the juiciest famous photographs that I know you would have gotten so much out of. But I genuinely am just not allowed to show them. I have to keep it restricted to my work and that's bothersome, but I promise I will try my absolute best to show as diverse an array of work as possible that depicts the same lessons you would learn in the photographs that in an ideal world I would have shown. And in doing that, my goal is for you to get a gauge on what might be considered a great street photograph across a variation of different styles. And as I refer to those different styles, I'll briefly mention who of the great street photographers consistently used a similar style so that you can look them up if you fancy. The goal here in this section about what makes a great street photograph ultimately is to pass on the lessons that I've learned over the years based on my own personal experiences. Plus what I've learned by reading books from photographers. I admire and watching movies on the craft and having conversations with many other street photographers, as well as listening to podcasts and online content, et cetera, about what seems to constitute a great street photograph. This question of what makes a great street photograph and how to consistently make them yourself, really to reiterate, is what we're attending to across the entirety of the course by coming at it from many different angles and really investigating and unpacking the many different things that can make a street photograph. Great, so this section isn't intending to try to condense every single answer into one section, but more so to just get the ball rolling and start chipping away at the bigger picture. It almost sounds too basic to say in a single sentence, but I'd say the most common attribute of what are considered great street photographs, whether you're making them or viewing them made by someone else, is that they have a function, they do something significant, significant in the sense that it makes you think and feel in a way that transforms you. It doesn't have to be some groundbreaking transformation, just a transformation. It might make you curious or angry, or it might concern you. It might inspire you or frighten you, or excite you, or help you express yourself or make you wonder. It might even confuse you. It will make you think and feel. It's thought provoking. It might not make you think some eloquent philosophical thought, but it just makes you ponder it lingers. A great street photograph might challenge you and your audience's social views. It might make you and your potential audience understand things better. The information depicted might give you clues on how to function better in society. It might reveal something poetically or frankly that's important to you. It can inform, it might improve your social understanding or deepen your philosophy on something. It might promote the beauty of the world or the pain in the world in some strange way or a familiar way, or a new way. And remind you of how lucky you are to be here and be able to see anything at all. A great street photograph might deliver the world something it needed artistically. It might reveal something interesting to you. It's storytelling, it's the sharing of experience. A great street photograph is something that entertains or inspires. It helps you understand yourself and the world a little better, the same way that any other art form does, Like a film, or a painting, or a poem, or a novel. A great street photograph, when experienced, is something that means something to you or says something to you. A great street photograph is an idea, a thought. It's a piece of art made from the world itself. That doesn't mean it needs to be the most timeless piece of art that ever existed. Although it can be, it's just an acknowledgment that that artistic moment did happen. I said yes to it, and here's the evidence it exists. Do what you want with it now to dive into some examples. 9. Great Street Photographs: With this bit, I just want to touch on or remind you of some of the various photographic attributes, or ingredients, or characteristics, or ideas that might help make a photo great, or memorable, or powerful, or useful. Especially when multiple of these attributes are combined into one frame. One attribute you'll see in which you can see in this photo, is when a photo is able to squeeze lots of life into one frame, which almost feels like it shouldn't fit into a frame where it's only just barely staying somewhat balanced. But it somehow is, you can see that this photo is really riding that line. Because if the dog owner on the right was removed, it might be slightly less amusing. Or if you couldn't see the man on the left paying no attention. It might also be less amusing because as it turns out, he's kind of almost ironically balancing on 1 Ft, which is quite a funny juxtaposition against the situation that the dog owner is in without him. It might also not be as oddly balanced or energetic. Joel Meyrowitzs photos, who I'll talk more about later when I talk about every photographer that I mentioned in more depth. His work does this time and time again. There's always lots humor and social commentary in his work. I think finding texture always helps like the texture in the walls here with the scribblings all over the tiles. They help to populate parts of the frame with more interesting detail, perhaps than just empty tiles. Using features like that to create a fuller, more highly descriptive photo can be a nice attribute that helps take a photo somewhere a bit further than it otherwise might have. Because I think it's nice to try and find details that might give the audience a reason to explore the frame. More things that can also help describe the space and atmosphere more too. It can help the audience engage in the work when you've been able to add story elements into the frame for them to find. Like in this photo, you've multiple things going on. You've got the guy pointing some account to the Gal in the background. They're having an encounter. And then you've got the two blocks in the foreground having their own separate interaction about God knows what. But it's interesting because the man is busy making orange juice manually. The two situations are clearly separate, but they can come together in a composition to create a more dynamic experience. I think the tip here perhaps, is to just try to spread the action out sometimes if there is any across the whole frame. And add texture and detail where you can and see how that affects the stories you're telling or the feelings you're expressing with your photos. I think what's good about this photo is just the fact that it oozes almost poetically because of the smoke. A sense of place. If you're familiar with New York City at all, you'll know that these smoke stacks that are behind this guy with the newspaper, they're pretty much everywhere. So if you can find a way that really drives home a sense of place, that will likely be a worthwhile feature to focus on at times. Also, I feel like as a viewer of photographs, one thing that's nice is if every so often a photograph has some word associations going on. For example, in this photo, since a lot of people refer to big cities as the big smoke, it works quite well in that regard. I wouldn't say there's anything else overly groundbreaking about this shot. But again, we're just trying to chip away at various attributes that might all come together in one great photo for you every so often. Here's another word associations example. You've got this guy standing up on this fence posing like Jesus. So that's obviously quite unusual and striking right off the bat. But as it turns out, he also has a holy Bible hanging out from around his belt. So we can definitely deduce that his pose is no accident, that's for sure. But then you've got the word cross written on his shirt, which also helps shove the photo in that same thematic direction. As well as the street lamps above him shaped like a cross with its arms out. All these elements are helping to fatten out the story of this photo and help hold it all together. So there's a few things there that come together. And I think perhaps it just serves as a reminder to keep an eye out for any extra ingredients you can add, support the story you're telling or the story that is blatantly presenting itself. I think there's a few things going on in this photo, even though at first glance it's really quite down the line. I think it's partly a little bit romantic because of the nice warm lighting and location. So there's that, but maybe part of why I think it feels nice is just because it's somewhat relatable. Or maybe it's because this sleepy man's behavior is just so juxtaposed to every other conscious person on that beach that it's just a little bit funny in that sense. So there's a few elements there that might be good to consider including in your work. Whether it be lighting, location, relatable behavior or humor these kids playing with the swans, remind me a lot of Vivian Meyer's work, we'll touch on her later. And although she shot in a square format and mostly in black and white, I think because she photographed the innocent ongoings of kids a fair bit because she was a nanny. There's a bit of a throwback to her work in that sense. She also has a lot of sentimental end or emotional notes in her work, which we're getting some slight hints of here too. I think we can gain so much from paying attention to what older photographers are trying to show us or teach us. So it's a healthy reminder every so often when a photo like this pops up. I think also the 35 millimeter colors are adding a nice touch. And the simplicity of the composition helps it along as well with the white line going through the middle. Maybe also just that bird's eye view angle, since it's relatively rare to see things from that angle. It's perhaps quite angelic because of that. Also, since the frame is full of birds, maybe that's a fun word association in a way. So all of those are always compelling ingredients to keep in mind. I think at a glance, I'd say with this photo, just the overall composition is probably its strongest characteristic, with the awning in the foreground and the nice shape of it cutting up the top parts of the image, making it a bit more interesting. And then the cascading of the people from right to left, keeping the photo very calming as opposed to if someone was coming the opposite direction, closer to camera, it would probably be an entirely different energy. You know, there's just very simple behaviors going on. Nothing crazy. It's just all falling in line with the overall gentle nature of it. The mom or the auntie helping the girl on the bike, the soft lighting. But yeah, in terms of something to take away from it, I'd just say the overall composition, the overall mood of it more than anything. But hey, blend that with a really memorable outfit on the subject or some kind of behavior that contradicts or juxtaposes the calm energy of the overall piece. Like someone screaming at the lens, for example. Or someone on the ground crying, or whatever it may be, that could potentially take this photo to a whole new place. There's some humor here, because of the guy scratching his head, looking a little clueless, with a clearly overturned tricycle thingy, smack bang right there. As the two fellows each look to the cyclist passing by for perhaps some help. There's 1 million different stories you could tell with this kind of scene. Depending on who walked past or what subtle things everyone in the frame is doing. But mostly I'd say the lesson here is maybe to just think about the story you want to tell. If you're most interested by the greasy hands and the hard working nature of the guy who's crouched down, go and get close up and photograph that and leave the rest out. If you want a broader, perhaps more diverse story, say maybe take a step back. Also, just the big block colored building behind everyone, when paired with the hard shadows in the foreground, is keeping everything contained. Which is always a nice option and a good idea if you don't want everything to get too lost in the detail of a messy background. This one is just another good color and composition reminder. Heaping it simple with those elements can make that one interesting behavior in frame like this. Guy's funny golf swing, for example, become a bit more of a key player in the overall photograph. Here there's the complex dynamic nature that you might see in an Alex Web photograph. Legs coming in from the top, heads coming up from the bottom. His work always reminds you to try to get closer, but at the same time try to squeeze more in. Just like this photo, he will often have these really dark shadows and quite rich colors in his work too, almost exclusively, in fact. So there are quite a few reminders here. The overall dynamic energy here in this photo, when paired with the fact that it kind of suits the space that it was taken in being that it was a slippery slide, is probably also a good thing to keep in mind When you arrive at a place like this, you might think to yourself, what's the vibe here? What's going on here is a chaotic, great, Then let's get some chaotic shots with people popping into frame from all over the place and sometimes trying to use some shapes and layers and shadows and colors to help you balance it all out. It's a similar idea with this shot, it's just about feeling out what's going on, then trying to pick out what interests you about it. Hone in on that and photograph it. Sometimes that thing just happens to be one big footy game in a concrete sort of urban park like this one. Then you might get lucky, and in an example like this, in this photo, the soccer ball ended up being hidden behind one of those people. And it helped make the photo more mysterious. But there are loads of ways to add mystery to a photo. So if that's something you're into, then maybe think about what ingredients you could conceal that might make your photograph more interesting. Or you might need to add mystery via your use of lighting or location, or color. Or including various things in frame that don't seem to belong side by side. There's lots of different ways. I mean, speaking of mystery, it doesn't get much more mysterious than this really. This is probably just a good example of when something irregular is happening. Just photograph it. Photograph it to see what it looks like when photographed, as Gary Winigram would say, more than anything, this photo is just about taking the normal expectation of what should be happening on a road, IE. Having full visibility and then feeding with that expectation. So there's some shock value there in that sense, but shock value might not interest you. You might just be drawn to the nice smoke with the sun kicking off it nicely. So if that's the case, go and photograph that this photograph is simply an experience of color or an experience of a mood via color. Really, a lot of buses have this amazing grundy lighting at night, as I'm sure you know. So it's just a reminder to pay attention to the colors in the different environments you're in. Luckily here, the drab mood is semi well suited to the drab expression on this girl in the foreground. Plus the overall mostly emptiness of the bus helps to trying to find a subject or an object to. That moved onto will likely help express the feeling that you're trying to photograph. A reminder to pay attention to the details, to lighting. I got lucky here. And somehow the mix of the man's expression and that peering eye that feels sort of creepy is how it felt at the time. Because we were traveling down a big long road, and as the bus jostled around, different parts of his face were falling into that tiny slice of light. So it's just a reminder to pay attention to these smaller, seemingly insignificant details sometimes. Now I don't know this guy's story. I think he could have been in a bit of a daze in his own world with his headphones on the subway. But the claustrophobic nature of the space and the use of a 50 millimeter lens made this guy, breathing down this gal's neck look seem a bit icky. Maybe it's just a reminder to use your lenses to help tell your stories. And just the monotone of the red, with no other colors in the frame helps keep the story clean. If that's something you're into, try and pay attention to the colors when framing up something simple like this, because it might help you punctuate something in your frame or just make the photograph pot another claustrophobic one. But this time the claustrophobic feeling is more so coming from how much space is around their little train door. A reminder here to use your environment to help create an experience. In the photograph, Bruce Davidson has a lot of that gritty, claustrophobic feeling in his work, especially his work on subways, which I guess is also just a byproduct of the space. So perhaps there's just a reminder there too to shoot in places that suit the feeling that you're drawn to exploring. Here's a few examples of how just being up close and personal is sometimes the key ingredient as to what is making a photograph work. It's just that proximity factor that gives it energy and intrigue too because it leaves so much out, but oftentimes not much else has to be happening. It's sometimes just a simple expression and maybe a flash, sometimes two, to highlight and reveal things and nothing else. But it's just being up close that helps the photo become relatable and engaging and immersive and all the rest. Bruce Gilden did this to is the king of being up close and personal. Probably much, much more than you or I are happy to go or willing to go. But if you see his work and you like it, then hey, give it a try. Expressions, big expressions, dramatic expressions, expansive ones especially, are usually key characteristics of a great street shot. I think mostly just because they really stir up a story. And depending on your experience in life, you'll see these expressions in these photos slightly differently to the next person. A big expression helps take a photograph to a highly intriguing place naturally because there's a lot of the time, no way of knowing what the expression is about. So I'd say more than anything, these two photos are as great examples of using intrigue as an ingredient. Compositionally speaking, simplicity works a lot of the time, a lot of the time just firing off a relatively clean, exposed shot with the thing you're drawn to in the center works. Sometimes there's no big expression or chaotic thing to focus on. It's just one or two interesting things in a simple place. And something about it is just asking to be photographed by you. The photo on the left, you've got the added element of a strange pile of sticks. So you would think that that photo will have more in it, somehow, More weight, more power, more whatever, in a way. But it might not be the case because with the man in the photo on the right walking against the dusk sky with his instrument with some slight movement and his head bowed just works somehow. It's a simple body language thing, maybe. I mean, the big hat helps tell us he's a musician and it sort of dramatizes maybe the feeling of disappointment that's potentially coming through. But I think it's just a reminder that sometimes where nothing else is even available to you to develop the story or the feeling or the experience. Like other people interacting with your subject or some foreground or some snazzy expression or whatever. Sometimes it doesn't even need that stuff. Sometimes it can just be a human moment. Using strange perspectives and even strange gear in this instance is a great ingredient to help tell unique stories. I think in this case, it's the weird gravity of underwater that's making it slightly curious and comical. Shooting underwater is a nice way to explore a whole other color palette too, just because it's a whole of the world down there as you know. So it can make even the most normal things up here seem strange down there. Here's a reminder to pay attention to your background, because without the words spirit hole behind these six or seven ghostly rain poncho wearing figures, this photograph would be just that. But if you pay attention, you can take your photos somewhere slightly further. It might not take it to some groundbreaking place, but sometimes it's just worth having a look around to see if there's something else in the environment that you can add into the mix to see what happens. And so it's also a reminder to pay attention when you're in the editing suite because you would be amazed how often these things are coincidences and you only notice them for the first time. When you're reviewing the work, pay attention to things that don't fit in. I mean, it might not be in your wheel house, but for me personally, I like it when something just doesn't quite add up in a photo. I think it makes for an entertaining experience when looking at it without this dog in the foreground, for example, this photo would likely just be relying on the super low angle. As the only other point of interest other than the wrestlers. But again, it's just a taste thing sometimes. Also I guess since there's been a flash used in this photo, there's also a reminder here to just use those types of tools, sometimes to create layers between things. With this photo, I'd say it's mostly a reminder to get out there and shoot without overthinking because it's comical shots like this that you just can't plan. You can't quite ideate strange serendipitous occurrences like this. You know, a funny little dog, either accidentally or deliberately copying all those people doing yoga in the background. In, dare I say it, doggie style position. I know. I know. I don't need to explain the humor there. And in some ways it's too on the nose to be interesting. But again, just a reminder to get out there and explore, and shoot, and marvel at how the hell these absurd coincidences managed to keep crossing paths time and time again in different ways every single day, all over the world. I want to make sure that every so often I'm mentioning photographers who explore these types of things really well. So in this case, I'd say the most prolific comedian in the world of street photography would have to be Elliot Erwitt. Don't look him up, I'm sure you'll love his work. Now don't forget about movement. Movement is a wonderful ingredient to add in or experiment with. There's a photographer named Ernest Hasse who uses movement really powerfully Check him out if it's one of your things. But he uses long lenses too, and then blends those things together, movement and long lenses with usually rather warm tones overall to create quite unique looking and feeling photographs. There's a nostalgic feeling that seems to come hand in hand with movement. I think at least for me that's true. Perhaps it's just because the movement so obviously reveals the passing of time or something poetic like that. But nonetheless, it does often feel nostalgic to look at photographs with lots of movement. Adding some movement is another thing that you can do to help create great photographs. Because it isn't just nostalgia that movement is useful for. It can convey excitement, exhilaration, fear, stress. But it's when you pair those things with the right subject color composition, et cetera, that it has the best chance of striking that chord. Don't forget about the details, the everyday occurrences. It can be these nuanced details in life that mean the most remove everything else sometimes and just show the exact thing that interests you, Just the thing you saw with nothing else. Some of the greatest photos do exactly that. This one is more so just a reminder that the tiniest change in elevation can make a huge difference if that man's hat was up against the shadow of the wall rather than wrapped in the brightness of the window the way it is. It might become a muddier scene, so to speak. And it's not even that this is an overly thought out composition. But I often feel like some of those minor adjustments of putting the camera slightly higher or lower to accentuate something can make or break an image. That's actually the most impressive thing, some of the time when I'm looking through old photography books, is just how precise these masters were able to be with the exactness of things, the angle, the height, the timing, all within a millimeter of what you can sometimes tell might have become a muddier moment where all of the elements collide instead of balance out. So maybe it's more so just a note on balance. Some of these micro adjustments are the exact thing that help things click into place and somehow become balanced in an otherwise chaotic scene. A little shout out to silhouettes here. I love the silhouette. By no means are they everyone's jam. But I'm sure there are a few of you who quite appreciate the Film Noir dramatic nature of a silhouette. So for those people, here's your reminder to try and make them more often they make great very filmic photographs all of the time and they leave a lot to the imagination. Sometimes business might be what drives the image. Wild, revealing, bustling, chaotic images are exciting. I know I've harped on about simplicity in a few of these examples and about stripping it back. But by no means are they your only options. I would say perhaps the majority of the greatest photographs are ones that are quite complicated and dynamic ones that take a while to actually absorb and understand. Because there's so much going on, there's so many crossing gazes and multiple story lines going on at once, that it becomes its own world. I mentioned Alex Webb and Joel Meyrowitz earlier. They both do this a lot. They both have quite a few lanes of traffic going through their photos. Oftentimes, another name to add to that list is Gary Winter Grand. The only difference is he shot in black and white. The photographers love to fill the frame wall to wall and everywhere in between. So remember to play with that idea because you can make great photographs that way. This world is just a big ball of shapes. It's shapes galore, that's really all it is. It's geometry as far as the camera is concerned. It's lines, color, shadows, and shapes. For example, the shapes of the windows in your local library might be worth photographing. The windows in this photo happen to be the windows in the Seattle library. But the shapes in your library, or your train station, or your office, or your house even might have something interesting about them. And I'm not just talking about windows, I mean the overall design of the space, the overall environment like, even the way a tree curls up the side of a house in a certain direction because that's where the sun shines or the way a long driveway will slither up someone's property, all the way to the house on the hill. There's something geometric about these things and that's all the camera sees. I guess this is just an overall reminder to try and remember that really basic but essential part of your brain, which just compiles shapes and makes sense out of them. There are a lot of great photographs that rely solely on these incredible, natural or man made shapes to make up the bulk of a fantastic or inspiring image, this photograph. For instance, uses those shapes to try and outline a story. There was a third person who is behind one of these black walls, who was taking photos of that girl in the bikini fora who I didn't see at first. And once I did spot them, it made the photograph almost too normal for my taste in that moment because it was just a moment of a guy sitting alone with a separate moment of two people doing a little photo shoot. Which was way more boring than the weird scene that I first saw, since I hadn't seen the photographer guy yet. So I was able to simply remove him by reacting to the shape of the space and hiding him behind the wall, which I thought made the photograph a bit more mysterious and back to being a bit closer to what my original experience was of whoa, hang on a minute, What's going on here? The reminder or ingredient to focus on here is, again, just using the environment around you to maybe say, highlight the relationship between two people in the world. It's totally imagined in that way, of course. But it's just a bit of fun sometimes to use the shapes in the world to actually create something intentional. And to help take a photograph to a new place. Almost into its own world in a sense. So perhaps try and engage with your environment in that way. Sometimes to see what you can come up with. Harry Greer is probably the photographer that I would urge you to go and look at if you love this type of chopping up of an image because he does this with an exactness that is extremely impressive. Great photographs are compiled of so many. It's of course, so dependent on your taste and your own personal experience that you bring to the viewing platform. But one thing that made Henri Tim Bresson's work shine was his ability to find an overall balance within a scene. It's not that it had to be an overly comfortable balance all the time. Sometimes his work can seem quite uncomfortable depending on the subject matter. But it was his intentional focus on the balance of things within the composition. The weight of an action or the weight of a shadow to see where it would cast his gaze to, from what I can gauge, his work was mostly born from just that ability to see the world and put little bits of it into balance. Because the tricky part is that everything already is in balance. But then once you take a camera and try to snip off a little piece of it, who's to say that's going to be balanced? What if the entire image was just one big dark shadow across the whole image? Would that be balanced? Maybe it would. So, it seems to me that it was Henri's interest in balancing things out, kind of in his work, that forced him to look around with quite a compelling but critical eye. So try to keep that in mind, and I imagine you'll make great photographs. Stopping time, in a sense, is the core function of a camera, not even in a poetic sense. I mean, just purely the technical ability to freeze and capture a moment visually from a specific standpoint. Use that exact thought to your advantage. Stop things exactly when you want them to stop. Just to see what they look like once they've been stopped. So many great photographs were born that way because we don't experience still images the same way that a camera does. Our feeling as we go through life is much more fluid. So I think that's why we're quite drawn to these things that aren't flowing forward at all in the same way. So choose some things to stop and see what it looks like. Remember to be vulnerable at times. Don't be afraid to show yourself. You don't have to show it to the world. Just experiment with involving yourself into some of your work or even just your personal environment at home. Lee Friedlander's expression of this was gorgeous. I mean, he photographed his newborn baby and his wife with such a loving eye. And it's just so nice that that could become part of his legacy as opposed to just exclusively these public images out on the street. There's definitely a place for the more intimate, the more vulnerable. And to be frank, creating that kind of personal work will open you up to other interesting parts of your voice. I could go on and on all day in this exact fashion because reviewing and experiencing photographs is clearly something that I love to do, but I don't want to ramble plus also as I've touched on, what constitutes a great photograph is really at the core of this whole endeavor, isn't it? So we'll just be chipping away at this idea from various angles every so often throughout this whole guide. I just wanted to bit by bit start to highlight things on the tool belt and give you some, hopefully, quite usable, somewhat practical ideas to keep in mind when attempting to capture a moment as best you can. 10. Thinking Poetically: In my opinion, great street photographs, at least to satisfy my tastes, hold within them a sense of poetry, as in it might be symbolic of a larger comment or idea. It might depict an interesting metaphor. It might be that the rhythm of the colors gives you a feeling, or a simple pun might make you laugh. It could be a poetic coincidence mixed with a pleasing sense of composition that creates a juxtaposition between subjects that gets you thinking. Perhaps it's a social commentary, perhaps it makes us reflect on who we really are in a deep way. Perhaps it challenges your values. It might make you feel judged, or emotional, or curious. It seems to me that the ingredients in a great street photograph will say something about the world, something about the photographer, and something about the viewer, all at the same time. This, to me, is why so important to be a viewer of photographs just as much as you are a maker of them. Because learning to read into that type of visual poetry will give you a whole new language in which you can walk around and view and connect with the world. 11. Bring Your Emotion Into It: Shooting to your emotion can create dynamic new corners of your work. And who knows where that can lead. For example, if you're feeling drab with your head hung low. But somehow you've managed to get yourself out with your camera. If you just imagine, if you essentially just accept that that's where you are and you lean into that feeling, perhaps you'll find something interesting through that perspective. So imagine you're walking along a headed for the coffee shop or wherever. And you notice your shoelaces have come untied and they're laying all soggy and wet and vulnerable along the rainy pavement, along with other debris. Or maybe to add to it. Say there's a classic lost dog poster that's fallen off a sign person. As you look down at it on the wet ground, you notice your shoelaces are sort of drooped alongside it. And in that moment you notice it, you photograph it. See, that's interesting. I can imagine how an image like that would feel visually sad, and it might send you off on a new theme for your work. It's hard to say. And it's perhaps not a visual idea that would have come to mind or come into your sphere of consciousness if you were all chirpy and happy in the sunshine, bouncing off the walls, noticing all the dynamic behavior going on around you, having a happy positive day. But it doesn't even have to be emotions like sadness. Even if you're just feeling a bit shy or you've got a lot on your mind, perhaps then you might want to use a different lens. Say a longer lens so you can sort of sit back and snipe shots from a distance because you're low on energy and don't want to have too many interactions. There's some great long lens street work, especially in bad weather from people like soul litter or Ernst Haas. It's okay to have days like that. You should embrace the differences. Good to learn how to pivot and adapt photographically to those new feelings, environments, and elements. The takeaway is that you don't have to be positive but rather optimistic. And I mean that in the sense that hopefully even when you're a bit off or you're in a bad mood, hopefully there's a sense of optimism behind it, all born from experience, the experience of positive reinforcement, You know, as in the more you get out there and prove to yourself that good things can come out of any session on the street, no matter what the weather, no matter what the mood, no matter what the emotion, the easier it will be to convince yourself to go out for that walk with your camera. It's almost like an artistic hopefulness mixed with a proven optimism if you can get yourself to that place, you'll be operating under the very same routine perseverance that a lot of the greatest street photographers operated under too. And that's a damn good place to be if you want to improve, diversify, and develop your eye for street photography. 12. Shoot in All Weather: If you want to be committed to this craft, it's good to practice going out, even when you're not inspired or to be more specific, even when you can't envision finding a good moment on the street. Because life and the wonderfully interesting things that can happen daily don't all just go away just because it's sprinkling with rain. In fact, deep down, I think we all know that's quite the opposite. Bad weather makes photographs more interesting because everyone's behavior is so different. People slipping over, people scampering to find shelter, people's umbrellas being flipped inside out, people funny rain outfits, people taking their dog for a walk, regardless of the weather. It's all interesting. There's a book called Bad Weather by Martin Par, the British photographer, that you should check out. It's excellent and it proves this point to a T. 13. Bravery: One thing that seems to hold a lot of us back in the beginning when shooting on the street is being a bit shy or afraid of people going off at you. A couple of things on this note. Firstly, it doesn't happen as much as you think. And some confidence, a smile and some honesty, will get you out of most of those situations. Secondly, I've heard psychologists speak about how to get people to start to conquer things that they're afraid of. Assuming that they shouldn't be afraid of that thing, or don't want to be afraid of that thing. As it turns out, the psychologists approach isn't to make people less afraid but more brave. Increasing bravery, rather than just trying to squash your fears and forget about them, to actually become more brave bit by bit is a better approach because taking on more and more scary challenges and extending your boundaries and overcoming those fears will rewire the brain to not be afraid of them. Rather than just simply hiding from the fears and letting them build up and make you anxious. So remember, you're allowed to be out there taking pictures. So lead with a smile. Be confident. Be yourself. Maybe have a compliment or a comment lined up in your head as you engage a situation so that you can diffuse the situation if it goes south. But most times you'll be fine and you'll be able to incrementally improve your bravery and simultaneously squash your preconceptions of how dangerous you once thought it might be to take a picture of someone. I mean, how do you think all of us street photographers take hundreds of photos and hardly have any negative experiences to show for it? It's because it's true that it's mostly fine. In fact, it's mostly excessively positive in my experience. So often someone who I thought mightn't like to be photographed turns around and laughs, or smiles or starts dancing and it changes their whole day because they felt seen. I'll go into more practical tips and experiences later on. But the takeaway here is that there's nothing to be afraid of. So just edge out of your comfort zone bit by bit. And eventually you'll look back at your comfort zone and you'll be at plain ride away. And you'll be so proud of yourself. 14. Beauty: I want to touch on the idea of beauty for a hot minute and give my thoughts on how it relates to street photography. One of the most exciting things to me about photography overall is that it's one of our newest languages to describe what we find beautiful. Even when a street photographer photographs something that might be described as broken, or damaged, or ugly, or derelict, or disorderly, or things along those lines, It still emits a type of beauty when seen in a photograph. That's one of the strange things about photography, that it still tends to show the beauty in that thing. The beauty of the mess, the clutter, the chaos. For example, by merely putting a frame around it, by noticing that something in it that drew you in, and then photographing it, that act tends to reveal a kind of beauty in it. Take the beauty of a wrinkled, aged face, for example, that might otherwise simply be described as wrinkly and aged. When photographed, it's often described as textured and full of character, or the beauty of emptiness, like an abandoned room that would otherwise be described as just empty, mostly. When photographed, it starts to beg questions like, who used to live here? Or I wonder why they left that one chair behind. Something about photographing, it seems to imply a sense of meaning merely because the photographer gave it their attention. Something about photographing things acknowledges a type of beauty within it. And there are so many different types of beauty, endless amounts, even with horrible things like pain, there's often a poetic reflection in it that reflects a degree of beauty. Like the beauty of vulnerability. Say although the subject might be in pain, a photograph can often somehow transcend that single subject and cast a broader meaning on your view and experience of the world. Take the beauty in a tragedy, for example, like Romeo and Juliet. They both want to live and be in love. Yet they both die in a sacrificial or symbolic kind of way. And you don't specifically mourn for those exact people who might have existed once. But instead you cast a broader meaning on that idea of pain and tragedy and the beauty and sacrifice. Or perhaps you might just feel more grateful for your own life and the feelings all of that stuff gives you is how quite impactful and therefore quite a beautiful experience. There's something in all of these things, good or bad, that when photographed, reveal or offer a degree of, albeit highly variable beauty. You'd be hard pressed to find a good photograph that doesn't do this in your street photography, no matter how hard you try to make something rank and ugly, or on the other hand, how much you try to glorify your subjects. Either way, each photograph will hold a certain type of intrinsic compelling, almost mysterious beauty. And that's the eye opening thing about photography. The fact that it shows us how many different types of beauty exist in the world. Everywhere we look, it proves that beauty can be found an both in the predictable places and in the most unexpected places. And it's the search for those different types of beauty in our photography and in our street photography. That's the fun part. Thanks for joining me for philosophies practices and great street photographs. I hope you're feeling inspired and I hope you learned a few things that resonate with you that you feel like you can go out and put into practice. Next, we're going to go much deeper, covering tactics, tips and settings on the street with a lot of different topics like how to find stories, how to tell stories, and how to have fun with that. The importance of curiosity and asking yourself questions. Confidence and ways to find it. How to avoid conflict. The utility in really listening to the things around you. How to predict opportunities and use your body language. And some strategies to improve the chance of capturing great moments. How to embrace the process of failure. The importance of reading the room. Why it's useful to get lost and set photographic challenges to find your way back, stepping in and out of your comfort zones, as well as a slew of helpful settings and gear based tips like trends and metering zone. Focusing overall settings, the importance of getting close to your subjects. Being bold, watching your edges, and avoiding hesitation. 15. CHAPTER 3: Tactics, Tips & Settings on the Street: Welcome to Tactics, Tips and Settings on the Street, where we're going to go much, much deeper into the nuts and bolts of actually being out there and what that looks like. And some really critical tools to give you the best chance at making great street photographs. We're going to cover a lot of different topics, like how to find stories, how to tell stories, how to have fun with that. The importance of curiosity in asking yourself questions. Confidence in ways to find it, how to avoid conflict. The utility in really listening to the things around you. How to predict opportunities and use your body language. And some strategies to improve the chance of capturing great moments. How to embrace the process of failure. The importance of reading the room. Why it's useful to get lost and set photographic challenges to find your way back, stepping in and out of comfort zones, as well as a slew of helpful settings and gear based tips like trends, metering zone, focusing overall settings, the importance of getting closer to your subject, watching your edges, and avoiding hesitation. We'll also spend some time talking about the seemingly simple, yet dynamic idea of when exactly to release the shutter, and how to decide on which moment is the moment for you. And then we'll talk about what are some scenarios that you can put yourself in as fruitful training grounds when you're trying to grow in that department. So let's dive in. 16. Pull the Trigger: You're going to need to learn to pull the trigger. And the unfortunate part is that scary moment, the moment where the subject catches you and they look straight at the lens and you go all stiff with fear. Well, that moment, as well as just before and just after, in my opinion, are some of the most engaging street shots that you can get. So you've got to get good at it. That's where you want to get to because so much good stuff happens in that moment. You see the subject shift from natural to spotting you to their reaction. And that whole journey is an interesting social study. The moment of eye contact is so powerful photographically, it's unbelievable. I think that's probably the biggest problem you'll face is the fear of shooting those moments. Trust me when I say you're not alone in that feeling to this day, it still stuns me when people look at the lens. When I didn't expect it, I stiffen up and it's like a frightening little adrenaline rush kicks in. I feel like a deer in the headlights. But it's about not looking that way and instead staying composed. You've just got to breathe, stay calm, and everything will be fine. It always ends up totally okay. Where you want to get to is to a point where you're heading straight towards people and you pull the viewfinder up to your eye and you go pop, pop, pop. Two or three shots as they approach just to have variation. But without going crazy, if you're shooting film, it might just be poppop one or two. And whether the subject or subjects look at you or not, you've got to stay confident and pull the trigger. You have to be prepared to make sure photos because in between those shots is where the golden nuggets are. The thing is if someone lifts their eyes after you've gone, pop, pop, and then your finger is on the trigger as they're looking at the lens. And you could go for the third one. That might be the best shot, but you haven't taken it yet. Remember they already think you took a picture anyway, so you may as well actually do it honestly. The most common reason someone will look up anyway so that they don't bump into you. It's not like they're onto you, Ooh. In some big, serious way. So just go for it. They're more likely to think they're in your way, really. I mean, to be fair, for the last few years I've lived in Canada where everyone's hyper polite, so people would literally look up, spot me, think they've been an inconvenience to me. And they'll be like, sorry and I'm all No worries made. Have a good one. So at the off chance you're in Canada, you're in luck in that department. But either way, no matter where you are, pull the trigger and make the photograph. Try this practice. Building up your courage to pull the trigger by shooting shots into coffee shop windows as you walk past. Because at least they can't say anything back to you and it just starts to grow that muscle. Weirdly enough when you think about the scenario from their perspective, since they only usually catch a tiny glimpse of you before the whole things over. It's a pretty confusing and sort of confronting situation. And for most people they can't be bothered to deal with it in all reality. They're usually more scared of you than the other way around anyway. You're the one who sort of came at them confidently taking street photographs. Most people don't really want to deal with the drama of interacting with you. And in all honesty, the vast majority of people don't understand what you even did and they don't even care also. Do you remember that fight club scene where the assignment for the week in the movie is to try and get into a fight with someone on the street and lose the fight. And everyone tries so hard to do it by like spraying bystanders with their garden hose or offending people or whatever. And they try to have these altercations, but everyone has such a tough time actually getting into real conflict. Well, that's what street photography is really like. I've shot some pretty bold styles in my time and in my experience. The bolder I've gotten, the more people don't know how to deal with you. You'd think going up to someone and firing off a flash would definitely turn to nothing but bad outcomes. But it's not true. Sometimes you need to manage the situation of course, but it's not really that bad ever. You should work towards using photography to confront the things that frighten you because it's such an innocent tool to just ease into those things or those people that you're scared of. Try going up to someone who scares you and ask them if you can take a portrait and you will immediately give a voice to that monster that you had in your head. And you'll either realize they're not even half as bad as you thought they were, or you'll get a portrait of the damn monster. And bit by bit, you'll increase your courage. Also pull the trigger on really out there, interesting characters. They're a great training ground because usually they know they're quite flamboyant or noticeable already. So although you personally are seeing them for the first time on their end, they probably get comments all day, every day about their wild card outfit. So take that opportunity to photograph them. It's not like it's a secret that they're interesting. Maybe try asking for permission sometimes perhaps that type of verbal consent sets your mind at ease. You might get a no, but a surprising amount of times you will get a yes, especially if you flatter them. I typically will also snap a few shots from the hip while they're chatting to me afterwards anyway. And those can also become some of the best shots. Just get amongst it, live a little, interact with people. Even if it scares you, just try to have fun with it instead. Because you live an interesting life that way and the nerves just mean that you care about it. That's all, nerves are, so lean into that feeling. One thing I remember having a hard time pulling the trigger on was romance. I felt a little cringy to photograph two people kissing or hugging or whatever, because they're having an intimate moment and you feel like you're intruding or they'll think you're a creep. But you know, you're not, you know, you're actually making a tasteful, romantic street photograph of these beautiful, happy people. And you just need to self affirm that and pull the trigger. It took a lot of time and many positive experiences to eventually teach me that it's actually okay and if they catch you, I've learned that. It just takes a simple, oh, pardon me, you two are together, have a good night afterwards. And it usually leads to a smile because people are proud to be in love. They're happy. So they couldn't give two shots. So just lead with confidence. Be up front and you'll be fine. Honestly, it's more awkward shooting a lack of passion between two people. That's still a tough one to this day. As in people that seem disinterested in each other at the dinner table across from you, or whatever it may be, They're more likely to feel offended because it genuinely is awkward and perhaps they're not too jolly in that moment. So I'd say those are the ones you'd want to tread carefully with. But even then, they're usually so in their own world, caught up in their own thoughts and drama, that they never even notice you. The thing is, those moments are so relatable that they are essential street photographs. So I wouldn't say that the answer is to censor yourself, but instead, just be respectful and take a strategic approach that won't hurt anyone's feelings. Although I'd usually say you should definitely shoot where you live. I think as an exercise of overcoming fear, just to remove as many anxious thoughts as possible, I'd highly recommend going somewhere a little further from home so that you feel a bit more free to do whatever you like without the lingering thought of judgment from people you know, or the thought that you might piss off someone in your daily life like a neighbor or someone you have to see every day at the bus stop. So go to the next town over and just cut loose a little bit with it, be a tourist. And that's the perfect segue for another idea that I completely endorse. Which is to, at some point in your life sooner rather than later, go and live in a different country. It will crack your photography right open and you will take leaps and bounds forward. When I came to Canada, my whole style changed and grew tenfold. Because everything was new, everything was inspiring, the people were different, the architecture is different, the lighting is different, the weather is different, the shops are different, every single thing is different. And the best part is you feel like you've got nothing to prove because you don't know anyone. So this art can, for the first time, just be about the pure love of it. There is nothing I could recommend more highly than to do that for yourself. Whether you're a photographer or not really. I see it as an essential phase of life to live abroad. I've never met anyone who has a bad word to say about such experiences. So if you're not going to do it for your street photography, just do it for a life experience. It will only lead to exciting things, a promise. One last idea in relation to pulling the trigger is you might find sometimes that you're hesitating when you're not quite sure if a frame is working, but you sort of think it is. But I'm telling you in that instance, just take a frame. Regardless, you'll kick yourself when you realize it was working but you didn't take it. See if you do take the shot, then the good part is that even if it didn't work, at least you have the negative or the digital file to be able to study why it didn't work. If in doubt, shoot your shot. I remember times where I was perpetually in doubt, and the whole damn role of film would be moment after moment of just almost. But it's better to make mistakes and learn from them than be in a constant state of hesitation. Be willing to fail, and the failure will guide you forward. 17. Find Stories / Tell Stories: When you pull the viewfinder up to your eye, try and find the story or stories in the frame. It might sound cliche, but it's a good thought to keep in the back of your mind. Think, what is the story here? Are there multiple stories in this one frame? What happens if I include this element? What happens if I remove it? It doesn't have to be a long story or even a complicated one. It can be simple, something simple to marinate on a meditation, on a relatable feeling. Or it can be a complex web of culture that asks all sorts of questions. It's up to you and how you react and relate to the world around you. The reality is someone viewing your work might get a super different impression of what you're trying to say. Anyway, so make sure you're telling your stories, not someone else's, because that's half the fun of it. Anyway, seeing how different we all see and perceive the world, you might be thinking, what do you mean story? I'm just photographing things that look cool and that's true. Your aesthetic side is likely the driving force behind it all. But the fact of the matter is, once you make a photograph, it is a story. It has a story in it for sure. The story might be simple. It might honestly be as simple as this leaf on the ground exists. But if you can look at it in a different way, add a deeper layer of thought to your process, or include more ingredients, or visually connect it to something else. Then you'll be much closer to having a photograph that goes beyond sentimentality into something more intriguing and interesting as an example of storytelling in this regard, let's imagine you see someone whose posture seems quite depressing to you. They're sitting on a bench all slumped over in your knee jerk reaction is to just snap the picture, and that's good. But after that, maybe you think to yourself, hmm, perhaps I could emphasize that feeling that struck me by, say, removing all the other people from the frame to make it a lonelier space for the subject. That type of photograph will tell one kind of story, or you might want to swing around and see their face and see where that takes you. Or perhaps if you step to the left, you might be able to include the woman and child in the background, which might add to the story somehow. Are they family? Why isn't he over there playing with them? Maybe the subject's shirt says something on it that casts some meaning onto the background. Maybe you get up close and show how their wrinkly tanned hand, as it sits along the top of the bench, resembles the look of the wood that the bench is made from. These are all different stories. There's a quote that says, to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude, and therefore to frame is to include two. You can't avoid it when you frame up, things are included and excluded simultaneously. So you may as well have fun with it. Remember, you don't have to think about it too much. You don't have to think about it at all if you don't want to. But if you do, it can just be simple relationships between things in the world. Simple associations, just adding that fraction of thought to it can really take the photograph to a new place. At least if you can understand why that visual or that moment appealed to you, then you'll have a better chance of embedding that appeal into the photograph more deeply and viscerally. It might sound so serious, but it's really not when it comes down to it, It's really just you standing there with your camera, taking pictures of things you like in a few different ways. So try and enjoy this process of storytelling, of finding the stories you want to tell. Because your photographs will tell a story whether you like it or not, so you may as well choose it. Humans are meaning making machines. When we see a photo, we can't not assign some meaning to it. It's not that a photo has meaning. As Susan Sontag describes and I, standing alone, photographs promise an understanding. They cannot deliver the company of words. They take on meaning, but they slew off one meaning and take on another with alarming ease. Because each photograph is only a fragment, its moral and emotional weight depends on where it's inserted and who is looking at it. A photograph changes according to the context in which it is seen. Thus, Eugene Smith's photographs of people crippled and slowly dying of mercury poisoning in the Japanese fishing village of Minamata in the late 1960s will seem different. On a contact sheet, in a gallery, in a political demonstration, in a police file, in a photographic magazine, in a book on a living room wall. Each of these situations suggests a different use for the photographs, but none can secure their meaning. Literally speaking, a photo is just information like a survey with nobody there yet. To make statistics and meaning from the dots on the page, it's that we add meaning when we see the photo funnily enough, and with the exception of sentimental photos, it's typically the audience of a printed or published photo that will assign the majority of meaning to it. Usually a lot more than the photographer even does. And that's because the photographers most meaningful engaging moment with the photo was their actual experience with the world while it was being made. The same way that the person who did the survey has already had their experience with it. It's the analyst who comes along who derives meaning and patterns from the answers. So for the photographer, by the time an audience is even seeing their photograph, the photographer has already had their time with it. Typically, street photographers aren't trying to be pretentious with it, they're just showing you the thing they saw. Whereas the audience doesn't have that experience. They weren't there. And so they're trying to find a meaningful experience that they can have with the photo. Because people want an experience, so they'll pursue one and they'll build a bit of substance around a photo so that their mind has something to play with. And that's fair. They're just trying to appreciate it and have some fun and spend some time engaging with it like a little emotional game. Susan Stag writes, the ultimate wisdom of the photographic image is to say there is the surface now, Think or rather feel into it, what is beyond it. What must the reality be if it looks this way? Photographs which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation, and fantasy. The very muteness of what is hypothetically comprehensible in photographs is what constitutes their attraction and provocativeness. Our imaginations, especially as viewers of photographers, get lured in by all of the hypothetical stories we can deduct from the visual. And that is the beauty and intrigue of photography, is its inability to tell the whole entire story. And instead encourages us to imagine it. And oddly, since we all bring our own separate life experiences to the viewing platform, the feelings that each photograph can arouse largely aren't those that we would have in real life if we were to encounter the same event. Often something either pleases us or disturbs us more in photographed form than it does when we actually experience it. It's an incredibly dynamic art form. In all reality though, a lot of the great street photographers out there, when asked to comment on their work, will just simply comment. I thought it was interesting or I liked the look of it, or it stood out to me and it should be that way. Like I said, when you're making photographs, you don't have to put much thought in. Just it's just to have some fun with it, really. At the end of the day, it doesn't quite matter what degree of finessing story shaping the photographer did on the day of making the exposure. Because it comes down to the fact that they chose this particular photograph or set of photographs to print or put into a book or magazine or gallery. So if they didn't do the thinking or story shaping on the day, that deeper layer of consideration will likely be done in the selection process anyway. And the audience, if you want one, will do the rest. All I'm saying is if you can, sometimes it is nice to do that thinking while you're shooting. It keeps you sharp. I know it's not essential because great photographs can exist without much thought. But it's just a fun exercise really to add another layer. Of course, though, sometimes an event unfolds too quickly to make many informed choices in the moment. And that's when it comes down to improving your intuition and instincts from the get go, as well as some good editing skills and wise selecting. But in the times that you do have the time and the ingredients and the know how, give it a try to add some story into your photographs and have some fun with it. The audience can think what they like. They might add all kinds of complex psychological reasons or art critic type reasons behind why a photo is the way it is. But for the most part, it is the way it is. Because that is just simply what you saw or what you experienced in the moment or what you wanted to depict. So if you know who you are, then who you are will eventually come through in your street photographs in that way. And I just think that's so interesting to be able to soak up all these different life experiences that people have and also share your own. It's all part of the fun of looking at and making photographs. 18. Curiosity: Let your curiosity drive you. Use photography to find the answers to questions you have about the world. It might seem overwhelming to think about in that much depth. If you're someone who just wants to casually walk the streets and take pictures for some lighthearted fun, and that's okay. But if you're truly interested in the deeper exploration of this craft, asking yourself interesting questions and embarking on the mission to answer them will take you to new interesting places and help you grow your skills. For example, recently I was curious as to what would it be like to be an adult who has never seen the ocean. I haven't began this project yet, but I think to myself, it's probably the kind of project that is less about photographing the subjects in which I get the answers from IE portraits, and more about just what I see and find in the world along the way to those places where these people exist. So don't get turned off by the feeling of, uh, oh, I'm starting a big project and it's going to need to have all the answers and be structured perfectly. Or oh, what if the answer isn't that interesting? Or I don't find good subjects, Et cetera, et cetera. La, la, la, all that jazz. It doesn't have to be that serious. It can be if you want it to be, but if you find that your project falls flat after the first location, don't get down on yourself, just keep following the story. But the point I was trying to make is that asking yourself questions will lead you to places you've never been before, emotionally and physically. And if you come away with some answers and some great photographs too, then great that can be your photography. Now I know I'm blurring the lines between documentary photo journalism and street photography. But I find a lot of street photographers as they get more and more curious about the world, end up leaning in that direction anyway of blurring the lines. So I thought I may as well speak to that more serious, direct, almost journalistic side of things as well. See, I find that street photography is a great training ground for documentary or photo journalism work because you get good at reading the moment. But with street, sometimes you have the advantage of time on your hands or the ability to try again sometimes. Whereas with certain types of documentary or photojournalist work, you won't have that advantage as often. For example, say you're shooting an event and you're being paid to do it, and that event is the story and it's so much bigger than you and it doesn't care for your purposes. It's not as forgiving as the street say. The story is to photograph a ceremony that happens in Amish communities once a generation or something, and you miss the critical moment, it's gone. Whereas on the street, if you miss a moment, although it's just as fleeting, it doesn't have as much weight on it because you're just doing it for you. So I would say street is a good training ground for those types of documentary or photo journalism experiences in that sense because you can practice reacting to life. And then when it comes down to it and you have to shoot it, you'll be better equipped. Because when everything is coming at you in a fast paced environment, you might have to rely on your intuition much more than you think. And if all those autopilot functions are well oiled, it'll work out. Here's a more serious example of a question I had for a documentary project. I read that despite an almost global ban on using animals in circuses, some countries like Australia and France and Spain still had traveling animal circuses. I know animal cruelty is of course, still a thing in many places, but I didn't expect those countries to be on the list to still have circuses. So it got me thinking, what does that actually look like nowadays? What kind of animals are involved? Who's going to that now? Who are the animal charmers? Is that even what they're called and why those countries? Okay. So to be fair, I haven't done either of those projects yet. And granted, The Circus One is, of course, more of a heavy handed and expensive international documentary project. But I wanted to demonstrate how one question about people who haven't seen the ocean can lead to quite a loose, flexible experience of adventure. Whereas the circus question can lead to a more direct, more serious adventure. But it's worth remembering that along that journey, it won't just be that story that you learn and discover. There'll be many other things that you encounter along the way. It might be as simple as some laundry flailing in the wind or someone sitting on their porch steps that catches your eye on your way to follow a lead. And those surprises are what generate new ideas. And that is your photography too, just as much as the other stories. And that, for me, is why it's so hard to label yourself with a certain genre because you're always shifting through them all. 19. When & How to Take a Street photograph: Before we get too far into the nitty gritty approaches and techniques of street photography, I want to address the simple first question of how and when to take a photo. Basically how to get started, how to start pulling the trigger, and when. Well, I'd say, first of all, bring a camera with you everywhere, as often as you can. And start by taking a photo of whatever catches your eye. I know it sounds absurdly simple, but just whenever it occurs to you, whenever you have a reaction to something in your life as it currently is, no matter what it is, just snap it. If your brain says, I like that, take a photo of it. Don't even think about it. If your brain looks at something and it has anything outside of an average response to it, snap it. It could be, oh, yuck or whoa, or hmm, what the hell is that? Or that looks quite nice, or I hate that. Or holy foo, snap it. Start there, and build on that. Just listen to yourself and be ready to take a photograph at any moment, because the next thing will be that you're probably not happy with the result. And then from there, you can start to guide your course forward naturally based on what you want to improve. Because all you have to do is think, what about it, don't I like, then look into that element of your practice, attend to it, and move forward. Once you're doing pretty well with capturing spontaneous moments like that, next you want to start actually hunting for moments. As in going out for walks with your camera with the specific intention to look for things that interest you and to photograph them once you're comfortable enough with your gear. A successful approach and a good training ground is to just put yourself somewhere with consistent lighting conditions and an overall decent background, like a public square or a busy pedestrian crossing, say. And then just keep your eye out for moments or subjects. Typically, if you've chosen a decent subject and you expose the shop properly and you get it mostly in focus that will usually already turn out relatively interesting. It's the background elements or the additional ingredients, or the sense of timing that typically make or break the photo and make it great or make it timeless. But the point is if you go out hunting and you're confident with your gear, I'm sure you will accumulate relatively interesting photos quite quickly in regards to background elements. As an example, I personally don't like modern cars or modern signage, and I usually don't love people on their phones either. And that's mostly because a lot of my mentors and inspirations are a bit aged. Plus I feel like modern signage and modern cars have lost a lot of their character and charm. And since I'm drawn to more nostalgic visuals, sometimes those newer elements don't seem to work for me. But unfortunately, since they're both so common, they'll often easily slip in and ruin my frame like, you know, a big fat logo that just doesn't add anything to what I'm trying to say. Maybe it was hard to avoid, so boom, it's right there in the middle of the frame. And it bores me though. The good part about knowing this, about my voice is that I can already start eliminating subjects or angles from the realm of possibility. And start honing in on more specific spots or subjects. You personally might like those elements like cars and signs and phones. So of course involve them if you do, but if not, try and develop your positioning around your background. And what I mean by this is, for example, if I see something interesting happening, I'll instantly try to get a lay of the land and then try to position myself in the best spot as quickly as possible. But then the next challenge is making those backgrounds meaningful and adding to the story. Rather than simply just removing things you don't like, which is relatively instinctual. It's about building up your capacity to take in all of these bits of information. You can start evaluating your subjects and your backgrounds by asking yourself questions like, will this subject approaching me pop off that background that will be behind them by the time they reach me? And if not, what can I do to make them pop? Or say, what do I like about the subject? And will that element be ruined? Say it's their brightly colored, spiky hair. Do if I don't get the photo before they reach the shadowy underpass, as in is the sun adding to this story by virtue of lighting the one thing that's drawing me to this character and do I have enough time to get that shot before they leave the sun and enter the shade. Is there anything I can add to this frame that give it more? Umph. And if I'm able to somehow make it around to the other side of them, would the opposite background work better? Or if they make it to the shade, but I go on a low angle, will their funny hair do perhaps create a good silhouette and pop off the sky behind them in an interesting way? And if so, what else can I add to that then? Do I want the horizon to be perfect? Or is this quite a fluid moment character, like a drunken sort of Captain Jack Sparrow counter character? Who might be more suited to an energetic off skew composition. Anyways, the point is, put yourself in situations with decent backgrounds. Ask yourself questions about your subjects and your conditions and keep re evaluating it as the scene unfolds. Again, I know it sounds like cumbersome thought processing, but you'll get quite quick at doing it very naturally. Sometimes something spontaneous might happen that just flips everything on its head And you need to shape the background around a subject. Say if it's someone skateboarding or dancing or even just trudging through the city with way too much luggage that might look really interesting from behind. Perhaps you chug behind them for a block or so and wait until the right background presents itself, since their action is relatively consistent and looks visually interesting. Or perhaps you're hoping for them to have an interaction with someone you just. Track the scene for a short while. The same goes for the skater and the dancer. It's just about tracking their movements until the right background appears behind them. I remember the most recent time that that happened to me was I was on the bus and I looked out the window and saw like six or seven people dressed up as Santa, just casually walking around the city. And it wasn't even Christmas. So I jumped off the bus and I had to sort of catch up to them. And then by the time I caught up to them, I didn't want to just take one frame and leave it because it didn't look right yet. So I sort of hung back behind them for a block or so until I got a frame that I really liked. And it was worth it because it was this miraculous thing that doesn't really ever happen, or at least not often. And I was able to capture this rather poetic moment of this group of Santas strutting past this down and out homeless fella, the poor fellow. And it just said something to me about how society turns a blind eye to that stuff, and that even Santa doesn't help. So in the end, it was worth it to get off the bus and wait for the right moment. And if you worried about them being freaked out if they see you and you're sort of more or less following them, I'm sure if what they're doing is truly quite interesting or rare or whatever, it will be easy enough to explain to them. I mean, if the group of Santas saw me, it would have just been a simple, you know, I just, you look quite interesting, you know, I saw you walking around. There's a group of you six or seven Santas. And it'll all be fine. They'll totally understand. I might even ask why they're dressed that way. So honestly, you'll weasel your way out of it, no problems. So it's typically fine in those situations to just wait for the right moment, snag it, and move on. It is good to be realistic though, because honestly there is a part of this craft that is optically to everyone else a bit wacky. You know, you're following people around taking pictures. It just comes with the territory. So you just need to learn how to tackle that head on. Learn how to manage it and you'll be sweet. Just one more thing on the waiting for the right moment topic. It's not always just weight. Weight, weight. And then you're guaranteed the photo of your dreams. Obviously, sometimes other issues come into play. For example, if you are, say a bit of a lighting Nancy, which I certainly am. And so say you really know what type of lighting conditions you like, and it might mean that you need to wait for your subject to step into good lighting. That might complicate things just as much as all the other elements do. Because the scene might be playing out in a way where you know your ideal scenario is not likely to happen. So you need to change tacts. There are 1 million little things that come together to make a great street photograph. And if you want to create strong, consistent work, it's just about trying to wrap your head around as many of them as possible. So you can then adapt, pivot, stay creative, and find ways to make the photograph work in a way that interests you. At the end of the day though, since a lot of the time the best interesting moments can happen so quickly, you just need to react instinctively. You might only get one shot at the scene as it is. And the idea is that if you get good at all these other skills first, and you know your voice, hopefully your instincts and your intuition will be more refined by the time those unforgettable moments cross in front of your lens. And hopefully in those brief moments, you can nail it. 20. Confidence & Ways to Find It: One essential thing you'll need to do, which you're totally capable of doing and you couldn't have chosen a better art to help massage it out of you, is to find and channel your confidence. People will sense your awkwardness or your loitering presence. If you're not confident, you'll still get some results. But the less attention you can draw to yourself, the better If you can be outwardly confident. It will go a long way because you'll just blend into the world. People have a strong radar for strange behavior. You know someone fumbling over their settings trying to decide if they want to take a picture of someone or not. We'll raise alarms and you'll probably change the very scenario that you're wanting to photograph. So try and streamline your process. Keep your gear simple. Avoid the things that damage your rhythm and try to channel your confidence. Then you'll be in a good headspace to thrive in. When I head out for a session, a lot of what gets me feeling confident just starts with getting the ball rolling. I need to sort of fire off a few shots, break the ice, rip the band aid off. Don't put too much pressure on yourself for every single shot to be a complete banger, because it's just not realistic. If you allow yourself to make mistakes and loosen up, you'll fall into a rhythm easier and you'll feel more confident because you're not fumbling over your gear at the critical moment. Because you're already warmed up and ready when those interesting, important moments strike. At the start of a session, maybe throw out a few lightly flattering compliments like, hey, I dig your hat, or hey, I like your boots. Typically, you'll get warm responses and it'll serve as a reminder that everything's all good, you're not doing anything wrong, and you know that you're in control. One other tip to help boost your confidence is knowing what you like or have a few goals in mind. For example, if you step out with the notion that you're going to get within 2 meters of your subjects, you've instantly given yourself a framework that will start delivering you ideas, start seeing the world through that lens. And sometimes those restrictions are helpful to grease the wheels a little bit. And then you'll inevitably be able to respond to situations outside of that framework just naturally anyway. But at least you'll be moving with some confidence by then. I guess the overall idea of this guide is to boost your confidence via having a few extra tools on your belt. So in a sense, I'm hoping all the things I'm going to talk about all contribute to a confidence boost so that you can leave that problem behind you. 21. How to Avoid Conflict: A quick tip on avoiding conflict. And this is just one approach, and it might be almost too obvious to say, but if you sense that someone is going to go totally nuts, if they catch you taking a picture of them, then try the approach of pretending to look elsewhere after shooting the photo as if you didn't even see them there and that they're definitely not your subject. You know, use your body language, especially if you suspect that they nearly caught you. I don't do it that often, but it works basically every time that I do need to do it. Say they'll turn around and see me. And if I've got them framed up in, say, the left side of my frame, my camera is only in their general direction. It's not aiming smack bang directly at them. And my eye is still behind the viewfinder at this point. So I'll pull my eye down and completely commit to staring at something else as if I'm super interested in that other thing, like the building behind them, for example. Or I'll sort of move my camera to another position and fiddle with the camera settings a bit, looking a little inquisitive of things, anything other than them, and just never looking them directly in the eye. And that will usually convince them that I'm just some random sort of almost tourist type person harmlessly looking around. But you have to do it confidently. You really need to wholeheartedly commit and follow through with the idea that you truly didn't take a picture of them and that you're looking at something else. I'll go the whole 9 yards and I feel like a total idiot when I'm doing it. But I'll sort of like, you know, look the building up and down. Pretend to even take another picture. Pretend to contemplate. It's completely absurd, but if you're taking this approach, do not look at them. As soon as you make eye contact, they will instantly engage with you, I guarantee it. It happens every single time. Even if it's 10 seconds later, They still have that hunch. They still have that simmering hunch that this person took a picture of me, I know it. But if you never ever look at them, most of the time they just sort of don't have enough evidence for themselves to kind of go off at you. So they just relax, they pump the brakes, they semi start to resume what they were doing. Maybe they're a little suspicious, but it's quite comical really. It's, you know, it works out fine. That strategy is only really for if it's going to be a proper blowout between you and them and you don't want to have to deal with it. I mean, it's either that or go head on into the interaction. But I find that if you at least don't look at the person, even if they do choose to interact with you, you can act surprised and deny it. And the simple act of being surprised usually diffuses all the tension and it reverses the hunch they had and it typically won't turn into an issue. I feel like it's worth describing this because you will definitely encounter people that are yelling on the street or doing something strange that you want to photograph. Or maybe you photograph someone doing something that they're not supposed to be doing and you only have good intentions of just making an interesting photograph. You're not personally attacking them or judging them, and you know you're not going to give the evidence to the police. You just see this great story playing out in front of you and you want to capture the essence of it, but you will from time to time, get caught. And it's good to have an arsenal of strategies to keep in mind. The good thing about having the viewfinder in front of your face if you shoot that way, is that in the few moments before you lower the camera, you're slightly hidden, so your intentions aren't perfectly clear. So you have like a second or two to decide which approach to take to run with the blissfully unaware approach or engage with your subject approach. I don't know. Try it out, it works for me. And if it works for you, it might give you the bravery you need to shoot more of those compromising scenes, which basically always turn out interesting. 22. Cheat Sheet: There are a lot of things you'll see a lot of as the years go by. Although the world is obviously insanely spontaneous, we're much more predictable than I ever thought. And because of that, there are a lot of gestures or common opportunities that almost always work visually. You want to be careful of hitting the cliche factor too hard on your work, but I can't deny that shooting some of these common occurrences still never loses its fun. Because you're always sort of thinking to yourself, ooh, maybe this will be my best version of this picture, yet it's things like hand gestures or people doing strange things with their arms. You know, they always make the compelling visuals just because of the peculiar nature of how it looks when it's paused. I like to try and sometimes remove the subject and just frame their arms. Or just frame their legs to accentuate the weirdness. Leaving critical pieces of information out, like the rest of the person's body can create more of an engaging image. It leaves something to the imagination. Another scenario, which almost always turns out visually interesting, is when there's a crowd of people all looking at something, try photographing only their faces. Their reaction, rather than also including the thing they're reacting to. Just leave that out. Don't even try to include them in the thing. Just focus on the crowd's faces and their reactions. And the photo will have an inherent intrigue to it because it's unfinished. It gives the audience something to do and they'll be excited to be involved. You know, it's okay to create confusing, incomplete, in a sense, photos. Because people who like street photography just love to engage with the photo in that way. You know, they kind of make it their own. In that sense, they add their own story to it and that's all part of the fun. Another common visual you'll start to notice everywhere is just the endless amount of juxtapositions in life. Visual juxtapositions. You can be tasteful with them though, and again, they're just one of those things that you'll always shoot. Because you might think, what if this is my best one yet? Or what if it really works in a photo book because of the message it sends? One incredibly common storytelling tool is the use of shadows. They're a core component, obviously being that photography is only light, and shadow, and color and whatnot. And I'll talk about the use of light and shadow in more nuanced ways, more in relation to composition later on. But I just want to leave a little reminder in this section to pay attention to the shadows that are being created by things. Because there will always be a wonderful world to be explored there and it will always be beautiful. So keep your eyes out for beautiful textures or patterns, or poetry in the shadows. Even if you just take a few nice light and shadow frames to sort of grease the wheels, get the engine going at the beginning of a session. Those simple ingredients can sometimes feel so nice to photograph. And remember, there doesn't have to be a human in the frame for it to be a street shot. It can be just a slice of light or a detail of something in the world or a little animal. Any of those subjects are just as much within the scope, you might say, of street photography as anything else. I mean, originally when you look at the history of street photography, actually the majority of the really, really early work was entirely without people. And for a funny reason too, because the time it took to make an exposure was such a long period of time that people would have walked the whole length of the street by the time it was exposed. So their impression on the image had sort of melted away to nothing during the long exposure. To the point where it's thought that one of the first street photographs of a person ever is of a shoe shiner and his customer getting his shoe shined because they were the only people on the street who were relatively stationary for a long enough period of time to make an exposure. And funnily enough, back then, the phrase street photography wasn't even in existence Funny how a movement can have begun per se before the people doing it even knew. And I think really that's a great lesson in just following your gut and your ideas anyway, even if you don't have a framework for them yet. Or even if there's no genre to house them yet. Because years from now there will be. And that's just how it works. So take that story of the shoe shiner as a message to always create what interests you and inspires you, even if nobody else understands it Yet, I would say it's almost our creative moral obligation to do exactly that. To push the conversation forward to places it's never been before. 23. Predict Opportunities & Use Your Body Language: A lot of scenes will not offer you a chance to intervene. But sometimes, when it's possible, predicting, strategizing, and putting your body and mind towards a certain idea can make it happen. For example, one thing that happens to me a lot is I'll see an opportunity over in the distance. But I know that if I rush over to get it, I'll disturb the whole situation that I was wanting to photograph. Like a group of people interacting in a certain way, and it will just fizzle out and disappear, never to be seen again if I rush over. So it requires a bit of a strategy. And what I mean by strategy is you need to be realistic with what options might lead to what outcomes. And then set your settings accordingly and execute a bit of a mini plan. As an example, say something peculiar is happening way up ahead on the footpath. And I spot it, but I can tell that it's about to finish because of their body language or whatever. I then know that I need to get there quickly in order to even have a chance at taking a shot. But to complicate matters, I know that approaching at that speed will mean that I will probably be noticed and maybe it'll fizzle out. Or worse yet, I'll come on too heavy and spook the subject and get involved in a potentially unpleasant interaction. Which is fine, obviously because you can disarm the situation. But if it's avoidable, it's probably preferable, especially if you can get an interesting photograph and not have an unpleasant interaction. So I realize that the most conducive approach is to maybe pretend I'm in a rush to get somewhere. You know, try to carry a certain confidence with my stride. You get to the scene, and as I bypass it, I know I'll probably only get one shot and maybe two. So with that in mind, I'll know that I need to be ready for what I want to be in that frame. So I'm paying attention to the details, you know, the movement, the light, the background, and all the other moving parts as I approached. Then hopefully my settings are all good and, you know, all that stuff's on autopilot. And the best case is I swish past, get the shot, carry on, followed by a big smile of satisfaction on my face. The lesson there is just that if every so often you look a bit further down the pathway, you might be able to catch a few more situations that are unfolding. And if you strategize and pair up your body language nicely with that strategy, you'll be able to expand what's possible for you photographically. It's funny actually, once you recognize how many mini strategies you're subconsciously implementing all throughout a street session, you can't help but become more and more blown away by how incredible all the excellent work out there is. Because you know from experience that it was likely so complicated to get. So unlikely you look at how many moving parts are in some of the photographs of someone like Gary Winingrain, and you can hardly imagine those ingredients coming together in that way. And it's amazing, and that's what I love about, is that when you in the world work together in that way, you can create the most engaging, untold stories, you know. Flawless and stunning moments that will never, ever, ever, ever happen again, captured right in front of your eyes. 24. Read the Room & Adapt: Sometimes where you are will require a different approach. Try to be perceptive of that. It's constantly shifting. I know it's common social knowledge to adapt, generally speaking, to your environment anyway. But somehow it can be a bit trickier. When your intention is to take photos somewhere, you know, you might need to be more discreet and lay low. Or be patient, or talk to the manager of a venue first. Maybe or ask for someone's help to get you to where you need to be. If it's on stage or in a certain spot in the room, maybe you have to ease the crowd first, earn their trust depending on the situation. Other times, you might need to be more assertive and deliberately head towards the center of attention and just dive right in and snag what you can while you're getting as good from the best possible angle, knowing that it might end shortly thereafter. If you do so, keeping in mind that you taking photographs of some type of behavior deliberately in plain sight will be the thing that likely causes the scene to end earlier than it would have otherwise anyway. For example, if some lady's dancing around at the pub while she's waiting at the bar to get a drink, perhaps she's happy to put herself out there and be embarrassed ever so slightly the usual amount, you know, when you're just mucking around, you know, dancing for your friends over in the corner. Outwardly, being an idiot, it's for everyone else's entertainment. Right? And for her own enjoyment too. So perhaps she will continue. But if she does notice you taking photographs of her, that will raise the stakes of embarrassment for her. It changes things and for sure, some people might play it up for the camera briefly depending on their personality and their level of intoxication. But typically, it will come to an end if you dive right into the center of attention with them in that way. Either way, try and evaluate what the room needs and what you need and see if there's a good balance that you can strike. Maybe this is just my issue. But it's hard sometimes because you know that if you simply do what you're meant to do at this location, IE, what everyone else is doing, whatever is normal to do there. Sometimes that ties you down to one specific spot or one type of experience that doesn't allow you to make interesting photographs. For example, if it's a ten pin bowling alley and you go and hang at a specific lane and start bowling like everyone else, you won't really have much of a chance to capture many decent, diverse moments, right? Because you're doing what you're meant to do there, which means you're stuck in a certain experience because you need to walk around to get diverse street photographs. It's scenarios like that that you have to either get creative and channel your extraverted side with your approach and also just accept that you'll probably have lots of interactions over the next little while. Maybe depending on your approach or take a different approach and just be a bit more patient waiting for things to come to you. Or find ways to tell some interesting stories with other elements in the space, like shoot through some groovy reflections and mirrors and props and signs in the foreground. Trying to perhaps hero those things in your frame. Instead, see how you feel at the time, get creative and make it work for you. 25. Be a Tourist: One of the best parts about doing street photography in tourist destinations, or even popular destinations is that everyone who you take a photo of probably thinks you're a tourist or some form of visitor. Anyway, remember, the vast majority of the population of the world doesn't have street photography on their mind whatsoever, or honestly, even in their entire realm of knowledge. It's just a niche genre within a category of artistic endeavors which most of the world is barely involved in, so most people have no clue what you're actually up to. I typically find myself more suspicious of myself than anyone else seems to be. And I have to constantly remind myself that nobody's even worried about it. They're certainly not expecting to be up on Instagram or in a book or whatever. It's funny, actually, When I think back over the years that I've been doing this, I can only remember recognizing maybe three occasions that I noticed that I might have been the subject of someone else's street photography. One of them was, I remember a flash went off next to me in Tokyo. I looked beside me and the guy had a liker in his hand and he was doing the whole ignore look away. Nothing happened, kind of act. And in my head I was laughing and being like no way, this guy just did the thing. But even knowing a fair bit about street photography at the time, I still couldn't be certain. I was like, you know what, He could just be a tourist taking some happy snaps. So on top of the majority of times that they won't even see you, the people you photograph, the remainder of times they won't even know what you're really doing. The point is embrace being seen as a tourist. Let it empower, braver work. And if you go somewhere touristy, there will be lots of action, lots of opportunities. And whenever you get seen, most people will just assume you're a tourist anyway and they're just excited about the spot. That's the best part about tourist destinations. Take a classic example of the Eiffel Tower, for example. As a street photographer, you want something to be happening in the foreground in front of it. So you end up seeing all these people that are taking selfies or doing obscure poses, or doing something entirely juxtaposed. And it makes for great street photographs and a very good training ground. And the best bit is they just think you're taking pictures of the tower or whatever it is, A mountain, a bridge, a sculpture, or painting, a landmark of some kind, be a tourist embrace it. 26. Wait, Just to See What Happens: Something that I would recommend is just wait somewhere just to see what happens. Especially in busy spots. You'll have countless opportunities to try out skills and ideas that you're trying to work on. So just wait in spots to see what happens there. Don't feel like you have to zigzag all over the city all the time. Sometimes operating in one zone is even just a good lesson in seeing how damn dynamic the world is and how much it delivers. If you're patient, I swear every time I stay somewhere for an extended period of time, the most outrageous thing I could never expect happens there. If you really like exactly where you are, camp out for a while, work the scene a bit. Why not stay there and see what happens? Even if it's not for photographic purposes. You should feel free to flick between a focused street photographer's mindset to a leisurely mode to take a breather from the constant onslaught of street opportunities and enjoy the space. It's important to do that, to take a moment. And when you do switch back to street mode, remember you can camp however you like, do it your way. You might camp a bit loosely and kind of float around one specific area a bit until you're over it, or until you capture a few moments that caught your eye. Or you might stay there all day and be really patient or work really hard at a certain idea. And framing wise, you might even get super strict on yourself and say, I want this specific frame to be my boundary, those are my edges. And camp right there and wait for things to enter your frame. Some people use these camping based approaches religiously, but you don't have to feel free to dip in and out of it whenever it makes sense. Be dynamic and learn to pivot from a camping approach to an on the move approach. Because if you can do that, you'll stay entertained and get diverse results. The way I see it is that the chances of getting great shots, dependent on which approach you take, camping or walking, are relatively similar. And although both approaches involve adapting and being creative, they both rely on timing, but in different ways. If you camp in one spot and you get a beautiful frame set up, and you've already locked down a strong framework for a decent street shot. And then it's about waiting for life and timing to deliver the goods. I did this quite a lot in Portugal because I was there specifically to make a street photography book on Portugal. So whenever I saw a location that seemed uniquely Portuguese to me, I'd frame up something and wait for things to populate my frame in a nice way. A bit of framing flexibility for sure. But the point was that I wanted to capture the overall look and feel of the country. And so if I was to see something uniquely Portuguese, but I didn't take a picture in that spot just because some fantastic event wasn't happening in that moment. And then I kept walking, I felt like my book wouldn't scream Portugal the way I wanted it to. It might just look like any other European city and I didn't want that, so I'd camp. The bones of the photo might start with a certain subject who's standing or sitting somewhere quite strange or interesting, or picturesque. But perhaps it doesn't feel like there are enough ingredients. And you might want a few more things to be happening in the frame to contextualize this moment or fatten out the story a little. So you start to kind of work the scene a little bit, framing it up, waiting for people to enter the frame, then maybe realizing it's not working from that angle. So you move a little to your right, a little to your left, and include a new element, or maybe your original subject leaves. So you have to adapt and create a bit of a new frame with the other location ingredients that you liked or whatever it may be. And the interesting thing that happens is the longer you wait and the more diverse ingredients that cross your path, it actually makes you realize bit by bit how to improve the frame, how to make it as good as it can be in your own estimation. Because there might be something you didn't realize would be a good element to add into the frame, like some foreground or maybe panning right a little bit to include a sailing boat at the top right corner of the frame along the horizon, say. So you slowly refine it and you end up with these really well crafted frames. I think that trip to Portugal and having that specific goal of making a book in mind was the thing that made me appreciate the camping approach. Because before that, I was definitely usually on the move, but I couldn't believe how many compelling scenarios would fall together when I was more patient to the point where it becomes really hard to choose between all the different options that you get. Because you wait and shoot, but maybe it wasn't quite right. So you wait, wait, wait some more for another great moment until something felt so right. But then strangely enough, it's sometimes those first shots that end up being the best. But at least you know that because you waited to see other ingredients fall together to compare, it's a different kind of satisfaction than the on the move approach, which often makes you feel so alive because you're always getting hit with these wonderfully serendipitous coincidences. Because you've increased your odds of seeing more great things by exposing yourself to that constant stream of new scenarios and new characters. So for that reason, I think an on the move approach is probably more common, and which can bear slightly more fruit sometimes depending on what you class as a successful photograph. But the problem I'd say you encounter more often with that approach is that you get a perfect shot less often because the chances of the perfect subject surrounded dynamically by other great subjects, all of which are doing something interesting or behaving interestingly, all in an interesting spot with a great background, with a thoughtful balance to it all. Good lighting as you walk by are just a little bit slimmer because you're motoring through the scene, so your timing window is much more narrow. Often what happens to me when I'm walking around shooting on the move is I see so many almost. I think I wish that guy was over there instead, or I wish he was waving his arms around the way he was a moment ago. But as he walks past this thrift shop, or I wish that, you know, this person would just take one step back into that slice of sunlight. However, of course, if you're more of a singular subject oriented street photographer, rather than being more interested in capturing overall scenes with more people on the move approach will work for you very well because you'll be able to hone in on interesting characters back to back to back all day. And eventually things will click together every few photos, and you'll definitely capture lots of energy and lots of life and movement, and visual diversity. But if you're someone who likes more of a crafted look to your work, camping might suit you. As always though. The best approach, in my opinion, is a flexible one where you're going with your gut, adapting and flowing with different approaches from one moment to the next as the session goes on. 27. Revisit Spots: Revisit spots too, even if it's just an experiment to see how different the experience is. That next time, the main reason a photographer would do this is if they love a certain element of that space like the background or the lighting or some other feature. But the other elements haven't fallen together perfectly for them. On previous occasions, you know, I get it all the time. Where I can see that the background is beautiful. The composition just from this exact spot, everything just seems to fall together into place compositionally perfectly. But nothing's really happening in the frame that gives the photograph any power or intrigue, or poetry. There's no story really. So it's just a game of persistence in that regard. And if anything, revisiting spots will prove to yourself, time and time again, how diverse and dynamic the street can be. Because sure enough, something interesting will definitely happen eventually. An example of revisiting a spot and being totally surprised is outside the Supreme Court, down the road from where I used to live throughout the day. They're so corporate and kind of dull with poor lighting and not much action going on. But the architecture is so interesting that it's just begging to be photographed. Then the next thing you know, if you want to past on a Friday night, every single hip hop dancer in the entire city is down there dancing in small groups, battling doing routines in front of these huge reflective windows, engulfing this urban architecture With blasting speakers, portable disco lights, and just huge loads of energy just buzzing everywhere. A huge community, endless moments to be captured. So the point here is revisit at different times, on different days to see what's changed, and I'm sure you'll be surprised. One other tool that I use, if I know I want to revisit a spot, but something like say the lighting is wrong, I'll use this app on my phone called Sun Scout, and it will show me where the sun is at all different times throughout the day and it's trajectory. It's been helpful when I want a trip somewhere and I only have a few days there and I really liked one specific spot, but don't quite have the luxury of coming back time and time again. So I'll open the app, See that oh, at 02:00 P.M. the sun will be ripping straight down this street or anytime after 04:00 P.M. and it's being blocked by buildings or whatever you know or say you're flying out of that city that you're visiting at midday the next day. And the light looks a bit, right now, it's not your style. You might want direct sunlight or diffused light, or no light, whatever. But you pull out the Sun Scout app and you realize that at 08:00 A.M. there will be a really nice window of light bouncing into that area that you like. And then Bob's your uncle, you can be there for it. Or you might see that the light would be completely blocked by buildings and you'll maybe go elsewhere or sleep in or whatever. I mean, usually in street photography you just get what you get and work around the lighting scenario creatively. And it's usually more about the subjects typically. But for me, coming from film every so often, I find it really helpful to know where the lighting is going to be coming from because then you can know, oh, okay, 2-3 is my best window for action on this particular street. I just shoot like crazy in that hour. Do my best to make moments happen, and I know that at least the lighting will be gorgeous. And if it's in a specific area in say the town or city that you live in, and you're not fussed about when you revisit. Boom. You can just write it in your notes, on your phone. And if you're ever near the area at the right time of day or heading out for a session, you can refer to your notes, make a point of heading to explore that space with your ideal lighting environment. And then bang happy days. It's not a tool you'll need to use often, but it's nice that it exists. Pop it on the tool bell, and when you finally use it that one time and it works, you'll be really glad you did. 28. Follow Your Gut as You Walk: You're only trying to entertain yourself. So just go where you want to go, take a left here, go in that shop there, step on the bus, get off here, walk back, go the long way, Whatever you're drawn to, Just do it. Give yourself chunks of time to do street so that you can feel free to roam. It's the only way you'll find something new. I know we all have to try to slip a session into a lunch break or on our way home from work. And it's essential to make those sections of time work for us. But if you can carve out bigger chunks of time, it will pay off in the end because a big part of getting successful street photographs is just persistence. It's fail, fail, fail, succeed, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, succeed. The more failures you can get out of the way, the closer you're going to get to making a great photograph. Because if you want to be in the right place at the right time, you have to increase your odds by increasing the factors you can control, which is mainly your time spent. 29. Things to Keep an Eye On: There are multiple key ingredients that are helpful to keep an eye on while you're out shooting that will help improve your rate of successful photographs. I'm talking about things like direction of light, light sources, shadows, events happening in the distance, The overall patterns of behavior in your environment, your settings, the architecture around you. There are probably lots more. But if you can work on these things and get them to an almost autopilot level, you'll be able to predict things more effectively and dedicate more of your attention to the things that matter in the end. So take direction of light, for example. If you know that the light is coming from the side and it's ripping down the sideways avenues in strips of light as you go across town, you'll know that every time you approach a cross section, you might need to change your settings because when you turn left, everything will be front lit. Or when you turn right, everything will be back lit. And you'll likely need to change those settings anyway, since you've been walking down the shaded streets and you'll be entering a sun drenched avenue in a few moments. So if you can be prepared for that lighting change, you'll be in a better spot to turn the corner, see something that strikes you and capture it quickly, rather than miss the moment. I've had so many moments where I turn the corner and I'm immediately met by some fascinating human, almost face to face. And the moment passes me by because I'm not ready. Maybe I'm fumbling over my settings, or maybe I go for it anyway and overexpose it, whatever it may be. So just try and think a few seconds ahead. Anticipate that interesting scenarios could appear in your blind spots. And if you can do that, you won't miss those types of opportunities. Take architecture as another example. If you can start to pick out things that interest you, you can start to prepare for them. Almost subconsciously say, you spot a bookshop up ahead, getting hit with sunlight and it's got a nice elaborate entrance way. You know an old timy entrance way. You know that you're going to need to cross the road to get the shot you want, but also be a certain distance away from the front door in order to keep it completely in your frame. So you're starting to build a bit of a compositional framework to base an idea off. And yes, it can all go to and you can react to something new if it happens between the time of crossing the road. But at least you're cooking up ideas and improving your chances at nailing it and capturing something that interested you and drew you in. And then boom, maybe the hunchback of Notre Dame steps out, all wobbly with a cane in one hand and hugging a stack of books in the other. And bang, you were there in the perfect spot. That's what you want. You were drawn in by your own interests. The world delivered more ingredients that you're interested in. You were ready, Click it all came together. 30. Light Metering: Let's talk about light metering and how to be totally in control of your basic settings. First of all, let's assume you're shooting completely manually, just for argument's sake. Because if you're using completely auto settings, maybe on a digital camera, you won't really be thinking much about this stuff anyway, and you're probably fine for the most part. Or you might be someone who's using a film camera that does have a built in light meter. But if the battery in your camera dies, the light meter won't work. In which case you'll be momentarily. Which reminds me just quickly, if I were you, I'd download the iphone light meter app just in case that happens. And hopefully, you can still use the camera manually depending on what model of camera you're using. Because some camera shutters won't fire if the battery is dead on old film cameras. So you might genuinely be feed if that's the situation you're in. In which case, just always have a spare battery with you, but the light meter app and a spare battery is always a good idea. You don't want to be somewhere remote and spectacular. And then realize your camera is a brick halfway through the day. Removing the idea of a built in light meter. And really, no matter what your gear set up is, I personally think trying to learn your manual settings off by heart is a good thing to know. Anyway, so let's quickly cover metering and settings, assuming you're using a completely manual camera. And then if you ever find yourself in a tricky situation and you need to rely on your brain instead of your camera telling you the settings, then you'll be better equipped to nail it, okay. So you've probably heard of the Sunny 16 Rule, which is a rough guideline for correctly exposing your shots, but if you haven't had to shoot manually, your brain probably didn't bother retaining the detail of the rule. So I'll quickly lay it out. I'll try to say it as simply as possible at the start because I know that all these wacky numbers and words and settings and blah blah blah can get all jumbled in some of our brains. But basically, the sunny 16 rule says that if you're shooting on a bright, sunny day in the sun, your shot will be correctly exposed if your aperture is at 16 and your shutter speed is as close as possible to the number of the ISO ASA. So, if you're shooting 400 speed film, say put your shutter on 500. Because analog cameras don't typically have a 400th of a second shutter speed. But that extra 100th of a second doesn't make enough of a difference to matter, so it will be exposed correctly there. That's the rule. That's as simple as I think. I can make it at 400 speed film, or 400 ISO. Set your camera at F 16, at 500 of a second, and you'll be sweet then at least you know what your settings should be in bright sunshine, which is obviously a super popular lighting condition. And then you can chip away at learning the rest, like shaded scenes, interior scenes, et cetera. When I was using a Leica M three, which has no light meter and is completely manual, I decided to write all of my different settings in my notes on my phone, and then screenshot those notes and save the screenshot as my wallpaper so that I could access it quickly. If you have a light meter in your camera, you won't really need to do that, obviously. But I found it really helpful to do that because it ended up cementing that knowledge in my mind. And after a few weeks, I'd essentially memorized most of the different aperture and shutter speeds in relation to various lighting conditions. And I feel like that has been an invaluable skill in terms of feeling confident with my camera and also being able to be pre prepared for a change in the lighting condition. If I say walk inside a building coming in from a sunny exterior, I just move my settings to what I know will be exposed correctly inside before I even open the door and boom, I'm ready to shoot inside. And I can keep the flow going and I can't tell you how many street shots pop up just as you enter places. So it's really important to get that down Whenever I found myself in a new lighting condition that I felt like I'd encountered relatively often, I do a light meter Reading of the space with the iphone app. The light meter would tell me what the shutter speed should be at, in relation to whatever aperture I choose, which is usually eight, except when inside. And then I'd just add those settings to the list. In my notes re, screenshot. It set the new screenshot as my phone wallpaper and off I go starting to memorize the new settings to give you a better map of what that list looked like on my phone. That notes list, it would have subheadings like outside in sun, and then beneath it, it would say at 400 ISO at F eight, at 1000th of a second. Because in relation to the sunny 16 rule, I should be at 1200th of a second shutter speed, but the camera didn't have that option. So 1000th of a second was the closest I could get. Then the screenshot of my notes had other more descriptive scenarios too, like outside in shade, and then the sittings needed for that outside on an overcast day, Inside at day, in a normally lit cafe with windows, sunset facing the sun, sunset ambience facing away from the sun blue hour sky when exposing for a silhouette inside at night. In normal household lighting, bright subway carriage, dark subway carriage, because obviously some of the older subway trains are darker and dimmer. And so I'd have all these lighting scenarios and environments just basically written down. And the aperture and shutter speed necessary for that scene next to it. And off I went. It seems like a lot, but a lot of the lighting conditions are relatively similar settings. It's usually a matter of picking an F stop for outside like F eight, and then knowing what shutter speed to set your camera at depending on your lighting conditions. But don't complicate matters by changing your F stop and then pick a different F stop inside like F two, and then know what your shutter speeds should be at in your different interior lighting conditions. That's the way I do it. That's the cleanest, most simple process. I've been able to boil it down to when shooting manually. And if you're shooting on aperture priority, which I would highly recommend, then it's even easier. You just go from F eight to F 2.8 depending on if you're inside or outside and then the camera does the rest. Boom, easy job done, then you can focus on the stuff that matters. Also, just as an attempt to quickly reassure you, the numbers really do start to sink in after a while and then you don't even need the list of lighting conditions, you're just on autopilot. It's so funny when we think of the older shooters who used to always have to do everything manually from memory. Usually some of us think of that as a weakness to their process and their technology, that they didn't have aperture priority or any auto features. But I see it as a strength that they were forced into because when I chose that manual Leica M three camera and committed to the fact that I'd have to learn my lighting conditions and my settings off by heart, it was liberating because it wasn't long before I learned it all off by heart. And from then on I was completely in control. I could grab any camera and just be anywhere and be like, bang, here are the settings and if it wasn't the F stops, I was used to defaulting to like eight and F two. I'd just do the maths of like, okay, this lens only goes down to F 2.8 so I just have to change my shutter one stop in the right direction or whatever. And I knew that it would be exposed. And then from there, all my brain power was able to be about the content, not the settings. I could just be immersed in life rather than immersed in slightly unsure of my settings land and therefore, it's always on my mind. And that's what the older shooters had the advantage of. They had to learn their F stops there, half stops their environments, and then they were free from thinking about it for the most part. Even if you don't need to do it with gear nowadays, like I said, I'd recommend it in case you eventually find yourself in a pinch and just wish you knew the settings off by heart at the end of the day. It's only really a couple of numbers. I think with a bit of effort, we're all capable of memorizing that, or at least the main key ones. And then you can estimate from there, It's very helpful knowledge. Then you don't have to look at every different camera you acquire as a whole new monster. You can just set it to manual and off you go find a way to grind it into your brain so that it can just be background knowledge. And I promise you you'll feel more confident. Also, there will be, for sure, many better sources than me to explain this much more eloquently than I do. But I remember my work improving a lot, almost overnight, when I learned to be more confident with my camera in that way because I didn't have to wig out and feel stressed about exposure when I was shooting manual cameras. I don't know how many of you can relate to that. But making an exposure on film and really not knowing if it was exposed correctly, it really takes away from the experience. You're sort of stoked that you think you captured the moment, but you're not entirely sure if it's just totally blown out or underexposed or whatever. It deflates the experience a bit. Okay, To top off this section of metering, I want to quickly refresh your mind on what the full F stops are. The full F stops go 1.422 0.845 0.68 11, 16, 22, and other numbers you often come across on your manual lenses like F 2.4 or 3.5 they're all half stops. Just make sure you know your full stops. And remember that for every full stop of light, you need to either half or double your shutter speed depending on which direction you've changed your F stop to then have it exposed. For example, if you're correctly exposed at eight, at 1000th of a second, but then for whatever reason you want to shoot on F 11 in that same lighting condition, maybe to get more depth of field. Well 11 is a smaller hole than F eight, so it's less light into the camera. So you'll need to allow another stop of light into the camera by halving your shutter speed and slowing it down to 500 of a second. And if you want to go the other way and shoot at F 5.6 that's a bigger hole, right? So you need to double your shutter speed to 2000 a second to cut out some of the light getting in. Otherwise it will be over exposed. The beauty of knowing of stops and this comes into play quite often for me is that if I know I'm correctly exposed at F eight, at 1000th of a second in the sun. But I want to get a shallower depth of field on a really unique character. I can move down to four, which is two stops faster. And since my current camera's shutter goes all the way up to 4000th of a second, I know that I just need to cut two stops of light by going 1000-4 thousand and bingo, I could even sneak down to 3.5 or 2.8 and still be fine. Either way, the shot will be a bit creamier, softer, dreamier. It will remove some of the distracting background action. And then I've used my aperture to really make that character pop off the background, and I've done it confidently because I know my stops, my metering, and my settings. 31. Look for Pleasure in the Process: Some of the best advice I think I can give you. And I'm sure you've heard many similar sentiments. But look for pleasure in the process, not the outcome. A practical example is if you're having a bad shooting day, say you're not getting any great shots, you're missing moments, whatever the issue may be, I suggest you just stop for a minute, maybe hop into a coffee shop that you like the look of, or grab a specific food that you really love to eat or whatever it is and just step back, relax and recalibrate. It's usually in those moments of frustration that if I just take a moment to recalibrate, I end up accidentally stumbling into a new perspective somehow, and it ends up turning everything around. Perhaps you stumble into a new coffee shop and you didn't realize. But as you look out the window, it's got the perfect view of a key landmark that you like. And a shard of light is slicing straight down the middle of the cafe. And you're able to make this interesting photograph, separating the room into two parts with a line down the middle. Or perhaps you're sitting there at a table spaced out a little bit. And you realize the arrangement of the condiments are placed oddly on your table, or they're all empty or whatever. And perhaps the height and spacing of the salt and pepper and sauce bottles matches the shape and height of the buildings out the window in the background. So you try to build something out of that, but you were able to see it because you'd stopped and changed your mental lens to just be in this little 1 meter bubble for a moment, trying to get back to a positive place, to get back in the zone. You can't take every approach at once, but if the approach you're taking isn't working, maybe mix it up for a moment and take a break. It's about making it an enjoyable journey while creatively problem solving and embracing that whole process. And you would never have seen these moments and maybe even captured them photographically if you hadn't stopped for that mental break. And you stopped because you prioritized your actual emotions and you geared your strategy around moving back towards having a positive life experience rather than letting the streets get the best of you and bum you out. Try and treat street photography as a hobby and not like this life or death. I have to make more work. I have to get the best shot ever and I have to do it now. Kind of mentality, I've had those chapters, and in my opinion, that's the kind of shot that will burn you out and make you lose interest in this craft. You want to strive to impress yourself really, as in you want to create photos that you wish existed so that you can enjoy them. Remember to have fun with it. And that way it can be a pleasure rather than something stressful in your life. And that will be the thing that allows you to play the game for longer. And therefore, you will eventually capture all the moments that you always wanted. Whereas if you burn out and lose interest, you'll never get there. And that's a tragedy that you want to avoid. I recommend you keep your hobbies sacred. You want to treat it like a lifelong game, though, just quickly to play the devil's advocate. We're all very different people, of course, and there is obviously a lot of utility in having grit and vigor and a ferocious perseverance. So get out there and go hard and push through those comfort zones for sure. But my point is to just know where your boundaries are for you so you can keep enjoying street photography for a longer period of time, hopefully a lifetime. Because there's a difference between emotional fatigue and stepping out of your comfort zone. And we all have different spectrums in those regards. But either way, you know yourself best. So just remember to set yourself up for success in the long run. Not the short run. To miss a few shots today might mean you have the emotional stamina to get a few more shots later on in the week. But if you burn yourself out today and still don't get the results or experience you're after, and then hold a grudge on the craft for how you feel, you might not get back out there for a few weeks. So try to be wise and recognize your creative limits. 32. Why Shoot on f8?: It took me a fair while to start shooting on apertures like F8n beyond, like 11, F, 16, F 22. So if you're not in that place yet, this might be a good point to listen to. Because I come from filmmaking, especially in the independent realm, we typically throw the background out of focus for a variety of reasons. One big reason is that usually with the budgets I've worked with, we haven't had the budget to make the set decoration in the background actually look as nice as we would have liked to. So usually we'll just try to rent nicer lenses so that the image is still really pleasing. Because the bouquet is soft and uncluttered and stylish. And it ends up much more budget friendly than having a full production design department. It also helps remove brand names that we don't have the rights to or to remove background people that we don't have the right to use their face. And funnily enough, since this is usually the case with a lot of smaller type productions, like music videos, small commercials, low budget social campaigns, et cetera, It has become a bit of a look shoot that way to shoot with natural light and shallow depth of field. I ran with that look for quite a while. With my street photography, you might do the same. And it does look cinematic and dreamy to shoot on shallow depths of field. And I definitely love it for certain types of scenes and feelings. But the biggest problem is that you'll miss the shot a lot more often because you've got such a shallow focus plane. It wasn't until I realized how interesting a picture can become. If you include everything that I began to try shooting on deeper apertures. It was exciting, but also challenging to basically have everything in focus. Because it means that you can't cop out by just throwing the background of focus if the background. Instead you're forced to use the background and consider everything in the frame as a story point or compositional make or break. It's funny, it's more challenging in some ways and less challenging in others. First of all, it's nice because you don't need to throw the focus wheel around so much and be so fiddly with the lens. You can use zone focusing instead, which I'll cover later. You can also have smaller lenses because you won't need to have such big apertures. So you can have a compact camera which is less cumbersome and more discrete. You can pay more attention to the world instead of your gear because you know your focal plane is quite deep and your gear is quite low impact, so you're less likely to miss the shot. Then at the same time, once you do start shooting on deeper apertures, you really do have to be really precise with your framing so that you can create decent layers of separation, but without relying on focus to help you with layering. Otherwise, it'll all become a bit of a mess. The layers won't connect in an interesting and dynamic way, and then the photo probably might not work so well. One thing that I loved about shooting on deeper apertures was that I had a lot more freedom to tell stories that I wanted to tell. For example, if I see something across the road, let's keep it simple and say I saw a billboard or a sign, or a piece of graffiti that seems to cast some meaning over someone that's much closer to me. If I was on a shallow depth of field, I'd have to choose between the thing across the street or the thing closer to me. And the opposite one would be entirely out of focus. So in that instance, the singular thing that you're focusing on has to be really interesting to carry the entire story on their back. And that's not impossible, but it's much more rare than say, if you shoot on a deep depth of field and can include both elements in the same image to potentially create that meaningful photograph that you saw in your head. Also, just to be clear, when I say deep depth of field or everything in focus or small aperture, I don't mean that it has to be overly sharp, like some photographs nowadays are made with more modern lenses. In fact, a lot of the great street photographers that I'm thinking of when I'm talking about this whole idea of shooting with a deep depth of field. A lot of their work was made with much softer, older lenses anyhow. So although everything is indeed in focus, the image itself can still have a soft charming rendering to it. Still in focus, but not so crisp, and harsh, and crunchy, and high deaf. And I just thought it was worth noting the differentiation there between sharpness and focus. 33. ISO & ASA: In terms of ISO or ASA. Your process can change depending on your gear. But nowadays, I personally go as high as my camera can handle without the image falling apart. And I stop down from there with my aperture. Most of the time I use aperture priority. So my camera will choose my shutter speed for me based on the aperture that I've set it at. On a cloudy day, Ol rock around 1,600 ISO. And on a sunny day, Ol rock 800 ISO. This just means that I know I've got enough light to be in multiple situations. All I have to do is alter my aperture. Sometimes on a sunny day, I can be outside with something like F eight and have a fast shutter. But then I can also go into shaded or shadowy areas, and I can stay on F eight and still have a relatively fast shutter where everything is still rather sharp, at least to the point of not having unnecessary motion blur. So I can just keep the flow and just focus on framing. Unless it's imperative to your style that the image be so super smooth and clean, and devoid of any texture. With a really good digital scan and a properly exposed image, you'll be fined a step it up to 800 stock films, or in the case of Digital, 1,600 ISO on most decent cameras nowadays is a walk in the park comes to worst D. Noise technology is completely incredible nowadays. Not that any of us really want to be fiddling around with all that junk. But if 1,600 scares you, just keep it to 800 and you'll still be fine. I only do 1,600 on cloudy days just to get that one extra stop of light. Also, if roughness is a part of your style, as in a rough texture like film grain or digital noise, I can totally appreciate that. I definitely like a bit of grain and I'll typically add a little bit of grain to my digital images to give it a bit more of a textured fibrous feeling rather than a flat plastic feeling. But anyways, if roughness is a big part of your overall style, perhaps it's a good idea to add additional elements that support that grunge factor so that the quality of the photograph isn't solely relying on graininess to be interesting, because I know how romantic it can be to see a super broken, grainy image. It's strangely beautiful. But I feel like it can be even better if everything's supporting that idea as well. Whether it's your lens choice that maybe creates unique sort of fractured lens flares, or whether it's super dynamic framing choices or a strange filter on the frontial lens, or choosing the right subject matter for that grungy idea. Or leaning into the grangier color choices in the editing room, giving it deep dark shadows and like a foul green cinematic wash. These to me will all push that idea forward and make it even dirtier. Which if that's what you're looking for, I'm sure you'll be stoked on. 34. Trends: There's a quote by Brian Eno that goes, whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature CD distortion. The jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of eight bit, all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It's the sound of failure. So much modern art is the sound of things going out of control of a medium, pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry, too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film of bleached out, black and white Is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them? I feel like this quote explains trends or movements like the romantic use of expired film and grainy or quirky film. But I think they're all worth exploring because pushing everything to its creative limits can only lead to good things and to new things. My only thought is that the more ingredients you can add to that mix, the better. Or it's at least worth a try, in my opinion. Then they all play together and create something more and more unique and unrepeatable. 35. If All Else Fails, Get Closer: If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough. This quote comes from the great photo journalist, Robert Kapper, one of the founders of Magnum Photos back in the day. And the quote still rings true today. When you get really close to your subjects, you might think you're losing important parts of the frame, and that can definitely be true, but you're likely gaining emphasis on the punch line of the photograph. Taking your lens closer to the main subjects will dial up the impact they have on the photograph as a whole. Of course, you might lose background elements by using foreground features to cover a lot of the picture real estate. But if you put yourself in the right spot and you can be decisive with which background elements you do keep in the frame. You can give those specific background elements more meaning and power as well as giving your subjects more emphasis. I can't remember who I learned this from. It was in a photography book somewhere, so my apologies. But someone said photography is about being specific, about unspecific things. And what I took from that was to get close to what you're interested in, even if that thing is quite random, at least you're saying what you want to say quite specifically. Whereas, if you just see something that interests you, and all you ever do is let it sit somewhere in quite a wide breathable frame. We won't know really what you think about it. We might not even see it. So when possible get closer to it, show us the things you're interested in. You'll often have it where you think I like that person and the way they're interacting with the space. And I like that the space says something about the person. So you take a wider shot of the whole scene. But other times, and I'm definitely guilty of this, you'll see someone and you'll like them. And you'll almost find a way to compose the photograph nicely without needing to get closer. Those are the moments where you need to break through your comfort zone and get the photo in there. Don't just sit back and be lazy and find some nice compositional elements to frame it up. That's good sometimes, but other times it's simply an excuse to be lazy. Just get in there and show us what caught your eye. We don't always want to see all the other wider environmental stuff. We can see that in other shots, in ones that called for a wider shot. But if it's not immediately screaming to be a wide shot, then get closer and bit by bit, you'll get braver. Bit by bit, you'll get closer and bit by bit, your photos will have more impact. One other note on this topic is that since the development of technology is part of how art progresses and shifts, I feel like it's worth saying that since the way in which we digest visuals is for the most part, much more minimized size wise. Now being on a smartphone rather than a full magazine spread, or a gallery wall, or a large print, it makes sense that you factor that into your thinking from time to time. Because if you don't get close to your subjects, and then you and your audience, say, are only viewing the work on a small screen. And the impact of what you're trying to show and say will be heavily watered down. See if you can build that screen size issue into your workflow. And if in the end that close proximity factor doesn't work for you and you don't end up enjoying and appreciating what getting close to your subjects does for you, then I guess just don't do it. But at least you tried and you can move on more informed. 36. Watch Your Edges: When you get a moment to actually compose a shot that isn't too pressing for time, try and inspect the edges and add as much meaning to it as you can. I just mean put thought into the frame edge. If you read Magnum's book called Contact Sheets, you'll see some of the most famous and renowned photographers constantly doing this. There'll be something on the edge of frame that is messing with what the photographer is trying to do. So they'll maneuver here or there, just enough to remove it. Or the opposite, where they want to include a new piece of information that helps contextualize the story like a sign that says where they are or at least alludes to it. It could honestly be as seemingly insignificant as just squeezing in a street lamp into the top corner and the street lamps pole along the frame edge. Or trying to remove a distracting piece of signage that takes away from the core story. It's 1 million small decisions like this that make up the photo and balance it out. To be clear though, I'm not talking about making calm, pleasing images. For example, if you like making distressing, panicked, busy photographs with lots of information in them. Really filling the frame with action and detail like Gary Wine grand did, You'll probably want to include as much as you can, but the same edge of frame rule still applies because the edge of your frame can really add to that chaos. You know, if you're at a protest rally, say, and your aim is to fill the frame with intensity. You're going to want hands and arms coming into the edge of frame, exiting the bottom corner flags coming out of nowhere. You'll want pockets of background in between areas of intense for if someone wanted to focus on the signage and the messaging on the protesters pickets say, rather than the chaotic energy of the event itself, they might want a cleaner, more digestible frame with conformed edges. The point here is that the ingredients at the very edge of your frame can be just as important as everything else inside it. 37. Understanding Your Work: Understanding your work will lead to more informed and dynamic results. It's helpful to try and understand what is making your photographs work or not work. Sometimes an approach I take is to assign words or descriptions to my work to keep me on track. Because if I know what feelings or ideas my work is emitting, I can channel that when I'm out and about rather than wandering aimlessly. For example, some words, I give myself a drama humor class, intrigue, movement, and nostalgia. So you can take these words and also make up some of your own, if you like, and have them on the top of your mind when you're shooting. So that if, say something interesting happens like someone slipping over in a puddle, you might, instead of just mindlessly popping the action smack bang in the center, you might think, hmm, how can I create more intrigue here? How can I create visual drama here? Can I find humor here? Can I show class thoughtfulness, creativity and discipline in the way I do it? Perhaps you try putting the action to the side of your frame and incorporating more ingredients like a police car that's parked on the road and complicates and exaggerates the story. Or perhaps you focus on the crowd that's gathered in their expressions of concern and remove the person who's fallen. And maybe that draws us in and leaves questions looming. Alternatively, instead of capturing a zoomed out multi person scene, maybe you try and hone in on just one feature, like say the person's leg laying in the puddle in the aftermath with their handbag of things sprawled everywhere. That's for sure, dramatic and intriguing. Or you might focus on someone's little dog's reaction to create some humor. Because perhaps the dog is already eating a snack that fell out of the person's bag. Either expanding on or withholding from the drama of a moment takes class and discipline, but can often lead to incredibly compelling and intriguing images that pull it out heartstrings or tap on the funny bone. So it's nice to have a few words to guide you creatively. The reason I use a semi dramatic scene like that, where someone slips over in the rain, as my example, is because a scene like that will usually be able to support many of those creative directions. Whereas less dramatic, more mundane everyday situations are usually less visually malleable in some sense. So if I were you, I definitely head towards semi dramatic events of that nature. If you can head towards them with the intention to help to shoot, because you might arrive and realize that your help is actually needed. But in my experience, there's usually other people more qualified in which case you might get quite an interesting shot. For sure, you might feel like you're getting judged for taking a photograph. But everyone films and photographs everything nowadays. So to suck it up, verbally, offer your help. Self affirm that your intentions aren't malicious in any way whatsoever, and don't worry about it. Don't guilt trip yourself. That doesn't help anyone. Now, in my explanation just then, I talked about how to integrate words like drama, humor, class, and intrigue. But it didn't get to two of the other words I mentioned earlier, movement and nostalgia. And that's because they're typically a whole different category for me in the sense that those words relate to a whole other side of my photography. And a lot of us can relate to that idea of having multi dimensional photographic interests, right? Like you might have a side that's very clean and composed and understandable. And then you might have a more complex expressionistic art side to your work too. For me, my expressionistic art, a side relates to those words, movement and nostalgia. And the way that plays out is I might be walking around with my camera and I'll see something and say it's not instantly screaming, this is a street shot. As in it might just be something more abstract or sentimental, or dreamy, or experimental that interests me and ty those types of moments. I try to find a way to put movement into the photographs with a slower shutter speed. And how nostalgia feeds into all this is that that's my favorite feeling to aim for when making those types of photographs. Or typically, it will be something nostalgic that actually makes me want to take the photo in the first place. It's an emotion that guides me artistically, and I think that's true for a lot of us. So it's a word that I try to keep in mind, that search for nostalgic imagery is what led me to weird, old, peculiar lens optics, because I feel like they help communicate imperfection better. And that's what memory is to me, that's what nostalgia is. For me, it's rose tinted memories and feelings sort of glued together with a warm fondness but tearing apart bit by bit over time. That's why I like editing warmer tones into my work too. And that's why I like old timey fashion, or old architecture, or motion blur, or lens flare, or the simplicity of a landscape sometimes. Because all these things have a sense of nostalgia in them. To me, I think polaroids help communicate that same feeling too, and I love those for that. They give you such unexpected surprises. You only get ten and a pack usually. So you need to be selective with which things you want to remember, right? And that's part of why they end up feeling nostalgic to look at, because they look like a memory. Because they are a memory. And built into that memory is watching the memory develop into this little piece of plastic in front of you. Seeing this thing that you chose to pause in time, come back to life a minute later, The whole thing is just magical. So I love whenever that type of warm nostalgia is experienced in photography, because usually if I have chosen to capture a memory by the time I'm looking back on it, I'm usually already feeling nostalgic about it. So to have the style represent that feeling is such a joy, it makes the artwork so mesmerizing to look at the point at the end here, is to recognize that having multiple sides to your craft is totally okay. You can have say straight down the Line Street side and then also a more expressive side and other sides too. In fact, I think it's healthy to have different dimensions to your work and the opposing sides seem to feed off each other. So try and consider how many sides you have to yourself and how many words you can come up with that are honest representations of what you like to capture photographically. So choose your words and start to aim at them and include them in your work in different ways and see where it takes you. And if a word starts to bore you start to explore another one. And that, to me, seems like a good way to keep the wheels turning and to stay engaged in the work you're making a 38. Get Lost & Set Challenges: If you're feeling like you're in a rut and your work isn't exciting, you shake it up. Maybe you need to wake up one morning and you decide to explore your town or area in a different way. Who knows? Maybe you start the day off by hopping over your back fence and start your session in the alleyway rather than out the front door. Deliberately get lost for once, I don't know. Maybe you take a new mode of transport or maybe you take a taxi somewhere that you had previously written off and walk back from there. Maybe you bring someone with you. Maybe you try and find an event that is on that day. Anything like a dance class, a church gathering, an athletic sporting carnival, or even just going somewhere where street performers usually bust. Any way to put yourself in a new situation will help train that street muscle to adapt and get creative. And remember, when you're in those situations, you still have to turn on if you want to make your best street work. So you have to be trying, you have to be present, you have to be always on the lookout for something that might make a great photograph. And that might be anywhere from close up details of things to the most broadly framed scenarios. And maybe you try framing things a bit differently to usual to spice it up. Maybe you try and focus only on people's hands and remove the rest of their body. Maybe you try taking people's portraits with permission for once. Maybe you get really close to people and make a noise so they look at the lens. Maybe you put something glassy in front of the lens so that half of your frame is blurry. Or maybe something dark in front of the lens so that most of the image is blacked out. Maybe you try shooting from the hip to get some spontaneous compositions. Maybe you shoot on a slow shutter speed to make things weirdly blurry. Maybe you try a self portrait. Maybe you focus on the light more than you usually do and you try to shape it a little bit. Maybe you focus on trying to get as many colors in the frame as possible. Or maybe you just try and fill the whole frame with things that are red. Or maybe you just try to focus on silhouettes, or reflections, or gestures. Whatever it is, the point is, don't forget to get creative, especially when you're in a dry kind of scenario where not much is happening. Because those dry moments might force you to try something photographically that you've never done before. Say you're walking around and you're struggling for ideas, you might set yourself a little challenge along the way to only shoot high or low angle shots. Nothing in the normal middle height. So maybe you end up standing on a concrete pillar in the middle of the city. Or finding your way to a rooftop to get a new perspective. Or laying on the ground to get a super low look at everything. Seeing those perspectives can spark new ideas instantly and dramatically change the photographs you make. One thing I do is if I have some creative goals or ideas that I want to explore more, but that don't seem to naturally come to mind when I'm in the moment shooting is I set reminders on my phone that pop up once a day at different times of day that say things like use the flash or shoot at lower angles, or use slower shutter speeds and add movement just in case I get lucky and I'm out and about at the right time. And I see the reminder pop up on my phone and I think, yeah, true, I can try a bit of that right now and it puts a different spin on my session. It's so fun to work within those constraints sometimes because if you can be disciplined, it forces you to get creative and you end up coming up with some really unique work. The takeaway is to set yourself challenges and put yourself in new situations. Go to events, parades, parks, gigs, protests, festivals, markets, breweries. Go into bars. Go into museums, cafes, galleries, airports, rooftops, busy streets, hotels, casinos, banks, boulevards, bridges, shopping malls, bookshops, hospitals, barbershops, race tracks, theme parks, factories, industrial areas, big car parks, small towns, tourist destinations, harbors, beaches, skate parks, basketball courts, sporting fields, churches, botanic gardens. Go into strangely themed venues or shops like Halloween shops or sex shops or weed shops or firework shops or shops that sell pools or cars or kitchens or carpet. Get on buses, get on trains, get in, taxis, go on a boat tour. Go out at Sunrise, go to a theater show, Go to entirely new countries and get lost in them, explore them, and enjoy the process of turning over stones and uncovering life. The more unique the place, the more likely an unexpected moment could occur. Even if you don't get a great photo, you'll likely get a great story and an interesting experience. And that's just as good. If not much, much better. 39. Zone Focusing: I don't know about you, but when I first heard the words zone focusing, I just immediately put it into the don't need to know it pile. And that was true in a sense because whatever I was shooting at the time was working for me, I guess. But when you get to a point in your street photography where you're wanting to be as fast as possible with your camera and have the highest rate of success possible, then one focusing will be what you want to wrap your head around. There is a certainty within the process of zone focusing that if you do it right, it will not only give you confidence, but it will likely get you the results you're after. Okay, so what is zone focusing? Zone focusing is a technique that a lot of street photographers use in order to be certain that they will nail focus. It's essentially pre setting focus based on where you expect your subject to fall within. For example, judging from the distance readouts on your lens, you set your focus to a certain distance away from you, say, 2 meters, judging from your aperture. If it's a smaller aperture like F eight, you can be guaranteed that anything from say, 2 meters to five to 10 meters will be in focus. In which case, infinity is basically in focus as well. Because as far as the lens is concerned, 10 meters and infinity are pretty similar. So the idea is that you can just set your camera up so that when you go for a shot, your focus is already set and you can just fire away. Because at F eight, you know that your depth of feel will allow for a few meters either side of where your focus is set. You know your subject will very likely be in focus as long as you are semi okay with your distances. There seems to be three zones, really close, medium, and far. And something that I found insanely helpful when I started learning about zone focusing and was really trying to get better at it, was that on the range finder lenses that I was using, like the Liam lenses or the Voit Lander ones as well as others. Is there's that focus tab on the bottom of the lens and basically if that tabs in the middle, it's set for a medium distance shot. If you swing it to the left, it's set for a close distance shot. If you swing it to the right, it's set for further distances. So what happens is that as you get better and better at zone focusing, you start to get really good at knowing what zone your lens is set to, just by the feel of it. And then at that point, you're never going to miss a shot based on focus issues. I mean, you might miss it for other reasons, but you get the point. You'll have essentially mastered manual focus and you can be completely in control of at least that one element just by the feel of it. And then you just keep ticking off all the other skills the same way that you bit by bit move up the belts in art as you progress or any other craft that you're incrementally chipping away at. I remember the whole zone focusing thing being an overwhelming concept though when I first learned about it, because I never knew which zone to be in, I wasn't sure if I should be set for close up scenes like anything 1-3 meters which is three to ten feet, or do I set it for medium scenes like two to 5 meters, which is 615 feet? Or do I set up for wider, more spacious distance scenes like 5 meters to infinity, which is 25 feet to infinity. Something that helped me was I was going through my work and trying to evaluate what distances was I typically drawn to. What framing choices was I making most often? And of course, there's a variation, but I wager a bet that there will always be a preference or a pattern to your work depending on the types of scenes. So if you can figure out, say, okay, when I'm walking on suburban footpaths, I typically hit the shutter when I'm about three to 4 meters from my subject, or when I'm on a busy city street, I usually hit the shutter at roughly 1 meter from my subject. If you can evaluate your work in this way and see your patterns, you can sort of start to create your own zones for those environments for yourself. And then you can hit the streets with more confidence. Knowing that focus is already set for your natural preferences. It's just like knowing your other settings, your aperture settings, your shutter speed settings, any of those other fiddlely settings. It's about knowing your focus settings. It also helps to get to know these numbers and these distances because it helps you adapt to new places quicker. Because not all cities are the same layout, right? If you visit a city like LA, for example, you'll see that distances between things are further apart. People walk further apart. It's hard to get close to someone without them noticing. So if you practice working in that slightly further back zone, you'll be better equipped for new scenarios, as I'm sure you can gather from the photos that come out of it. New York is the opposite. It's jam packed, it's a condensed place, so it's easier to get really, really close to your subjects, usually without them even knowing. So the language of the photographers who work in that city is more often than not quite an immersive up close and personal style. The thing that's exciting though, about noticing all this stuff is digesting those approaches and sometimes flipping it on its head and say taking that hyper immersive visual language to a small town and seeing what it does. Or. Taking that breathable style somewhere hectic like Tokyo, and see what you can come up with. It'll help flex that creative muscle. You can always return to your comfort zone afterwards. But using zone focusing, exploring the different zones and getting dialed in that workflow is really helpful. When you hear that zone focusing is just simply a technique to help you nail focus, you might ask, why not just use autofocus and sure on some systems that probably works quite well and if your style is much less action packed and spontaneous, that will work fine. Autofocus is getting so quick and clever now that it's probably verging on being somewhat comparable in many scenarios, but there is just that tenth of a second delay when it's a dynamic scene. Sometimes make or break a street photograph, or it can choose the wrong focal point. And if you're someone who likes to use complex foreground layering with lots of moving elements, sometimes the camera doesn't know what to focus on and so it might just not fire and you end up missing shots. Not always, but sometimes. So zone focusing is a good skill to add to your tool kit. So you can just pre focus manually and be certain that there's no delay and that you'll get exactly the moment you intended to when you clicked the shutter. Trust me, you will never forgive your camera or yourself for trusting the auto focus of a camera when the most perfect, most unpredictable moment presents itself. And you trust the camera to nail it, instead of relying on your own skills to nail it and the camera doesn't deliver. That is just a camera begging to be thrown off a bridge. But it was your fault for choosing that approach. The only difference is that if you're the one whose skill was flawed, you can work on that. But if the auto focus is flawed, all you can do is wait for better and better models to come out. I make it sound so doom and gloom and so serious, And obviously at the end of the day, a photo is a photo. It's meant to just be a bit of fun, really. But when you're committed to making great art, great work, great whatever you want to call it, and something gets in the way of that, it really is a buzz kill. So I think it's nice to remove as many of those blockages as possible. Personally, it allows me to take more responsibility for the outcome and funnily enough because of that, it ends up being even more fulfilling. Because you improve, you set your mind to getting good at yet another skill, and you nailed it. It's also a good way to remove the gear from your mindset because it ends up being like changing gears in a car or changing gears on a bike. You don't really have to think about it. You just naturally change where necessary and there's no real thought. It's just being changed gears. And if you can be like that with your camera gear and remove the gear from your thinking, then you can just have fun with it. The same way that you get to have fun riding your bike along the waterfront or driving a car through the countryside. You're not all caught up in things like, how does this bike work? Or when should I turn this corner? Is something unpredictable gonna happen? And if so, what do I do? You're just enjoying the things that are coming at you because you're on autopilot. And that's where you want to get to with photography. Just watching life coming at you and slicing out little pieces of it. 40. Listen: Learn to listen just as much as you watch because it might be as simple as overhearing someone's intentions. That leads to a good photo. For example, say you're sitting at the window seat at a cafe or a bar, and the window is all fogged up and wintry, and perhaps there's a character in the cafe that you like, but maybe it's not that photographic inside the cafe. But if you can hear them getting up to leave, or you hear them say that they're petting off, you might be able to frame up a nice composition outside the window, knowing that's where they're headed. Then you can rub out a little window from the foggy glass and point your camera through it as they're leaving. And you could capture a moment where they're whipping their winter coat on, or putting a cowboy hat on or opening an umbrella. They might try to look back in the cafe window to wave goodbye to their friend. It might be snowing. Who knows if you're lucky and a few other things fall into place perfectly. You might just end up with quite a timeless photograph. And it all came from listening and preparing for a moment. The same thing goes for sirens or cars honking. Sometimes those unexpected noises can make people stop in their tracks. And if you're listening for those things, you can choose a subject you like, zero in on them, and as the siren passes by, they might give a really relatable look of concern. Or maybe they'll block their ears really aggressively, who knows? But if you listen, you can be more ready for these things when it comes to listening to music while you shoot. I personally wouldn't recommend it, mostly for the reasons above, because you can't hear the world if you have your headphones in. Sometimes if I'm only casually shooting in the sense that I do have my camera out and ready, but I'm more trying to get through a podcast or just make my way to a meeting or something. I might have my headphones in. But typically, if you're out for a proper street photography session and you're in that mindset of being on point of committing to finding and making great moments. If you then put music on, I feel like it's just knocking out one of your key senses and you might miss things. It happens to me at bus stops. Sometimes I might be waiting for the bus, but I'll have my headphones in, and then I didn't really hear it approaching. And as I look up, it's just arriving. And I see there was this epic frame of some incredibly unique or emotionally potent subject in the bus's dirty tinted window. But I miss it because I had that two to 3 seconds less time, because I didn't hear the Beastie bus chugging on in to make the stop. 41. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: I'll mention comfort zones a handful of times throughout this guide because it plays such a key role in this genre of photography, since doing street photography typically involves behaving in a way that is a little unusual at times. So this is just another reminder to get out of that comfort zone, even just a little bit, no matter what your skill level is. Even if you've been shooting for forever and you're confident on the street, maybe you're less comfortable in intimate conditions. So lean into that for a while and see what happens. Let photography help you grow in multiple ways. Let it help you grow your capacity, your confidence, your people skills, your problem solving skills, your decision making, your creativity, your critical and analytical side. Find ways that it can help expand your knowledge of things that interest you like music or film, literature, history, politics, science, whatever. Let it reveal strengths and weaknesses in your character. And let it help you grow too. Let it shine a light on the parts of your personality that you really like or dislike. And try to take responsibility for that, for understanding yourself better. And you're placing this world and own it so you can conquer your flaws and use your strength for the things that you want to use them for. But at the end of the day, just try and learn to embrace life. All of it from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Anywhere from the positioning of a delicate detail in the sunlight to a fist fight in Times Square. Use all of your senses. Appreciate the learning journey. Be curious that most of all folks just enjoy yourself. Thanks for joining me here on the tactics tips and settings on the street section. I know there's a lot of ideas up in the air and the tool belt might feel a bit cumbersome, but I hope you can latch onto a handful of ideas that feel relevant to where you're currently at and start putting them to the test. Next we're going to cover gear where I'm going to cover loads of gear related topics such as what lenses you might want to use and why. What each of the focal lengths do in a stylistic sense. What additional gear can sometimes come in handy when doing street photography, like filters or flashes or less commonly, tripods. We'll talk about film versus digital, and color versus black and white. But more so coming from an experiential standpoint rather than a which one is better standpoint. We'll talk about the utility of having a very low impact small camera set up. Meanwhile, talking about all the different types of camera systems, old and new, and some top level thoughts on the experience that they each offer and the types of work typically made with each system. But without getting overly techy, although it is a gear chapter, I want to keep it practical by coming from the angle of why would you choose this piece of gear over this other piece of gear? And what do all those choices look like when you're out on the street as opposed to here is all this deep tech specification, type detail of all the different types of gear. For me it's not really about that and that's not really my forte. Anyway, you can find much more in depth gear videos on Youtube if you need proper tech talk type chit chat. My version of a gear chat will be more about the overall experience of how different gear choices come into play practically speaking. So we'll dig into all of that in the next chapter. 42. CHAPTER 4: Gear: Welcome to the gear chapter where I'm going to cover loads of gear related topics such as what lenses you might use and why, what each of the focal lengths do in a stylistic sense. What additional gear can sometimes come in handy when doing street photography, like filters or flashes or less commonly, tripods. We'll talk about film versus digital, and color versus black and white. But more so coming from an experiential standpoint rather than a which one is better standpoint, We'll talk about the utility of having a very low impact small camera set up. Meanwhile, talking about all the different types of camera systems, old and new, and some top level thoughts on the experience they each offer and the types of work typically made with each system. But without getting overly techy, although it is a gear chapter, I want to keep it practical by coming more from the angle of why would you choose this piece of gear over this other piece of gear? And what do all those choices look like when you're out on the street as opposed to here is all this tech specification, type detail of all the different types of gear. For me it's not about that and it's not really my forte anyway. And you can find much more in depth gear videos on Youtube if you need a proper tech talk. My version of a gear chat will be more about the overall experience of how each different gear choice comes into play practically speaking. Let's dig in. 43. Which Lens & Why: The best advice I've heard for lenge choice in regards to street photography is from Joel Meyrowitz on his Masters of Photography masterclass. Suggesting that you pair your lens up with the field of view in which you see the world. And you might feel like that doesn't give you many options, since most of us see through a field of view that is most similar to a 28 millimeter or 35 millimeter lens. But say you're someone who tends to focus on the nuances in life, the details. If you feel like you've got more of a zoomed in perspective, perhaps you belong on a 50 millimeter lens a bit tighter. Or if you find yourself looking into the distance often and you're interested in those compressed and really far reaching layers, perhaps you belong on a 90 millimeter choose which one suits the way you see the world. When you look around, do you tend to focus in on specific things or do you see the relationship between wider subjects more easily? Either way, I think it's nice to train the eye to see and explore both, and then use those skills to diversify or deepen your storytelling. I remember starting on a 16 millimeter lens and swearing. I'd never use anything longer then before I knew it. I'd crept forward to a 24 millimeter for a while, and then 28 for a few years, and then 35, and then 50 for a year, and then back down again to 35 and then 28 with a brief visit to 16.90 for some experiments over the last couple of years, I've been using a 35. And it really suited my time in Vancouver, Canada because it's a bit of a sleepier city. So it was more achievable to fill the frame with a 35. But I know that a 28 challenges me to get closer to my subjects and still fill my frame with good ingredients. So I've been trying to lean back in that direction for a while now and trying to rise to the challenge. And the point there is just that on top of pairing your lens up with your field of view, that there is also a utility in recognizing what your environment is and being realistic about what the best tool is to work in that environment. It seems to me that those two lenses, 28.35 are the most common choices for street photographers, just simply because they match the perspective of the human eye best. But the world is your oyster. So play around and see what feels right for you. From what I can gather, most street photographers used to use, and still used, fixed lenses, fixed focal lengths, rather than zooms. But it is worth noting that some notable photographers like Harry Guyer do use zooms. And they bring discipline to other parts of their practice instead. So there's always that option. But most of my notes will be in reference to using fixed focal lengths. I recommend you stick with one focal length for a while until you master it. And once you've mastered it, to a degree, you can go off and have an experimental chapter where you're trying all kinds of different lenses again. But from experience, and I've also heard and read time and time again, that it's a really valuable endeavor to push through the difficulties of what a certain lens offers in order to either learn something new, to creatively solve that issue. Or to perhaps help you realize what lens suits you best. Whether it's if you're looking to feel comfortable, which isn't always a good thing, by the way. On the contrary, getting out of your comfort zone, as I keep popping on about, is basically essential, or just trying to pair the lens up with how you see the world as Meyrowitz was suggesting. 44. Each Lens Type & Their Challenges: I won't go too super deep into the characteristics of each individual focal length because I imagine anyone watching this is pretty up to scratch and all of that. I'll just try and give some top level food for thought. Okay, First up is super wide lenses like fish eyes or 16 millimeter to 20 1 millimeter lenses. These can be super exciting. Bruce Gkilden used to 20 1 millimeter lens, if I'm not mistaken, and his work is very impactful. The main issue I feel like you'll experience when using these lenses is just how much of your frame is filled with empty space. Because with these super wide lenses, the whole image is stretched out and elongated. So two people that are standing side by side can seem a world apart, which can be rather interesting. So if playing with a more abnormal look and feel of the world is part of your language, then definitely go for it because you'll feel right at home here. I can imagine if visual exaggerations are part of your language, you'll be very satisfied with super wide lenses because they're really dramatic. So if you can get your subjects extremely close to the lens, you'll be creating insanely immersive, almost haunting, very memorable street shots in No Time. Next is the 28 millimeter and the 35 millimeter, I'd recommend a street photographer starts on either a 28 or a 35. I feel like, again, since these lenses are quite similar to your natural field of vision, it's a good way to quickly learn what does something naturally look like photographically when I shoot it exactly when I noticed it. As in, since these lenses do a pretty good representation of our field of vision, to shoot a photograph on that lens tells you, oh, that's what my interests look like normally, a sense. And then from there it's about if you want to change that normality in some way, like use a wider or tighter lens or get closer or further away. Physically, 28.35 helps you get to know the things you're interested in in the world without wide lens distortion or long lens compression and all the creativity and all of that playing a factor in that learning journey. It's worth putting these two lenses in the same discussion because they truly are quite close. But you can definitely see the distinct differences when used in certain environments, like in tight quarters. For example, if I'm using a 35 millimeter and there happens to be a scene with a lot of height differentiation backstage of a gig with a band. And some of the band are standing and the others are sitting and it's a tight room, you won't really be able to get everyone in the frame entirely. You'll have to start selecting things like, okay, I'll either put all the standing people completely in the frame and the seated people will just be coming up into the bottom of the frame like little heads. And that could be interesting, it might feel like those people are the audience down below and they're kind of staring up on stage, whatever. You can add your own meanings there. But the bottom line is, it's a lens and space issue you're trying to creatively solve. The other option would be to prioritize the seated people and show their full body. And then the 35 millimeter will only really be able to fit in the legs of the standing people, which could just add a clustered energy to the room. There are many options of how to shoot this scene, obviously depending on what's going on in the room and what story you want to tell and what your style is. These are just some wide shot examples. You could hone in on the details or singular people, or you could shoot through the mirrors, or you could shoot through the doorway at everyone. You could shoot portrait orientation. But then again, if you're relatively close up, the narrowness of portrait will likely mean you still have to choose which part of the room you want to photograph on a 35 millimeter lens. Now if you had a 28 millimeter lens in the same tight quarters, you'd be much more likely to be able to fit everyone in the frame relatively comfortably. And it's exactly there that my two loves for these lenses always battle it out because 35 forces me to get creative with how I capture the scene based on the fact that I can't show the whole scene in one photograph. But 28 does let me capture the whole scene. And these are both things that I often want, the creativity and the whole scene. And so since these lenses are so close in all practicality and it's only really in tight quarters or up close and personal in busy, crowded streets that you really see and feel the differences. I feel like they're worthwhile speaking about simultaneously when it comes to taking shots in more open spaces out on the street where it's not quite action packed and you're free to move quite easily. I find that I can make a 28 or 35. Do basically the same thing, just simply by taking one step forward or backward. As in if you've got something framed up on a 35 millimeter lens and you want more in the frame. If you take one step back and you now have everything you want in the frame on the 28 millimeter, you wouldn't have needed to take that one step back. It would have all been in frame already from that forward position with the slightly wider lens. In fact, the 28, you're often more so having to take a step forward to actually compress everything into the frame to make it more interesting rather than having all this dead space. I could honestly go on and on about these two lens sizes and how they're similar and how they differ because they're the lenses I have the most experience with. But for me, the main thing I battle with with these two lenses is when I'm on 35. I wish I'd have had that little bit more room for certain elements. And with the 28, I'm having the opposite issue of needing to fill the dead space. So it's dependent on how brave versus how shy you are with your approach. That will be the best dictator on where you want to start between these two lenses. If you have no issue whatsoever getting close to people, you'll probably want to start on the 28 because you'll be able to have your subject and still lots of space around the subject to fit more story elements in. And if you're just a tiny bit more reserved, but you still have the same urge to get closer to your subjects than the 35 would probably be the better choice for you to start with in order to just get that tiny bit closer to your subjects optically. Otherwise, on the 28th day, your shots will likely have way too much room to breathe on the top and bottom and on the sides. And although you can definitely make that work and some shots shine with that type of composition. And there are lots of people that do have that kind of language and make it work really well for them. But for you, if it's just back to back photos with dead space around your subject that you didn't personally want, and the dead space is more just a byproduct of you being too shy to get closer. Then I doubt since your initial urge was to get closer, that you'll be satisfied with those frames. So for those more reserved shooters, I'd recommend you start with the 35 until you build up your confidence to take that one step physically closer. Also, it's just worth noting that most of this explanation of 28.35 is more in relation to that type of street photography. That's very much people oriented at semi close proximities like sidewalks, shopping malls, trains, that type of semi close proximity. There are many more laid back styles where the subject plays a much more minor role in a more breathable, more architectural image that heroes the lighting and the location more so. And in that regard, the slightly wider nature of a 28 millimeter would really suit you. And in fact, the 35 might draw too much attention to all the wrong things in that sense. So if your style is more of a standing back and composing well crafted, patient, but still urban suburban compositions that hero those things like location, the space, the light, and so on, but without any compression whatsoever, then you might appreciate using the 28 millimeter or even wider. Then on the other end of the spectrum, as in getting even closer than semi close at locations or events that are really crowded. Like festivals, markets, very busy cities. This is yet again somewhere where a 28 millimeter might shine again, but in a different way. Because even for the more shy shooters, getting close to people in those scenarios isn't difficult. It's just normal under those conditions. So that's where you can sort of test out your interests in the 28 millimeter. Funnily enough, though, in those types of scenarios, I still often like to use a 35 because as I mentioned, it helps me get creative and be more selective with what is in the frame because I can't have it all. It stops me from just firing off big fat wide crowd shots with no real thought process whatsoever. Anyways, those are just some of the additional thoughts on these two lenses. Now we're moving on to the 50 millimeter lens. The 50 millimeter lens is often described as a normal lens in the sense that there's no distortion. Whereas with a 28 millimeter say, although the field of view is closer to how you can naturally see, including your peripherals, it can often slightly distort the proportions of the things in the frame ever so slightly. But the 50 millimeter won't do that. It will make the proportions of things look the way they do in real life. However, I do find the field of view is much narrower than the human eye. So there's a distinction there for me between field of view and distortion. And that's why I think a 35 millimeter is a popular choice for photographers too. Because it's a nice middle ground between those two popular choices. I've seen a lot of people start on a 50 millimeter lens just simply because there are a lot of quite decent 50 millimeter lenses out there that come as a default kit lens with a lot of cameras. And quite often I've seen it be the perfect fit for people just starting out because they're able to start their photographic process by honing in on the things that initially interested them quite closely, rather than having a wide lens with all this image, real estate to fill. So they'd be able to zero in on the things like specific expressions on people or singular objects with nice lighting or quirky signage, juxtapositions. And then move further and further out towards wider lenses as they wanted to fit more and more in the frame. And complicate the process at semi close, sort of normal urban proximities. And then that desire to fit more in the frame typically grows alongside their ability to evaluate more moving parts at once. So it's just that natural progression in that way, as in if you start on a 50, you'll eventually become very in control of that lens and how direct it can be. And then eventually you might find it a bit too easy and you might want to challenge yourself. So you widen your field of view and need to start to pay attention to more ingredients in the frame at one time. And what you might find is that, that challenge of moving to a new lens. Once you've pushed through the challenges and explored it, maybe you realize it didn't excite you in the same way as the 50 did. And perhaps you enjoyed being on a 50. For that reason, that's how you see the world, or perhaps that's how you began to see the world since using it and you enjoy it. And then if you need a challenge, you might need to spice it up in a number of different ways. Instead of a lens change, like trying to shoot at night, or changing your subject matter, or shooting lower or higher angles, or going to different locations that make you slightly uncomfortable or getting close to your subjects. And improving your zone focusing skills, which is a bit more difficult on a 50 millimeter lens rather than on a wide lens. Back in the day, I used to swear against lenses 50 millimeter and upwards. To be honest, the 50 just felt so bland and since I'm a little bit of a lens geek in the sense that I like my lenses to have loads of character, and 50 millimeter lenses outside of their bouquet don't really inherently have the type of character that I'm after. Just to give you an example, right now, I'm using a 28 millimeter handmade Japanese lens made by a guy called Miyazaki. And it has this strange quality where when stepped down to two and when focusing on something like three feet away, the subject in the center is in focus and everything behind them is out of focus. But then the edges of the background are in focus again. So it's like a cone shaped focal plane. And it reminds me of when I was traveling around Southeast Asia with this 50 year old 20 millimeter Olympus lens back in the day and accidentally banged on a wall. And to be honest, I don't know enough about lenses to know what happened inside this lens. But the best way I can describe it is it's like it became a tilt shift where the focal plane didn't move parallel backwards and forwards. Because I was able to have someone really close to the lens in focus, end parts of the background in focus too, with everything else out of focus. It was just this really weird thing, but I loved it and I continued to use it for another three weeks out there anyways, that's the kind of character that I love. And I know not everyone is like that, not by any stretch of the imagination. I mean it's quite the opposite. In fact, in the sense that from what you can read on gear blogs, most people seem to be obsessed with quality and perfection and no distortion and sharp, crisp image rendering. But I'm just not into that stuff. It kind of bores me. I do get it, and it's good to understand what those lenses offer, but I just get a bit bored of them after a while. They're too predictable and that doesn't suit me. I like a few surprises in my process. And lenses with loads of character will give you unexpected renderings of some interesting background details or a totally weird lens flare or certain blooming or stretching of the image, or the highlights at the edge of the image, that makes things dreamier. To be honest though, if you're stopped down to F eight, a lot of lenses more or less are similar in sharpness anyway. But it's just nice to know that if I do go down to F two with this Japanese lens, say that I'll be able to use that beautifully unique lens character to help tell my stories because I'm drawn to the types of stories that benefit from stranger lenses. I like nostalgia and that feeling of memory, or a throwback to a feeling. And for me, those types of feelings are much better communicated when I add elements of imperfection to the process. And this all relates back to the 50 millimeter lens, because although I thought that focal length was so bland, it took me finding a really interesting vintage, 50 millimeter that has modes of character to realize that it can still have its quirks, so it can come down to taste in that regard. And there are many 50 millimeter lenses with character that I've found since then. So just shop around and do some reading and then look them up on Flicker and you'll start to know what you like. It's also really helpful to see someone else using a specific focal length really well. Because it inspires you and it gives you a bit of kick up the arts when you're being creatively lazy and being perhaps bias or prejudice about a certain process or piece of gear. So for example, when I finally realized I liked street photography specifically and I was introduced to the great work of Henri Cartier Brasson a few years later and heard that he most frequently used a 50. It opened my mind to how you could use that tool, that focal length, because I could just flick through his work in books or on Pinterest, or on blogs, or in the library, or whatever, and I'd know that these photos were likely shot on a 50. And it would make me realize, oh, I've been so lazy, I just need to put myself in better spots to try to squeeze that extra ingredient into the frame. So for me, it's just a lesson in opening your mind, embracing a new challenge, and using inspiration to guide you when you're unsure or when you're in a creative rut. The last thing I'll say on the 50 millimeter lens and any lens longer than that actually, is that they start to sort of move you towards portrait orientation. That was certainly the case for me and I've seen it countless times in the work of other artists who use longer lenses. Of course, some people using longer lenses will still stick to landscape orientation. And yeah, we all mix it up from time to time anyway. So this isn't a hard and fast rule. But when it comes to street photography, say you see someone on the street and you want to make a photograph of them and whatever they're doing, your eye will typically see a broader scene. But if you're shooting in landscape orientation on a 50 millimeter lens, it will likely cut off parts of the scene, like the legs or the top of their hat or whatever, if you're in landscape orientation, so your brain goes, hmm, okay, how about we remove the sides and just lengthen the middle so we can see this whole person. And I think that's where 50 millimeter lenses really shine. The point here is if you really love shooting in portrait orientation, longer lenses will probably work really well for you. Because if you're doing nothing but portrait orientation on a 28 millimeter, you'll likely be getting a lot of floor or a lot of sky. Whereas the 50, all that stuff is left out of the picture and it just packs such a punch in, whichever. Column of the scene you choose to include in the frame. Now if you're not someone who is super drawn to porture orientation, I don't know, I'd say it's a format worth mastering. So if you eventually come around to the idea of upskilling in that realm, then I'd recommend to give the 50 millimeter a try and shoot exclusively on porture orientation and see what you come up with. Now when it comes to long lenses like 75, 859-015-1305, and beyond, you can get really creative, unexpected results. And they open up a whole new category of problems and opportunities to explore, which might be right up your alley. And in the street photography community, long lenses definitely aren't as thoroughly explored, so feel free to go in and fill those boots. Sol Litter did a really great job of using long lenses creatively. I feel like one interesting thing I noticed in his work is that it seemed like long lenses allowed him to explore bad weather in a really interesting way. Because it could be snowing outside, but he'd still be able to sit under a shop canopy or inside a restaurant and just sort of snipe beautiful moments out on the streets of Chinatown and New York from the comfort of warm protected spots. And that's just a great way to spend time, in my opinion. I think he really nailed it in that regard. It's such a nice balance sitting there with a snack or a coffee or a beer or wine or whatever, and just looking out the frosty windows of New York sniping shots all afternoon. He really nailed it, that fella. What an excellent leisurely approach to adopt sometimes. I really love it. I personally feel like I've fluctuated from wide lenses to longer lenses and then back through the years. It's a bit of a cycle. But that's just because it's part of my personality to experiment a fair bit. I would say maybe everyone's like that and maybe we're all on those types of cycles. But from studying other photographers, that's just not true. Some photographers really do just have a lens that they use and love forever and they stick with it for the most part. And perhaps that's the more common approach than being on a cycle. I'm not sure. I mean, I do feel like I always come back to a 35. So perhaps since I'm still relatively early on in regards to a lifetime's worth of street photography, maybe I'm still just finding my lens and perhaps I'll settle for good on a 35 in a few years. I don't know yet. But what I do know is that whether you experiment with your lens choice or if you stick to one lens and experiment in other ways, like many photographers do, with really creative printing ideas in the lab, or double exposure work or slow shutter work, or far fetched subject matter or different proximities or apertures or filters, or creative post production ideas, or whatever million ways you can experiment in photography. Then I'm sure you'll be satisfied with that being your approach, as in to be consistent with your lens and grounding yourself in that idea and letting the experiments present themselves in other ways. Either way, it's all exciting and it's all worth doing as long as you're enjoying it and feeling engaged and interested in that process and enjoying that journey. 45. Vintage Lenses Vs. Newer Lenses: Even once you've chosen your focal length, you'll still need to choose which exact lens it will be. You'll need to decide on which brand, which model, how fast it is, how big it is, what's the quality of the design and materials. Is it new? Is it vintage? And for me, the most important factor is does it have character? Most newer lenses don't have as much character, so that's why. Is it new or is it vintage is an important question. Some photographers like to have a very clean look, a very polished look. And they might want to go for newer lenses that are optically perfect without much obvious character or imperfection. Because some people see unusual lens characteristics as a distraction. Other photographers, myself included, prefer something with a bit more character, some imperfections. Something that in all honesty, is just a bit lower quality, weirdly enough. But that still has a creative edge to the look that separates it from the others. Whether it's a kooky lens flare, some interesting distortion, a lack of contrast, or maybe too much contrast. A quirky pattern or shape of bouquet. An intense vignette, a strange focal plane when wide open. Maybe a color shift or a blooming factor that sort of halos the highlights a little bit. Or just an overall rendering of the image that has a different feeling to it somehow that's kind of hard to pin down. These are the things you should be thinking about when you buy a lens, if you're looking for a lens with character. One tip for choosing lenses that I've done for years is to type in the name of the lens in flicker. And it will show you everything that's been shot with that lens, that's been tagged appropriately. So you can decide for yourself what it looks like under all sorts of conditions. Even quite rare lenses typically have got a few thousand images to inspect. So I highly recommend doing that just quickly to top off the chit chat about lenses. And it's a funny way to end it, but just with every other category in this guide, have to reinforce the two sides of every coin. So just remember that even though you might know what a lens does really well or is famously used for or typically known for, don't let that dictate what you do with it. Try and mix it up sometimes just to see if you can surprise yourself. It's good to have the knowledge, but it's good to explore new territory too. Keep yourself on your toes. 46. Types of Cameras: In terms of types of cameras, the ones that seem to get used most often for street photography are rangefinders, SLRs, mirrorless cameras, point and shoot cameras, and a few popular medium format cameras like the roll flex style twin lens reflex cameras. All these styles of cameras have different pros and cons in and of themselves, let alone when you start to use them on the street. That's where you really feel their strengths and weaknesses becoming blindingly obvious. I've used all these styles of cameras, so I'll try and give you all the top level insights I can. But the fact is I've fallen mostly in love with rangefinders for the purpose of shooting street. So most of my comprehensive knowledge falls into that type of camera system, though I'm not really going to deep dive on camera systems here anyway, as there are much better sources for that type of stuff. So I'll just give some top level thoughts. I love rangefinders mainly because of their size and the lenses on offer for those cameras and the fact that when you look through the viewfinder, it looks just like life does, rather than being manipulated by the lens first. And when you take a shot, a shutter doesn't black out the image momentarily. That happens with SLRs. Every time you take a shot, it goes black for a second. And it's super distracting in my opinion. However, what I do appreciate about SLRs just to play both sides here is that when you look through the viewfinder, you see exactly what the photo will be through the lens. So you get to see the character of the lens and the depth of field and it's really beautiful. It's as if the photograph has already been printed into the viewfinder. And that whole experience is captivating and mesmerizing, but it's just that it distracts me a bit too much for now. I sort of drift off and start getting distracted by all the lens characteristics. And I did used to love that side of cameras, but for where I'm at currently, I love using a range finder. Because with a Range finder, since you're looking through a separate window, just a normal glass window, not through the actual lens, it looks normal. So it keeps me in the real world, which is something that I appreciate when I go out on Big Long Street sessions. It's nice to not come back feeling like I've been in some surreal dream sequence all day long. And then at least I can sort of recount what happened to my mates in a very real way rather than having a bit too much of an artsy experience. That's hard to even share and describe, But that's my personal preference. You might personally love being in that head space. So if so, I encourage you to dive right in. The only additional thing with looking through that perspective of an SLR is that because the viewfinder glass can have a different color tint to it and it can have dust inside it and a vignette to it. You can sometimes get the wrong impression of how old school the photo is going to turn out. So it might look all warm and dusty and moody in the viewfinder and you might love that look and feel. But the negatives don't usually turn out perfectly representative of that view. So although it's very inspiring at first, don't get tripped up by feelings of false hope that your photograph is going to look exactly like that. Okay, Moving on to other systems, I've got less experience with medium format cameras or mirrorless cameras, but I do know that people really love using them for street and have great success. So maybe you will too. I do have some ideas that would involve a hassle blade medium format camera with a Polaroid or Fuji film in stacks back. And also a phase one or hassle blade digital back for a different idea. Just so that I can look through that nice big ground glass plate while shooting street in a few new exciting ways to me and experimenting. But since I'm not quite there yet, I'll leave those ideas alone for now. I have used a bunch of medium format cameras briefly, and I do really love the image quality on that ground glass that you see in the waste finder style cameras and the fact that the image is reversed is quite a headspin in a fun way. So the experience of framing up such a vibrant contrasty image is superb. It just looks so good. Also, the weight of those medium format cameras, like the rolly flex ones or the Pentax ones or the hassel blades or the Bronicas, that weight makes you take your work quite seriously, which can be a really good thing for dialing up your level of discipline. But to be honest, the main thing that holds me back is just the cost. I hate to say it but, but the way I shoot, it's just not practical to shoot medium format just yet. I'd be homeless in no time. I remember developing one roll of medium format which was already an absolute bomb to the bank account to buy in the first place, let alone to develop And having come from 35 millimeter photography at that point, I naively wanted the lab to scan all the negatives, but they were some absurd price to scan even one negative. So you were wiser to choose a few favorites instead, but that just doesn't suit me. I want to see all the work I've made. I do definitely appreciate that process of reviewing your images. I loved going in and picking up the 35 millimeter eggs and looking through the light box at the work, but then at least I could scan all of it without losing a week's worth of pay. Plus, in all honesty, with having to be so selective with my medium format scans, I wouldn't enjoy revisiting the negatives years down the line. Once I realized I chose the wrong ones to scan and then I'd have to dig through thousands of negatives to find the sleeve. There's just a lot more organization and time consumption that goes into all of that. That just doesn't suit my brain at all. If you have a knack for that type of stuff, you'll probably absolutely froth on the process. But it's just not for me right now, which is genuinely annoying because I do love those cameras and I do want to explore the lenses on those camera systems and I will get around to it one day. Maybe when I slow my process back down again and tighten up the amount of photographs I make or if a certain project calls for it. But for now it's just too harsh on the wallet, unfortunately. But if you've got the money, I envy you because the people who work in medium format put out such gorgeous work. Not only is the aspect ratio so captivating to me being one by one, or six by seven, or four by five, or whatever. I mean, most of my personal short films or music videos I've made have been in a four by three ratio. So I just adore that almost square format. But then it's also just the quality of that sized negative. It's so absurdly detailed, it's very impressive. And therefore, I can totally see it being the perfect system for someone with a very disciplined approach when it comes to digital mirrorless cameras. The ones I've used have always had a flip out screen, same as the digital SLRs. And those screens are an incredible tool for street photography. The world that you can capture from being able to get the camera so much lower and also be discrete yet still be highly accurate with your framing is a real bonus for sure. I love the creativity that that offers. I don't have too much else to say about mirrorless cameras. They are great. They're the closest thing to a range finder in the digital world. The only difference is that those electronic viewfinders are total garbage, in my opinion, which might be an unpopular opinion. No matter how far they've come up to this point, they still just don't do it for me. There are some of those cameras that have the optical viewfinder which you can then switch to the EVF if you want to, and then also have the flip out screen. And that is just a total weapon to be able to choose between them All I think is a really great tool, one really popular type of camera that you will all recognize and perhaps even owns a point and shoot camera. These are perfect for street photography and I couldn't recommend getting one more highly. They are pocketable so you're more likely to take it out with you no matter where you go because it's not a burden, they're idiot proof. So you can basically make a decent exposure no matter what. They're also so groovy looking for the most part. So it becomes this endearing little retro tool that you have. Because if you're anything like me, having a camera in my pocket gives me the sense that, ooh, anything could happen while I'm out and about. And if it does, I can capture it. And oh yeah, I love that feeling. It's inspiring, especially because you feel like it genuinely doesn't hold you back. I've taken some of my best photographs with a point and shoot, just simply because I have it with me when I'm going somewhere. That's annoying to have a big camera like camping or grocery shopping or whatever. Whereas if you're lugging a big, beefy, medium format camera on a camping trip, you will likely not feel as warmly towards the camera afterwards and you certainly won't be able to get fun on the fly shots of your friends lugging all the gear down to the campsite while you're also carrying food, a tent bags, backpacks and whatever, as well as your big metal camera. Your brain would say, no, no, I'll wait till we put the stuff down and then boom, you've missed the shot, but it's a point and shoot camera. You might be able to whip it out of the pocket and fire off a shot with auto focus. And it could be this great memory of a grueling but comical moment out in the mountains or the woods, or down by the beach, or wherever you're camping with your mates or your family. If it's a family, it could be the cute moment of your little daughter carrying way too much gear for her size, wearing a set of adorable little kids hiking boots and all the sun protection gear while attempting to carry as many bags as you are. That's such a fun moment, but I promise you won't capture that moment on a medium format camera if you're also carrying bags. However, what you will catch on the medium format camera are those more classic moments that aren't pressurized by time constraints or physical limitations like luggage. And some of those more calm moments are the loveliest, most memorable photographs anyway, so as per usual, there's always another side to the coin. Some of you might be listening and thinking, but shots of family and mates aren't street photography, and I definitely disagree with that. I mean, I've seen loads of gorgeous street style shots in famous books, and I've come to realize by the caption beneath it, that it's the photographer's wife or the best friend, or mother, or whatever. The natural behavior that you get to see in the people close to you is the same natural behavior that you see on the street a lot of the time. And that's why I think those lines blur together so seamlessly for some people in all reality, if you're obsessed with street photography, the chances of not taking photographs of your loved ones and your personal adventures with them, it's probably quite low anyway. So you might as well embrace that side of your craft. In my opinion, it's definitely part of your street photography voice for sure. In fact, the way you shoot your family and friends, since you do it so naturally and without embarrassment or holdbacks, typically can give you clues on what your style really is. Because out on the street you have many other social pressures that pull you in different directions that make it hard to access your desired style. But if you pay attention to how you shoot your loved ones, it could be a clue to where you should head with your work out on the streets. I believe you should have a point and shoot in your jacket pocket or backpack at all times. The amount of times I've been working, and obviously we're all busy while we're working. But then if something incredible and unpredictable is starting to formulate, at least you can go and get a point and shoot shot of it. The fact that I work in film means I've taken loads of my favorite shots on film sets because so much peculiar weird happens on film sets. You've got all kinds of characters and props, and sets, and lighting going on, and sometimes it's just so interesting and it's certainly unrepeatable. It's not like you're ever going to shoot that film ever again. Even on commercial campaigns, like on this fashion shoot where we're in some mansion with these models and we to fly them in from New York and pay thousands of dollars. I got to take these weird little point and shoot flash shots while directing the commercial. And I really liked the photos at the time just purely because they were different to everything else I had available to me. That's what loads of great fashion photographers or photo journalists do. They snipe their own personal stuff on a separate camera while they're on the job and I just love that for them. They're just so passionate that they can't stop. It might not exactly match the rest of your work, but you can't deny that you were drawn to a certain moment, So you owe it to yourself, if you love photography to try and capture it. And it might take ten or 20 years worth of point and shoot shots to come together in a body of work that you can understand, but at least it will exist. One recent memory was, I remember picking up my mate from a Brazilian Jew jitsu class a few weeks ago and there was this little doggo sitting on the floor at the front door. And I just snapped a quick pick of him and got a photograph that I really enjoy, just simply because I had it in my pocket. But by no means was I out for a street session. I just had the camera in the car. I popped it in my pocket just out of habit when I got out of the car, and then boom, like 15 seconds later, the shot presented itself. And I've been glad to be able to revisit that funny moment again and again of this little brown timid, scruffy dog with like 15 tough as wrestler bloks behind him. So it's always worth having a little point and shoot with you just in case those miracle moments happen. 47. Tripods, Filters & Extra Equipment: In terms of other types of gear that you can consider using to help find and add to your photographic voice, there are flashes filters and tripods on camera or slightly off camera. Flashes are a really common tool in street photography and I absolutely love it. I love looking at flash work. I love making flash work. It's compelling, it's dramatic as f it has an immediacy about it. It looks and feels quite raw and uncensored. It's revealing and confronting. And just overall interesting. Originally, photographers needed a flash at night to even make an exposure. But nowadays, I think people just like the aesthetic of it. I personally like flash at daytime too. And I think why I like it at day is because it's like a new sight. You don't walk around and see people being lit by lights at day, so it's sort of a new sight to see. Of course, at night you see people lit up all the time. They're lit by all types of different lights at night, but at day it's obviously just the sun. So to see this more rare lighting scenario is really interesting. Especially since when you shoot a flash shot either day or night, you barely even get to actually see what it looked like in the moment because it goes off so quickly. So when you eventually get around to reviewing the images, you end up having this weird, rare visual experience where you're looking at this strange lighting scenario that you barely even got to see when it happened. And something about that experience is totally mesmerizing to me, and I think to a lot of other people as well, Susan Sontag, when writing about some of Jacob Ree's crude flash lit photographs of New York slum dwellers in the late 1800s. She describes that they are beautiful for a different reason to typical fine art photographs of that time. That they were beautiful because of their grimy shapelessness and for the rightness of their wrong framing per se, and their blunt contrasts and lack of control over tonal values. A beauty that is the result of amateurism or inadvertence. And I think that inadvertence or deliberate messiness comes hand in hand with street flash photography. And sontag is so right, it's really beautiful in such a strange way, if you have the guts. I'd say using a flash is the fastest surest way to confront all the demons you're imagining are out on the street. Because although people don't react even remotely as badly as you're expecting, they definitely notice your presence a hell of a lot more often when you're using a flash. So it will fast track your learning curve of how to manage those encounters. As soon as you fire that flash, you're basically sending a flare up in the sky or firing a gun because heads will turn. But depending on the scenario, it's still not as bad as you're expecting. I mean, to play the other side for a second. Sometimes I'll fire the flash off and the subject won't even notice, even if it's right in their face. I guess there are so many light sources and distractions nowadays that it can blend in a bit. But either way, the results are really exciting and you should definitely give it a go. Since your flash typically takes a second to recharge, it's a really good tool, as well as perhaps shooting on film, for helping you to become disciplined with firing off only one shot per scene. Usually, I'd steer you in the direction of trying to work a scene a little bit, but when it comes to flash, you'll usually be sort of firing and moving on. Firing and moving on. So it's just a different approach that you can add to your repertoire. The majority of street photographers don't use a tripod nowadays. The moments most of us seem to be interested in at this point in time are typically so fleeting and dynamic that it just isn't ideal to have to involve a tripod in that process because it's just a bit too time consuming and fiddly. However, some people like Trent Park, for example, have done very interesting street work with tripods where their street work is more conceptual, with long exposures involved. I can't show any of the work for copyright reasons. And he's done a lot of diverse work. But the photographs that I'm referencing are almost a bit of a throwback to when shutter speeds needed to be longer in order to make a proper exposure. But since film speeds have gotten so much faster and we also have digital cameras, now, we've seen a much more speed of life style of working, which is evident in the works of people like Elliot Irwitt, Gary Wine Green, Henri Cartier, Bresson, Joe Meyrowitz, Martin Par Vivian, Meyer, Alex Webb, David Allen, Harvey, Harry Gruyre, et cetera. The list goes on and on, and it's totally endless. And I'll get deeper into what you can draw from those particular photographers later on. And although the list of noteworthy Street photographers genuinely may as well be endless, I will try to keep a certain level of consistency to the photographers that I reference. Not only because they're the ones that I'm more studied in, but so that you can become more and more familiar with what their work can teach you and what they added to the conversation of street photography. Though in saying that, I will also bit by bit add other photographers to the list of references too. So that by the end of the guide, you'll have a nice wide variety of photographers of which you can draw inspiration and learnings from. There are loads of filters that exist. They don't seem to get used that often in street photography. But whenever they do I personally dig seeing it. First of all, my favorite filters are softening filters to the point where I got Tiffin to custom make a few of my own sets of pro missed filters for some of my weirder lenses as in Tiffin didn't make these specific diameters. And since I currently shoot on digital, which is a bit too harsh and detailed for my liking, I need to knock out some of that harshness with a slight softening effect. The softening filters typically have the added effect of blooming the high lights a bit, which a lot of people love because it just looks and feels a bit dreamier, a bit moodier. It creates a slightly heightened look too in that sense, since life doesn't actually bloom in that way. And it's that blooming factor that everyone loves about, Sini still film stocks and a lot of brands like Prism, Lens Effects and Moment are starting to make softening filters now too. But if I were you, I'd stick to the OG brands like Tiffin because they've been doing it right for decades. Softening filters get used a lot in filmmaking just to beautify the actors a little bit. And again, since we're using mostly digital nowadays in the commercial and independent filmmaking world, a lot of the cinematographers seem to want to take that bite out of the four K or eight K footage. Especially when you've got wildly sharp lenses like RE master primes lenses of that caliber out there, which are just excessively sharp. The whole softening effect used to be inherent in lenses because older lenses just did that and it looks stunning. So it was only a matter of time before it came to the digital world and it's definitely welcomed. Some vintage lenses can be so gloomy that when I use some of mine I need to make sure there isn't a softening filter on them because otherwise it will be overkill. So just keep that in mind when you're trying to find the effect you like. You might be able to save some money on filters that you don't need if you're able to make a wiser decision on your lens choice. And therefore, you might be able to make your kit smaller, which will therefore be less cumbersome. And so you'll be more likely to bring the camera with you everywhere you go. And that's the best case scenario for a street photographer who's serious about the craft, to always have the camera with you and to always have it powered on. Or better yet, have a manual camera that doesn't take batteries because then it can never die. But I presume the majority of you will either be using film cameras where the light meter does need a battery or digital cameras and that 2 seconds that it takes to boot up the camera or find the fiddly on switch of an old film camera can be the difference of making the shot or missing it. So if you're in the mood for shooting photos or if you're out and about shooting, or you sense that something could happen, don't wait to see the moment to turn the camera on, have it on already, and just have extra batteries. For example, imagine if you're in the passenger seat of a car and you see something amazing out the window. Instantly you jolt to life. You reach out for your camera, turn it on, start to aim it before it's even really on. And then nope, the shot is gone. It happens to me all the time. When I see a glorious view through a gap in the trees along the road side, I'll see it. My eyes will widen, then zip, we whizz past it and I barely even have a chance to move, let alone make a photograph, so Sure. Just try to enjoy those views for yourself. But if you want to catch the next one, you'll be better off if you have the camera turned on, get extra batteries. If it's a digital camera, chuck one in your pocket if you're gonna be out for a while. It's only the size of a roll of film anyway, so just do it. That's what I do when I was shooting film. I just had my pockets loaded with film so that I could be sure I had what I needed. Even if some miraculous scene inspires me, and I end up shooting a whole roll on it before I even reach my original destination. Like say a surprise parade starts strutting downtown that I didn't know was on that day. I'm definitely going to want to catch a bunch of frames in an event like that, that type of stuff always happens. Or you might be fixated on a certain idea and waste eight or 12 frames on it and not have enough for the rest of your day. So always have extra film. Always have batteries. Like say some skaters are going around and around in a park in an interesting way and you only like the moment that they're closest to you. So you wait for them to do a few rotations and you take a few shots. You're already going to make a handful of exposures there and you didn't even expect to see it if you were on your way to a gig or whatever, and you thought you'd use your last six shots on the gig, but not now. You're fresh out of film or fresh out of battery power, whatever it is. Just have extra film with you. Always have extra batteries. Always have your camera on and you'll miss fewer shots. Next up, you've got your classic colored filters like red, green, and blue and so on, which basically just change how the camera sees the light. Usually, these filters are used in black and white photography because they can help make the work a lot more contrasty or dramatic, or give it more dynamic range. Then you've got an array of effects filters that give pretty interesting results. These are made by basically putting weirdly layered or fractured glass into a filter to create strange optical tricks. I've used a few of these and I quite like it if you can use them subtly. But when it's out of control, I think it starts to get a bit too puzzling for my tastes, but you might enjoy it. So there's those as well. You've also got neutral density filters, AKA N D filters, which just simply block out light the same way sunglasses do. And you can get different strengths to block out more or less light. I currently use one so that I can shoot at slower shutter speeds on sunny days to create more movement and more energy in my frames. So that's one way to use them. But put simply, they're just designed to help you control your settings more. So for example, if you know you'll be shooting in really bright conditions. You might pop an N D on that. Knocks a few of those stops of light out, and that way you can shoot outside without having to stop all the way down to 16 if that's not your jam. Now, if you're shooting on a modern camera, you won't have these issues as much, because more modern cameras can typically reach 4,000 shutter speeds, or even 8,000 and I'm sure it'll only get faster. And with those speeds, you'll still have a lot of room to move in regards to controlling which aperture you're on, but you get the point it blocks light. I just recommended that you avoid layering N D's on top of each other because it can create weird color shifts. I did it once and the whole image went pink, which to be fair, was pretty groovy. But I'm sure you don't want that for every single shot you take. If you're needing an N D, but not sure how strong, or if you might need to change it, get a variable N D, which is just an N D that has multiple settings basically. Then you've got polarizers which aren't a filter I ever use in street photography. But they basically just remove or limit reflections. So a lot of landscape photographers like them because it can cut glary reflections off a watery foreground and just make the whole image a bit more luscious because you'll be able to see more detail beneath the water. You can do groovy things with these filters though, that might be useful in street photography. For example, if you get a variable polarizer which and offers different amounts of polarization and say you're shooting into a window of a cafe. You can spin the filter to a point where it's not removing all of the reflections from the window, but it is removing some of the reflections and that can have a really strange and interesting effect. They also add an additional layer of saturation. From my experience however, I imagine that effect is less prominent, potentially nonexistent. If you get a more expensive option, not just some cheap big one, but it's just something to be aware of because it could be the difference between you spending more or less time in the editing suite and if your time is worth much, then perhaps it's good to just go for the more expensive product right off the bat, If you know you'll use it fairly often. I've been doing a weird little thing over the last year that I'm totally obsessed with, which is I've been creating my own filters by gluing little bits of broken glass onto clear filters and seeing if it divides the image up interestingly, or if it gives it unique lens flares. And that's just because I love nostalgic imagery and I thought I might be able to make some by doing that, feel free to yoink that idea. And I imagine some photographers already probably do it in their own way and that's great. Give it a go yourself and if you like the look of it, just try and add your own twist to it somehow. Another thing I try is I bring a small piece of flat glass, flat clear glass. I put it in my pocket and also bring a small spray bottle, and I spray water onto the flat glass and shoot through it to get these more painterly effects. I've also been creating these dodgy homemade broken glass picture frames made from old broken windows from England. That gives interesting stretched, melted, blurry effects. It doesn't really feel much like straight traditional street photography, but it's worth experimenting with. And all three of these ideas were just because I found myself shooting through windows and really liking what would happen to the image if the window was dirty or wet, or broken, or whatever. And then in regards to adding that water spray element, I found Todd To's work and he used to make these great, gorgeous landscape photographs from the front seat of his car and he'd wet his windscreen and then shoot through that smeary, blurry glass. I read in one of his books that he'd just carry extra bottles of water in his car so that even if it wasn't raining, he could create that odd blurry effect. So I thought pocket, I'm going to bring a little pocket sized piece of glass everywhere I go. And then I'll have this portable window. And I'll bring a little spray bottle in my pocket too. And I'll see if I can add to the conversation that Todd Jo was a part of by bringing that idea out of the front seat of the car to the street. And then maybe that's a valuable experiment. So go out there and get creative use filters if you feel oh so inclined, who cares if it feels weird in the beginning or if the idea isn't working the way you expected it to. Or if it feels less fruitful than a normal day on the street with good weather. Who even cares if it feels like street photography per se. Just see the idea through because that approach will lead you somewhere new. And that unexplored territory is the most exciting place to be. 48. What to Wear & Why?: When it comes to what to wear? First of all, be comfy, especially comfy shoes. There's obviously no rules, but there are some pros and cons to what you might choose to wear. It might seem trivial, but it can come into play. This whole point feels strange to even bring up, but oddly enough, I do recommend dressing the part. Depending on if you're going to sketchier parts of town or a nice part of town or whatever, It just seems to make the whole experience run more smoothly because you blend in and when you blend in, you're able to just focus on the craft rather than say you're wearing some expensive winter coat, holding an expensive camera, walking the streets of a really rough neighborhood, Then if you're a reasonable person, you'll probably recognize, oh, I sort of stand out quite hectically here and it just makes it harder to be covert and get natural candid photographs. And then you end up having to adapt your approach towards the fact that you stand out like a sore thumb. As another example though, if you dress quite nicely, but you're in, say, the middle of the city, you won't really stand out that much. And so dressing relatively nicely, and I just mean dressed as an average respectable character. I'm not talking about body suit and tie vibes. But anyways, if you're dressed all right, from my experience, the pro side is that you're met with some more gentle interactions because you don't seem suspicious, really when someone sees you're being a bit weird with the way you're kind of trying to get photos. Since you don't come across as some like a bag snatcher or whatever, then they're not too worried about you. So typically I'll just get met with more pleasant responses, especially if I'm being quite upfront and smiley. Whereas if you're dressed down and being a little bit sneaky and also look a little ratty, people will likely be a bit more wary of you, which at the end of the day, is not that big of an issue. It's just that you're typically met with sometimes more uncomfortable interactions. And it can be a bit of a negative vibe depending on how invasive your photographic style is, Like dressed a bit ratty and suspicious, and then you fire off a flash right in someone's face. They're likely going to be like, oh you mate, what are you doing? And you might just have more of a social battle on your hands. Whereas if you're dressed all right, they might be just more inclined to just kind of leave it alone. I mean, I guess that stuff's typically all pretty manageable to be honest, because it's mostly to slightly positive versus slightly negative responses in an overall judgmental vibe that if you can avoid, it's just more helpful to keep you in the zone. So whatever those general city interactions are all manageable. But the main one for me is just dressing the part if you're going to proper dodgy of parts of town just so that you don't run into trouble overall though, I'd say trying to dress to blend in would be a good strategy just so that you can focus on the craft. If you think of it like a sport, every sport has a dress code, an etiquette, or a uniform. Rugby, Tennis. Soccer, Golf, Badminton. Cricket, whatever. They can throw their own spin on a little bit with some customized piece. But for the most part, they're sticking pretty much to what's best for the game. You know, you're not going to play soccer in a trench coat. And so I think your street photography has a better chance to shine if you blend in a bit. There is utility in trying to blend in and treating it like a uniform. In a sense, it's not about removing your identity or your style. And it's not like you have to dress like a body pirate if you go into a dodgy part of town or dress like the groom of a wedding, if you're going somewhere fancy. But just keep it in mind and don't be a fool. It's about reading the room and acting appropriately. If you want to get more candid photographs, I guess, then just wear comfy shoes. Have some pockets, and you're golden. 49. Color Vs. Black & White: The debate between color and black and white is almost not worth having in the sense that they're so different. It's not really possible to say one is better than the other. It might be better for you or it might not. There's utility in exploring both for yourself just to find out what you like and why. It's a bit easier for us nowadays to explore the concept since we can just flick the black and white filter on or off in camera or in the edit. But what I will say is that actually forcing yourself into shooting a role of black and white film really does get you thinking in a different way. You immediately pay much more attention to composition, to lighting, to the geometry of the frame, and that can be a really great lesson. And taking that discipline back to your color work will only do good things with color. You inherently make color associations in the world. Pairing things together or using them against each other, you start to naturally use color as a layer between subject and background, or subject and subject. You describe the weather with more certainty with color. I think the bottom line is, you're simply telling different stories, talking different languages. If you're using color, or black and white, or infrared, or experimental film stocks or whatever your color spectrum is, they're all different languages. One valuable piece of research on this topic that I found was the experiment Joel Meyrowitz did back in the day. Where he carried two cameras, one loaded with color, one loaded with black and white. And what he'd do is he'd try to shoot essentially the same frame in both color and black and white. So that he could compare them side by side to see which held more emotion or which told the story better or which described his experience best. And his conclusion was that since color is the world we live in, that that's where he wanted to take his photography. Other people like the abstraction of black and white, it has different connotations, it has a different history, it leaves a different impression. The world isn't black and white. When you look around, you see colors. So that instant abstract impression of removing that might serve your ideas better. It might really suit your view of the world. So if that's the case, more power to you. As you all know, everything used to be black and white. Really, even when color came along, it wasn't really respected or taken as seriously as black and white. Even when street photography finally caught a break and started getting taken more seriously after the New Documents exhibition at Moma in the late '60s, Color was still very much the underdog. It took a few key figures to make the move to color. To start to slowly even the playing field. People like William Eggleston and Alex Webb and Joel Meyrowitz all made a distinct move to color and helped slowly shift its reputation in a way. But it took years before a color photograph was even thought of as artful. Saul Litter and Vivian Meyer were both actually using color earlier than those other photographers. But as their bodies of work weren't able to be truly appreciated until many years later, they didn't have the same effect as some of their peers. So even though color was more complicated and more expensive to develop, good photographers were using it. It was still thought of as cheap. Because around that time, it was primarily used to sell things. So it was seen largely as a marketing tool and therefore sort of dismissed from the art world. So you can only imagine how long it took for color street photography together to get a chance. 50. Film Vs. Digital: Film versus digital. And which is better is another debate, almost not worth having because they offer different experiences. There's no better, or worse, they're just different. There are some projects that were created with digital that couldn't have been made with film, at least not in the same way. And the same goes for film. I suggest you use both, each for different projects, depending on the purpose, depending on what the story needs, depending on what you're trying to say or at least what experience you're after. The same way that you're not going to wear ballet shoes on a marathon run, and you're not going to wear steel toe work boots at a ballroom dance competition. It's different tools for different reasons. I don't know where they got this from, but someone once told me, digital is what the eye sees and film is what the soul sees. And that made a lot of sense to me. So maybe it will make a lot of sense to you too, because each different person has their own unique way of seeing. And so their choice in film or digital in that sense, will depend on what that way of seeing looks like to them or what it feels like. And it will come down to things like which tool best suits their way of working, and their goals, and their aesthetics, and their budget, and what have you. And those things might shift over the years as they evolve and move on to new projects or new seasons in life. So it's worth not turning your nose up at either of the mediums and perhaps just getting to know both. Film's biggest drawback nowadays is just it's more expensive all around. The film is more expensive to buy, especially if you want good quality film stocks. Then more money to develop and then more money to scan and then more money to get high res scans and then to get the film sleeves and folders to archive the negatives properly. And there's also the time it takes to archive it properly if you're committed to doing it. As well as a digital filing system on your laptop. But most people that I know myself included digitally file the scans pretty well, but then stash their negatives carelessly with no organization whatsoever. And so then we've only got the 6 megabytes scans rather than all the detail of the negative in a much bigger file. And so then if we ever want to get a better scan done, it will be a nightmare to find it. My oh my how I dread that day. And even then, the negatives might be damaged. You can scan your own negatives if you buy a scanner, which can be pretty pricey too. I remember I used to scan my own negatives and I really enjoyed it, but it just took so much time and it just doesn't work for me because I typically shoot a lot. I remember with one of those Epsom scanners where you'd cut the film into strips of five or six and scan one at a time. I'd only be able to get through two or three rolls in an entire evening. So eventually I thought my time was worth a bit more than that, but the other option is just completely extortionate prices. At the lab, I remember recently I developed like 14 rolls from a holiday and it was 350 ish dollar to develop, let alone buy, which was roughly 300 as well. And then the lab only gave me 6 megabytes scans, which if you ever want to print, won't be as good as you think. But then to get the premium scans, it was going to cost an additional $500 I couldn't believe it overall. To shoot 14 rolls, which is about 500 frames, it was going to cost over $1,100 That's more than $2 a photo, for 35 millimeter. And I just thought that was crazy. Apologies for the price rant. But I think because I took two years off shooting film, and now that I've come back to shooting it occasionally, I'm super surprised at how intense the prices have gotten. However, to play the other side a little bit. There are apps and tools now that help you scan your negatives with a digital camera or maybe even your phone. But I just find it a bit comical that if you go that way, that you need a digital camera to be able to make shooting on a film camera affordable. It's all a bit wacky. I never thought I'd be trash talking film because it's such a beautiful medium and I've enjoyed it for years, but it's honestly only the price that's bad about it. The waiting for the negatives is still exciting. The shooting is still exciting. The quality, if you get a good scan, is still amazing. It's all wonderful. It's just that damn price tag. Plus, if you actually want a really decent professional film camera, the prices can be pretty hefty for those nowadays too, since they're getting old. Especially if you're unfortunate enough to love a camera that has a bit of a cult following, then you'll be paying hilariously huge prices. You can get cheap film cameras, and if that suits your style, you're lucky. But some film photographers might need something more solid and reliable, and that will likely set you back a pretty penny nowadays. Unfortunately. Now, under some positive things about shooting film, something almost indisputable is that shooting film gives you feel, it's hard to describe, but it just feels good whether it's that solid, well made clack of the mechanical shutter that goes off with such certainty that feels good and appeals to that tool user side of the human brain. Or if it's that sense of mystery of how the negative might turn out, the anticipation, whatever it may be, it just feels good. It's awesome too because no matter what level you're at, even if you're really confident with your work, you're still forced to contain your excitement until the role is developed. And there's something about that that creates such a compelling feeling. And since you typically take less photos, if you use film, they all seem to pack such a punch. Polaroid photography is a perfect medium for exploring that magic. Most of us have experienced that seeing it appear before your eyes. It's incredible how the hell they invented. This stuff is completely beyond me. The science of it is brilliant and I think we take that for granted. In fact, I think we take both film digital for granted. I mean, how often do you just stop and go? What the film, how the hell is it possible that I can just visually capture these moments like bang, I saw it click, I captured it. Now I have it on a little screen or a little piece of paper, and I can keep it forever. And I can share it with people. And now people on the other side of the world can see what you're seeing. See what your day is basically as it happens. Sure. We can semi understand. Oh yeah, it's thousands of different dots of color and you know, they're all recorded on a sensor. But what the fun is that, what is a sensor? Oh, it's a light sensitive piece of glass. Um, okay. But still, what the hell's that? It's magic. How did they manage to come up with all of this and make it so easy to use? I couldn't figure out how to do that. If you gave me 1,000 years, it's all completely wild. What an epic generation to be a part of. Imagine if all photography got removed from existence tomorrow. Imagine how desperate we would be to find ways to tell our stories, to express ourselves. It's hilarious and it's such an interesting thing. Let's not take it for granted. Anyways, I got a bit sidetracked there. Back to film. You're usually more intentional when shooting film because of the limitations, right? You're more thoughtful, you think, is this photo worth it? I only have so many et cetera. But then at the same time, you can often hesitate too much and miss the moments because you let the medium get between you and the shutter, you and the moment. There are pros and cons all the way through and there are a bunch of mistakes you'll make if you shoot film. Depending on the camera, maybe the film doesn't catch on the spool and you shoot a whole role without actually making any exposures. Perhaps your flash sink, shutter speed gets nudged and every shot is a dud. Maybe your light meters off due to old age, so you over expose everything. Maybe you get light leaks that you didn't expect or didn't want. Maybe you forget to advance the film after the previous shot. And when you go to fire the shutter to catch a fleeting moment, the camera isn't ready, so the shutter doesn't go off. And then by the time you advance the film and go to take the shot, the moment's gone. Then there's also countless errors you can make in developing, especially if you're doing it yourself. This can all be avoided with careful consideration. But the point is you will encounter problems related to the medium, but it's part of its charm. And in my experience, having these things happen to you only makes you more disciplined in a good way. Or perhaps all these imperfections suit your style, and embracing that side of things will work for you. It can be a good outcome either way. In that sense, as in you either get more disciplined and make better work that way, or you make more spontaneous imperfect work and make really powerful, emotional, unique work that way. Both options are good outcomes. Film makes it blindingly obvious to you how a moment can disappear right before your eyes. Because you're sitting there wondering if you should take the shot. And before you know it, everything's changed and you've missed it. Whereas with Digital, you probably wouldn't hesitate to just take a quick snap regardless because it doesn't cost you anything at that point. Films also helpful in making you be more thoughtful. For example, when you're choosing which film stock is going in your camera. Next you might consider the weather. Will it be bright today or gloomy? Will I be spending much of my day on the subway or will I be outside? Is it already pretty late in the afternoon? So will I need a higher ASA for some nighttime scenes afterwards? It's all this kind of stuff. It helps shape your work, or at least it makes you put some thought into the work before it even begins. And I think that's a really good thing. One other interesting thing that film helps you appreciate is the slight color shifts between film stocks. It can be quite eye opening when you go into the editing software with your scans because you notice that these slightly greener hues or pinker hues, or warmer tones, or colder tones are coming through, adding an emotional layer that you might not have even been considering while you shot that role. So it starts to help you consider the storytelling ideas through the use of color or texture. Not to mention that with film cameras, you've also got so many different aspect ratios to choose from depending on which camera you're using. Like for example, you've got a normal three by two ratio, which is the most common, and that's usually shot on a normal 35 millimeter camera. Then you've got one by one or six by seven ratios, plus some others with medium format cameras. And there's all these different film sizes to choose from. Two like 110 film, which is D by the way, which is really miniature film canisters still available today. And cameras that accept that type of film are tiny little cameras, so it can be really fun to play around with them. Then as I said, you've got 35 millimeter film of which you can shoot normally or half frame or panoramic, and medium format film, of course, Which you can even shoot at six by nine ratio or even panoramic on some medium format cameras, which is basically heading into large format territory. And you can end up with a negative that's like this buddy Big. You've also got reversal film, AKA slide film, which instead of having that brown look that the negative has, it actually has all the color already embedded in the slide. And so there are different considerations to think about if you're using that kind of film as well. Anyways, the point is that It's all of these choices that you're able to make before you even start shooting that give you some building blocks to start building your stories before you even tell them. One great thing that I admire about film cameras themselves is their simplicity. There's rarely much but going on typically there's just a light meter, shutter speed dial, aperturing focus and shutter release. No overwhelming menus and distracting features. It allows you to just focus on the moment when you're shooting, as cliche as it sounds, and not let the gear be on your mind. But it's cliche for a reason because it's more desirable for most people to be able to just get lost in the moment. This is why we even have hobbies so that we can get lost in something and be engrossed by the activate. We seem to want to get swept away by things in life and photography, especially film photography, since you can't review the photos instantly, is definitely a great way to just go out and be swept away by the act of something. This is a bit of a departure from film cameras, but I'll relate it back at the end. The clinical psychologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson, describes how you'll notice when you're engaged in something because you didn't think about anything else while you were doing that thing. And he talks about how that feeling of being engaged is the feeling of meaningfulness. That is the feeling of being in the right place at the right time. Some people talk about it as being in the zone, sporting people have it and it's because they love that sport. And doing it, or getting better at it, is meaningful. Maybe not only to them, but perhaps the better they do in the sport. If they say at a professional level, then perhaps they'll get paid more the better they perform. And they'll be rewarded for their efforts and be able to provide for their family more generously. And of course, that's meaningful to them. That's hugely valuable to them. So they get in the zone and nothing distracts them. They have no outside thoughts other than just doing this thing as well as they can do it. And that's because for them personally, they're in the right place at the right time for them in that moment. And we all have that feeling with different things, even if they're just trivial things sometimes and it might not last long, you might only be in that window of experience for 10 minutes at a time. But it's worth paying attention to what happens in those 10 minutes and asking why was I so engaged in that act? Because it interests me, because it means something to me, because it feels right, because it's in line with my values or goals. And you need to follow that instinct. That's the act of discovering who you could be. It's an adventure. Following that feeling and seeing where it takes you. That is the adventure of life. You know that feeling of being in a really meaningful conversation. It's hard to describe, but you're just in it. You're invested, You're connected to the content, to the person, to the lecturer, to the movie. Because you're learning. You're growing expanding in ways. You're interested in that instinct of meaningfulness, which is the thing that guides you, is engaged. It's turning you on. It's telling you based on your values, this is important, this is a good place to be. Keep doing this. I find that even if it's something you didn't particularly think you wanted to do, if it serves your values, you will likely be engaged by it to a degree because your brain knows this is important. That's why after a day of even doing hard tasks, which you wouldn't typically yearn to do, if they're say, just general sort of cleaning, or gardening, or organizing, or life admin type tasks, You can often feel quite proud and accomplished of your efforts. So you feel good because you grew somehow. And you were likely engaged in the tasks for chunks of it because your subconscious knows that needed to happen. Or doing those tasks now clears me up to do my actual hobbies more freely for the next week or whatever it may be. You know, it might be I fulfilled my responsibilities in the household or wow, I've been putting that off for months. Whatever the thoughts are, there's this sweetness to that accomplishment even though it's an annoying task. And now to swing this whole psychological departure back around a street photography. The same thing happens to me when I'm out on the street looking, learning, growing, absorbing life, making photographs. Even if I'm having an unsuccessful shooting day, I'm still expanding my domain of competence. I'm taking responsibility for the outcome. I'm trying to be creative, thinking, how can I turn this day around? Or how can I grow so I can find more opportunities under these conditions? And when I'm doing it, I don't think about anything else except for the task at hand. I'm completely involved, especially on a good day. And I want to reinforce that it's mostly engaging when it's good. Of course, just like the sporting professional that I mentioned, when you're winning, it's amazing. And I've heard so many photographers speak this way about it. It's almost meditative in those times. And that to me, seems like a good place to be. But it is still engaging when it's tough, if you don't have a defeatist mindset, because you're trying to grow. And there's nothing like that feeling of stumbling across a nugget of goal. When you've been having such an unsuccessful street day. When you just snag this impeccable moment, it's all worth it. And it's the journey to that place that is meant to be engaging and meaningful. And if it isn't, then you might need to call it a day. Anyways. I'm sure you can understand and relate to some of that, maybe a lot of it, or maybe only a little. But I just found all those types of learnings and realizations really helpful when I listen to some of Dr. Jordan Peterson's lectures. Because it sort of explained the feeling we all have of being engaged. And it helps you aim for that feeling more often once you know what it is. That's why they say knowledge is power, I guess. And so now you have the knowledge of knowing that when you're engaged, that that is something that you should invest more time and effort into. And that if you're not engaged, that there is a reason why not as in. Perhaps you're shooting a style of street photography that you see everyone else doing. And you know that you like looking at it. And maybe you're a little bit envious that people are having success in that popular avenue. So you try to go down it too, but you just don't feel overly compelled by it. You're not immersed in it. It just doesn't really suit you if you're honest with yourself. So then perhaps after having that realization, maybe you start to explore other subgenres of photography and eventually find your own special niche. And then bang, you've listened to your lack of engagement and it led you to where you were destined to use the flowery, lofty word, to go now onto digital. What's good about it, what's bad about it, and what you can learn from it, and what problems to expect in my eyes. The whole thing is funny because with both digital and with film, a lot of their pros are their cons. It's quite peculiar in that way. For example, some of the main issues with digital seem to be related to the sheer amount of material you create. With the limit being so much larger you end up shooting like crazy. So you end up spending so much time in the editing suite sifting through and refining your collection, then you need to buy more hard drives to back up your work. And you can also lose quality sometimes just because you have less discipline. It's the opposite issue with film, right? Because sometimes you don't have enough film in order to take the chances you need to take in order to make truly great work. Digital gear can also be annoying, in the sense that it's constantly upgrading. For example, batteries or memory cards change, they get discontinued, they get made redundant, so the gear loses value because there's seemingly better models available. On top of that, you've got an abundant, some distracting features. I know a lot of photographers want and love extra features. But I think when it comes to street photography, you don't need much. So it just makes the equipment a bit more fiddly. For street photography purposes, you don't need seven function buttons, you don't need 60 mega pixels. You don't need complex menu systems with all kinds of highly specific impractical features that you'll never use. You might need some of those things for other types of photography, but not for street. So my advice is to strip it back to a simple camera so that you can think more about what's in front of you. On the good side of digital though, you can take chances because you're not restricted to 36 frames. And the costs associated, you can feel free to explore, to experiment, to freely create, basically. So you're more likely to take multiple photos of the same scene, ending up in the privileged position of comparing and reviewing your successes and failures from a larger sample size. It can really fast track your learning curve. In that sense, you can try out techniques or ideas, or even test out new bits of gear without even really having the perfect subject. Whereas if you wanted to, say, test out a lens with your film camera, you're less likely to take a roll of film out and shoot a whole roll of outer focus shots just to get acquainted with the lens characteristics. But with digital, you'd happily do that so you can get to know your gear in a different way. I think also shooting with a digital camera helps you be braver because you know that if you take the risk of walking up to that person and snapping a photograph, you're more certain with digital in a sense that you will actually end up with a shot. Or if you don't end up with the shot, the mistake making process is sped up because you have the ability to instantly review the work. And if it didn't work out the way you wanted it to or the way you envisioned, you might still have the chance to try again before the moment passes, which isn't really the case with film. Usually because you have to wait for your developments and scans to come back to even realize you made a mistake. However, with film, when you up and you find out a week later when you get the results back, that you made a critical error. The almost traumatizing nature of finding out so much later seems to bake that mistake into your workflow so much more intensely so with film, I feel like you make much larger steps of improvement. Whereas with a digital workflow, your improvements are typically more incremental. One thing that people do is to use the digital screen to shoot rather than their view finder. And I feel like that's a mistake because you missed the details. If you want to get a really different angle, then of course use the screen. But on the occasions where you can use your viewfinder, I'd recommend it because on a three inch screen, you will miss the finer details that you might be more likely to catch in the full viewfinder window. I think you almost start to frame things for social media. If you shoot with a screen, it's like you see it on this small camera screen. Maybe you send it to your phone and upload it. Maybe you even do an edit on your phone and then upload it right away. And you never even saw a proper large version of the photograph, not even in real life, because you were staring at this tiny little screen and then it's gone and you never blow it up. And you never get to inspect the finer details of the photographs until perhaps years later if you decide to make a book or make a print. And then in that moment, you might see the weaknesses in that photo that you never noticed before because your whole experience of it was on such a small screen. I don't mean to harp on, but it's just that I know how rich the experience can be. If you just at least look through the glass viewfinder, at least, then it can be a memory rather than a memory of staring at a three inch screen two feet from your face. So yeah, just try to get into the habit of using your viewfinder and I promise you you will feel much more connected to your work when it comes to editing. There are so many lessons Digital helps you learn. First of all, there's editing in the sense of selecting your best photographs, then there's editing in the sense of color, correcting, and giving it a look. With the selecting side of things. Since you usually have so many more photographs to choose from with your digital work rather than with film yet, usually you can still only select one or two of any given moment. It makes you be more cutthroat, whereas I guess with film you're more cut throat in the moment. But in any case, I think digital helps to improve your cling and selecting process. It's just that it happens in post production rather than on the day when it comes to color correcting. If you have a half decent image file and you get your editing skills up to scratch, the world is your oyster with where you want to take the look and feel, which is great because it gives you another shot at refining your voice, which gets the creative juices flowing. Of course, you can do this with film as well, but I think since when you get a film scan back, it already looks quite good. A lot of photographers seem to keep that natural look or something pretty close to that natural look. They'll maybe add some contrast or shift the colors a bit, maybe lower the highlights of smidge. But since a digital file starts from quite a raw flat look, assuming that you have the auto Jpeg edit upon import type function turned off, then the huge variation of options of where you could take the look and feel seem to encourage a bit more exploration. I would say starting with presets is a good idea. Buy a set of presets and they'll get you halfway there. And then you can tweak them and adapt them to your work and then re, save them. And then you've got a custom made set of looks for the types of settings and environments that you typically shoot in. So although editing digital work can be a laborious and time consuming task, there are many ways that it is exciting and creatively useful. Alrighty, so there's a load of chit chat about film and digital for you to mull over since they offer such different lessons and experiences. Your learning curve will hugely depend on which one you choose, film or digital, and how often you flick between them, if at all. But at the end of the day, I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't explore both, at least momentarily. Exploring both mediums can only lead to better work, in my opinion, even if it leads to disgust. If you hate digital or you hate film, or if you hate the process of one of them. If film is too slow for you or if digital is too crude for you. As in if you despise your digital experience with all your heart, it can only lead to more endearing feelings towards film and vice versa. It's all a little laughable, but it's true. The thing is, no matter what gear and what medium you're using and for what reasons, there's typically so much other stuff out of your realm of knowledge, outside of your peripherals that might eventually persuade you interchanging mediums. Even if it's only for a short while. I remember so many times I felt like I had the exact camera set up that I use forever. In fact, I think I've basically felt that way with every single camera so far. But then something comes along and changes my perspective. Whether if it's I get inspired by someone's work or if I learn something about a certain process or a piece of gear. Or if I have an idea that's indisputably a film idea, for example. And then I'll go off in that direction for a while, and I never see it coming. And then I grow and I move in new directions. And I'm always appreciative of that journey. So I guess the lesson is just to be open and willing to experience new things. My super recent new experience is shooting on super shabby old school digital point and shoot cameras from the early 2000s. I'll show you some shots. I've been getting over it lately since getting into using these little cheap digit cams. I've discovered more people who are also really into it. And there's a small movements community of photographers on Instagram called at Digcam dot love. And I expect it to be an even bigger wave over the coming years. So maybe have a look into it and see if it's up your alley. But the story for me with how I got into it goes, I got some film developed recently. And I think after working in digital files and printing a bit more often in recent years, returning to those little six megabyte files that you get back from most slabs just didn't suit me anymore. And the price tag to upgrade to premium scans, as I said earlier, was way too steep, especially if they're just fun holiday point and shoot snaps, which is very bothersome. But anyways, flash forward two weeks after getting the expensive but poor quality scans back. And I was often a little birthday trip to this Airb and B in an old vintage motor home. And my girlfriend and I always bring polaroids for our trips, but we'd forgotten to buy a film, so I started looking on Facebook marketplace to see if anyone in this tiny town had any film or any old cameras with a roll of film in it still, or just whatever. And I was clasping at straws, and then this dank little Pentax Optio 555 popped up for 20 bucks. I hit the woman up and said, can I come and get it? And she's like, yep, let's do it. I've had Covid semi recently though, so I'll leave it on the porch bang. We swung by, grabbed it, and my, oh my, it was so much fun. I was obsessed, and still very much am obsessed with the ridiculously small screen. It's quite fun, but it still has a rad little viewfinder and has a funny little zoom and a groovy flash. And the little pictures we were taking were looking way better than expected, and it was only five mega pixels. But I thought to myself, this file is genuinely better than the film files I've been getting back. So I shot with only that little camera for the whole trip. And then when I came back home to give them a bit of an edit, I was so impressed with the results. To me, it honestly looked like film. And it just reminded me of that quote that I mentioned earlier from Brian Eno about how whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable, and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. And for me, that is certainly the case with these little digital point and shoots that I'm starting to play with. The best part is they're so cheap. So I've been able to take them out on little summer boat trips when me and my mates have been having to piss up on these little inflatables. Because it doesn't matter if you accidentally drop it in the water in the process of having a fun day at the beach or whatever. You don't have to cherish them as much as the overpriced cult film point and shots, which they are so gorgeous and groovy and retro and have better lenses and all that. It's just a fun new thing I'm trying out and I never expected it to go from using a horrendously expensive ten K digital lica to a tiny 20 year old $20 camera with a quirky little zoom lens only accepts two gigabyte cards. It's just comical what a curveball. Also on a related note, old handicam camcorder, dad cam, and VHS style footage has definitely become trendy again in the mainstream, which I'm sure skaters aren't happy about because that's always been their go to. I've had a dodgy little camcorder for a few years now that I got for a music video a while back. And it's just been gaining dust since. But I brushed it off recently and actually decided to film on it for some of the B roll footage of this guide, just to give it some pop, to give it some character, and also so that my friend and I could use those absurd optical zoom qualities to capture the lessons while staying relatively covert. But in any case, I think seeing that medium rise up again has definitely played a part in why I liked this crude he, old digital camera. And so if you feel the same, you can go and dip your toe into that old digital pool and see what you find. But overall, until film prices come down, if it ever does, I'm just stoked that there is something similar, at least in regards to the point and shoot style, that exists. Because I do think that that point and shoot option is such a weapon that you definitely need in your arsenal. 51. My Camera History: I thought I'd try to briefly outline my personal camera history and in which order I got them and how long roughly I had them for. So that you can start to get an understanding of what types of simple things can push you in the direction of film or digital, or just a different camera or lens than the one you have right now. And to just try and promote a passion for both mediums. My very, very first camera, if I recall correctly, was an Olympus Stylus 1030 S. If I remember, I almost forgot to put on this list, but I've recently remembered having it ever since I've been digging into these early 2000 digital cameras of late. So I had that and I remember my dad got it for me for Christmas or a birthday or something. And it was excellent because it was waterproof up to 5 meters, shocpproof two. So it was a total unit completely metal or titanium or whatever it's called. And so coming from Australia, me and my mates were just piss, fired around the pool or the beach with it in the scorching heat. And we'd just see what kind of comical underwater pictures we could make. Next, I got a go pro. And these cameras so far seem ridiculous. But when I look back, I realize why I loved them. And it was because they barely got in the way of the experience of life and being that young. You just want to have fun. You don't want to have to think about it. So it was perfect for that chapter next, when I got an injury and was more or less bed bound for a bunch of months and only allowed to take short walks around the neighborhood and was bored out of my mind. My mom, the doll, bought me a relatively cheap Nikon digital SLR with a little zoom kit lens, which served me well for perhaps a year. And it honestly just did the fun job. I was so proud of that little cameraman and the files are good enough to revisit, to re, edit. Luckily not that there's any real gold there, but yeah, it was a great tool to learn all of the manual settings on. And just overall good enough to convince me to lean into photography as a hobby a bit more and see where it leads flash forward. And I got a film nickon, basically the same camera as my digital one, but the film version. And I got it for $2 at a garage sale at Bondi Beach. So I shot a few roles on that thing and I was using it for a while, developing it at the local pharmacy where they'd collect all the film throughout the week and do one big batch of developments per week and you'd get the prints back. So that print side of things really got me interested in film. Then luckily, at a cafe I went to every day, the owner of the cafe noticed, I always had a camera with me. And she said, hey, my partner has a dark room And from time to time, he teaches people how to develop and print film if you're keen next minute, he became a bit of a mentor. John Mcdonogh, epic photographer, definitely loved street photography, but this is before I even knew it was a genre also. He was a senior firefighter, so he'd travel the world teaching other countries firefighters some of the skills we use for Australian fires, and he'd upskill them. So, he'd have his camera in these super unique places and it was just really inspiring to see. Funnily enough, he generously lent me a LycaM three, which years later I came to love. But I remember really not liking the experience of it all those years ago. And in all honesty, turning my nose up at it, He must have laughed that I'd tossed back like one of the world's most renowned cameras that he had in a cabinet so that I could chug away with far inferior cameras. So definitely be ready for that too, to just simply not appreciate the experience of certain cameras, even if you know they're great, if they're not for you, that's okay. Anyways, he taught me how to develop film because I never had a dark room at school. He taught me how to load film so that you could buy it in bulk and load it yourself and save money. He let me borrow an Olympus M two film camera for a few weeks until eventually he gifted it to me and my, my, I loved it. It's an SLR with really great, really interesting small lenses. And it was Rad because he was such a legend that he would give me a few roles to shoot. And since he honestly loved the art of developing and even more so printing, just as much as shooting, he was more than happy to develop my film for me. And we just have a drink and chill while we waited for the film to dry. Anyways, that was body excellent, but eventually I outgrew that camera. I needed better metering, so I moved up to the Olympus M four, a slightly more expensive model than the OM two, and he used that for a while, hit a big New York adventure with it and really loved it and started exploring lenses more, in which I got a bunch of really rad old Olympus lenses like the OM 18 millimeter F 3.5 which I've just seen. Can go for like upwards of four grand now. And I got it for like a few hundred. These prices kill me. Don't get me started. I also got the OM 24 millimeter, 2.8 and a few others which I love. Love, loved. Okay. So then I eventually got a digital itch that I had to scratch. So I moved over to digital with the cannon five D mark three and brought my Olympus lenses over with an adapter. I had that for a few years and made shot loads of work. Just getting lots of experiments out of my system. Long exposure stuff, landscape adventure stuff, portrait stuff, travel stuff, anything really. Just shooting everything. Shooting the actors that we worked with at film school. Shooting friends, shooting people on the street. Shooting farmers that I'd drive past in Australia. Shooting things that I'd see on Ozzie road trips, all of it. So this was the camera where my trigger finger just went off. And it's also the one which finally gave me my first raw image. So it taught me what the hell proper editing was all about as well. Then inevitably, I missed what film offered, the slower side of things, the more refined, thoughtful side of things. So I went back, but this time, to a range finder, the Zis icon by a recommendation from my mentor John, that I mentioned. And that camera opened me up to a whole new experience, the range finder experience. Then I got really heavily back into film for years, so I played around with lots of cameras, The Olympus Pen FT, half frame camera, which was so much fun because you could get 72 shots out of a role instead of 36. And also the viewfinder is portrait orientation. So it was just this really different experience then the Fuji G 693 medium format camera, which only took like eight shots per role of medium format film. So that was yet another speed bump coming from the 72 shots of the pen FT. Just that quantity factor really does play a huge part in your process or at least it does for me. It had a little light leak, the range finder was foggy. And just overall, it was a bit of a bad purchase on my end, so I bailed on that. Then headed back over to digital, briefly to the Fuji film T one, because I felt like I could use the viewfinder like the Zis icon, but also shoot more frames again and experiment. And honestly, I was just quite an adventurous young, needed to get the creativity out of my system. So shooting digital, whenever I did really did let me do that. And the XT one was still compact like some of the film cameras I was loving, so I cruised on that camera for a while, then I felt like I wanted to inject some more energy into my work and I met a guy who introduced me to the contact G two. So I moved to that, which is A where I started using flash because it has quite a wonderful compact flash. And B, where the auto focus nature of the camera changed my style of street photography and opened my eyes to, oh, if I'm quick enough, I can capture really epic moments. It's also where I started to have an appreciation for the sharpness of actual good lenses because the Carl's Ice contact lenses are so extremely sharp. Then I added the contact two to the mix, the G two's little sibling. I usually sold the other cameras as I went so that I didn't get gear paralysis, but in this case, I did have both at once. Then I lost my G two on a drunken night out in Seattle, which was a bummer. So I got a G one because it was ten times cheaper and genuinely, essentially exactly the same camera. Then I fell over on a hike and crushed the T two from my back pocket. What a time. So I just had the G one and was still really digging it. But those cameras have quite small viewfinders and I wanted to start really paying attention to the details again because my work was getting really messy, which is fun and care free for a while. But I wanted to clean it up for a little while just to see what would happen. So fast forward and I eventually got a Leica M three, which because of its enormous magnified viewfinder, it urges you to use a 50 millimeter lens or even longer. Which allowed me to find a deep appreciation for composing scenes with a 50 millimeter lens. Which reminds me if the 50 is your lens, it's your favorite lens, you must try shooting on the M three. It's bloody fantastic. Trust me, that camera changed the game for me. And if you don't trust me, read Ken Rockwell's gushing review on it, that will surely sway you. The lessons that I learned on that camera and lens combo were critical to where I am now. And I think just shooting on a Lia since you're typing that word in Google a little more often when you're researching lenses, et cetera. And most of the work on Leica is street work or old photo journalism. It really opened me up to that world in a big, big way. And for slightly over a year that I had that camera, I just went eight with street photography. It was the camera that made me ditch all the other stuff for a while, like portraits and landscapes, and I just focused on street the whole entire time. It was the biggest year of learning, I think I've ever had. Definitely the most obsessive year I've had. I remember coming back from a three week holiday around Europe with 70 rolls of film, and I had to wait six months before I could afford to develop and scan them. And then boom, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Just the price tag at that time. It costed me almost $2,000 to develop and scan it all. And in retrospect, they weren't even top of the line scanned. So it wasn't even that I had the digital itch next. It's just that I had an itch to do street photography. So I felt like I had to go back to digital to keep the ball rolling at the speed I was going without sending me bankrupt. Plus I needed some video functions for work. So I ended up settling on the Sony 73, not the S, which funnily enough, I got bought for me because this group of tattoo artists that wanted me to make a documentary about them had no proper budget to pay me to come and shoot for a week in Mexico and a week in LA. At these tattoo conventions that they were competing at. So I said if you get me a camera and some lenses and some basic sound gear, I'll make the documentary. So they all pitched in and off we went. That camera served me really well for a while and I used my Lycam lenses on it with an adapter. And although I did make some work with that camera that I'm really proud of, I eventually came to the conclusion that I had to work too hard on those Sony files to really bring out the mood, the tones, and you know, the colors that I was after, while maintaining relatively normal skin tones in a timely fashion. And that's just a testament to the fact that I'm not the world's greatest editor. But I don't think I was the worst either. And I just didn't enjoy how much time I was spending in the editing suite. Plus I no longer needed the video function because I got hired full time by a production company that had proper cinema cameras that I could use. So I started exploring other options for my still's work and I wanted to move back towards the Er M three experience that I loved, but also stay in that sweet spot of being able to make lots of work without going broke and also not spend 1 million years in the editing suite. Then as it goes, I saw the kind of rich yet natural colors that I was after coming out of photographs taken with the Liam ten and it seemed to tick almost all the boxes. And then I discovered it's sibling camera, the A, M, ten, D and ooh baby. That was the one and that's what I've been shooting with for nearly three years now and couldn't love it more. It's funny, because the thing that took it over the line for me was that the M ten D is a digital camera which has no screen. And on paper that sounds gimmicky and pretentious and like, it wouldn't work for most people, which is perhaps why Leica made so few of them. But it works really well for the type of work that I personally make. Plus it keeps me in touch with the discipline of film shooting, since I can't be reviewing the photos constantly and overshooting. But allows for the low cost of digital shooting, with exception, unfortunately, of the extortionate price tag to buy the damn thing, which luckily with my full time job and some savings allowed for, so just remember you can get your dream camera or something close to it at a pretty good discount if you just wait a while for the price to drop or get it secondhand or, you know, save up the amount of work that I can say, I'm proud of that I've made with that camera since getting it would have costed me triple that ten K price tag to achieve with Film American. It's annoying because in some ways I do wish the work was made with film because I love the experience of shooting film, but luckily it felt almost identical and liberating at the same time. Film is just too expensive for how much I like to experiment right now in my life with street photography. And if I did stay with film, who knows where that other path would have led me. It might have led me to another stylistic branch that would be just as satisfying. And in fact, I guarantee that's what would have happened. And I'll still flick back and forth from film to digital over the years I imagine. But the approach of using a digital camera as if it were a film camera in order to achieve the best of both worlds is a wise move, in my opinion, at least for a chapter of your life just to try it, to test it out, you can get a leather case that blocks the digital screen and allows you to just focus on the work through the viewfinder. So maybe give it a try of removing that distracting temptation of reviewing the work instantly. And instead, blend the two mediums together to see if you dig that approach. I've only harped on about that camera so much here, because I do think it's a nice way to start to wrap up the film versus digital discussion. Because for me, no matter what camera you choose, I feel like the less is more mentality is the way to go. And this camera definitely embodies that philosophy. I've also had a rad, little Pentax SBO zoom point and shoot film camera, the horizon panorama film camera, Some yellow submarine underwater film camera and polaroid cameras the whole time as well. Just as side kicks as well as now, just recently having gotten an early 2000 digi cam. All these are fantastic, really fun cameras that you can learn a lot from too, and that help you access new parts of your voice. As in a cheap waterproof camera, for example, clearly offers a very different experience or perspective that you're not going to really get with a more professional camera. So don't be afraid to have your funky toy cameras and have them in your pocket. They keep the childlike fun nature of it all nice and accessible. And playing with those cameras can add a lot to your overall voice or help you stumble across new project ideas. But whatever it is, accessibility and exploration surely can't be a bad thing. So don't turn your nose up at these cameras just because they're cheap. They definitely have a place and if you can find where that place is for you without going so far that you get them all and have gear paralysis, then you might be able to snag some of the types of shots that you otherwise would have missed. 53. Don't Let Your Gear Slow You Down: With all of this gear chit chat behind us, I think it's worth saying to just not let your gear slow you down in any way. That's almost my main tip gear wise in relation to street photography. Whatever you choose, make sure you can use it efficiently, keep it light. You want to be able to move freely. You want to be able to make a photo at the drop of a hat. If you really feel you need a bag, take a small one. If you can find a way to leave it behind by putting batteries or film in your pockets, I'd recommend that keep it fluid, keep it light. Don't let any of it slow you down he. 54. Spend Your Money on Trips Not Gear: Although I went into some detail here about gear. Luckily in street photography you don't really need any overly special or complicated gear. You don't need photography backdrops or some crazy expensive lighting set up or an assistant, or laptop tethers or any of that nonsense. It just comes down to a simple camera and a lens. So although the choice of which camera and which lens can be hard to make, once you make one, you're pretty much good to go if you have that. You've already got what the best street photographers in the world use. In the end, just something streamlined that you can learn to work with will do. And if you can be disciplined with your gear purchases, you'll have more money for the more important learning tools like photography books and adventurous photography trips. Some great advice outlined by Eric Kim on his blog was to buy photography books, not gear, and even more importantly, spend your money on trips, not gear. In a Magna Master class I did with Jonas Ben Dixon, he wisely describes how the best way to make unique work is to go somewhere unique. Purely by definition. The work will be unlike anything else. So try to avoid what they call gas gear acquisition syndrome so that you can put that money to better use on these other things. You know, a lens that costs you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand could instead be the price of a trip to somewhere interesting, like Argentina or Turkey, or Malaysia, or Egypt, or wherever you want. If you go to say, Cuba, which is where I recently went and I absolutely loved it. Of course, it's been photographed, but not in the same endless way that places like New York or Paris, or London have. So you end up being immersed in this super empowering trip, because you're making work you've never seen before. Opens your eyes to your own possibilities and your own potential. It can be romantic to go and visit the places that you've seen photographed by your favorite photographers. And I would highly recommend doing that too. But there's enormous value in paving your own path and going way off piece, sometimes to explore your own artistic voice freely without that other voice inside your head that's constantly reminding you of how many great photographs you've seen in this location and that location. And therefore, having a hard time separating your work from those inspirations and struggling to make it feel fresh and different just purely by virtue of your mind being flooded with imagery from those places. So the point is, prioritize trips over buying more gear and you will live an exciting and adventurous life full of rich, unique, unexpected stories. I'd say spending three days or five days or two weeks in Chile or Thailand or Bangladesh with your current gear is better than two weeks at home with some new gear sitting there, barely getting used though. You didn't even end up taking out for much of a spin. And even if you're off rich and can afford to do both, I feel like being disciplined and intentional with what you buy and use is probably a better route in the end anyway. But whatever floats your boat, folks, I hope you enjoyed this gear section of the guide. I'm hoping you're not only feeling hyper keen to just go out and shoot, but I hope you're also feeling more confident to make gear related choices in the future, knowing that each of those choices can help you find your own unique artistic voice. Next we're going to dive into styles and approaches, where we'll talk about what a style even is and how to find yours. At the same time, we'll touch on what some practical approaches might be out there on the street, as well as some compositional ideas to keep in mind that will help you achieve some of those styles that interest you. So that you can start making even more consistent street photographs that really resonate with you stylistically. 55. CHAPTER 5: Styles & Approaches: Welcome to the Styles and approaches section. In this section, I'm going to talk about what the hell of style is and how to find yours in all reality. Being able to analyze what someone's voice or style might be will involve an understanding of all the things we're going to talk about across the entire guide. But in this particular more distilled section about style, I'll ask you to consider what your interests are, photographically speaking, and we'll discuss some practical approaches and even some compositional ideas to keep in mind that will help turn those interests into a photographic style even if you already have a compelling style. The idea in this section is to get you to ask yourself the right questions so that you can understand your voice and your stylistic interests even better. And therefore, feel more informed and empowered to go out and explore what visual styles might best represent that voice. We'll talk about how to shoot the things that interest you in a way that also interests you in order to harness or even reveal your own unique photographic voice. Aka your style. 56. Your Style: When you are describing your photographic style. You're more or less describing your voice, your artistic voice. It's how do you differ from others, Right? It's your signature embedded somewhere within the fabric of the making of, or form, or subject, or substance of an image. Elliot Wit, the famous photographer, says to me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place I found. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. And that's what your style is. It's how you see. It's when what you see in the world around you and how you see it meets your photographic choices. That's what your style is, and photographically speaking, that's what your voice is. And oddly enough, with some photographers, that might even play out in a more covert sense in that they might not want to be seen in their photos. And that their subject very much has the stage. And perhaps they hide behind their subjects in a way. And that's very common too. But I would argue that that, of course, says something about the artists too. It says something about their philosophy and their priorities and their ideas. And that, to me, is just as much of a style as something that is very in your face, like a fish eye lens. They're just different ways of seeing the world through in your face lens. Or a more understated one, Susan Sontag, in her book on photography, which I think is the most important book on photography I've read so far and would highly recommend. She talks about how for photography, in order to even compete with painting and what paintings offer the art world, originality must be invoked as its most important standard when appraising a photographer's work. She quotes Harry Callahan who says, what is exciting are photographs that say something in a new manner. Not for the sake of being different, but because the individual is different. Individual expresses themselves. That's to say that we're all entirely unique by nature and there's really no disputing that. And to unveil what is unique about you and your experience of the world through your work is the exciting element of the work. I'm going to try and describe why I think Sontag references painting in relation to photography in that way, while also making a point about how important your style is. If you have even a small appreciation for art, I'm sure you could agree that the very nature of even a half decent painting, especially when you look at the detail, is usually a bit impressive, let alone a great painting, which can be awe inspiring. And it's because we typically know that we probably couldn't do it. And it's therefore intriguing regardless of the subject. Whereas photography is usually not as inherently impressive, because we all know that a photograph is rather easy to make. Of course, that's not always the case, but generally speaking, it's easier to make than a painting. That's why adding stylistic choices, points of difference and depth to your work is paramount. Defining your own voice. And when I say depth, I don't mean you have to be a poet. And you don't need to be too theoretical with it all. I just mean put yourself into the work. It seems to me if you took a bunch of photographers with basic camera equipment and a bunch of painters with basic painting equipment and put them in the same spot and said paint that photograph, that I believe you would likely see more obvious differences between the paintings than you would between the photographs. And that, to me, seems to be because to even finish a painting, you're forced to make so many more informed decisions along the journey of creation. You know, which type and size of paint brush or pencil or tool do you use to make your marks? Which size and type of material do you make them on? Every movement makes a difference. Every color mix, every shade, every stroke, every layer, every technique makes a difference. Which color theories are you considering? Which rules are you adhering to and which ones are you breaking? The time it takes to theorize and decide on your composition and your ingredients, and your subjects, and all those other elements I mentioned. For the most part, maybe with the exception of some types of minimalist or abstract paintings, it all takes longer. And it takes a great deal more effort than taking a photograph of the same scene that the painter is painting. But to take a great photograph, I believe, can be achieved by making more personal informed choices, adding levels of complexity in depth to your thinking and your world view, and integrating all those ideas into your work and workflow. By doing this, I believe you would always end up with a stylistic distinction and reveal how you are different and therefore create exciting and memorable bodies of work. It's almost like, do you remember, in school when they were teaching you how to write a story? And they teach you how to include who, what, where, why, when, and how. If you want to create a compelling story photographically, I can't see how asking yourself those questions, even lightheartedly, would lead to anything other than more interesting work. It couldn't lead to worse work, surely maybe different work or worse case work that is as interesting as beforehand. But I'd wager a bet that it would almost always lead to more interesting work by answering all those questions even lightheartedly to yourself. Doesn't mean you need to be rigid and mathematical and overbearing with your style. It just means that if you know why you want to avoid being rigid or mathematical or overbearing, that at least that decision can then be informed. It can be an informed decision and become a conscious part of your voice. You could go as far as walking around, firing off shots without deliberately composing, without paying attention to focus, and really without a care in the world for what your subject is. And every so often, you might still strike gold and end up with a really unique street photograph, simply because the world is inherently interesting, and eventually you would be struck by a coincidence. But my point is that even with an approach as bizarre as that, because you decided to go about your work in that way and you chose those ingredients and that style suits you and your personality. I think the photograph would probably be more exciting than if it weren't informed in that sense because it says something about you. It tells a story not only about the subject, but also about the artist. And you don't need to take it too seriously, but it's worth considering this approach. Funnily enough, though, if you've considered your philosophy and approach even a little bit, it doesn't really have to be that conscious of a thought anymore. It can slip to the back of your mind and join the autopilot functions quite quickly. For example, some really great street photographers like Daniel Arnold, for example, whose approach is to rip around New York City and rely a lot on the combination of chance and persistence as his main ingredients. And allow the world of coincidence to deliver the goods that inevitably works, especially if you're in an extremely busy, quite quirky city. It's just maths, if you have a good eye for the kind of subject matter that stands out from the crowd, which he certainly does, and you put yourself in busy, interesting scenarios, beautiful coincidences that you could have never planned will just appear in the work every so often. In that case, it's about using luck as an ingredient, as a part of your style and philosophy. And the way you access luck is by taking more chances, you put yourself in the way of luck. And eventually the perseverance and effort will materialize into incredibly unpredictable, spontaneous, hyperrealistic work. Daniel Arnold talks about how he doesn't really rely on ideas and how he'd rather rely on the world of chance to do most of the work. And I think that's great. But the only thing is I do still think there is an idea there. The idea is simply to take a chance based approach and everything else about the process falls in line with that idea philosophy. And that's why it's brilliant, because it's informed, it's been decided on for a reason. And it says something, The work says something about the philosophy in which it was made and who made it. It says, hey, look at how interesting the world is. If you just open your eyes and see these wonderful little coincidences, they are everywhere. It also shows the world itself is artistic, endlessly, in fact, and that therefore, anyone can be, already is an artist. 57. Composition & Compositional Tendencies: When it comes to composition, especially in street photography, I feel like the rules get broken just as often, if not more than they get deliberately used. In my eyes, it just comes down to what feels right for you. Some people go nuts with head room, creating lots of open space. Other people aim down more or go for more confined, controlled compositions. Others go for dispersed energetic frames. Some people go bang on center with their subjects. Some people couldn't care less about horizon lines or straight lines or distortion or any of that. Jazz. You should feel free to do whatever you like really and to change gears as often as you please. But it's about trying to find some form of balance in your own estimation of what that means and feels like to you. And clicking the shutter when you're in that brief moment. In all reality, analyzing composition only really exists to help us communicate what the hell we're looking at and to differentiate it in language from the other things we've seen. So in that sense, it's hard to avoid talking about it. And although I do think it's definitely useful to understand your compositional options, in a sense that shouldn't mean you should feel bound to one type of composition or rule over another. I think street photography, actually, since you're reacting a lot of the time to quiet, fast paced things coming at you, it lends its hand to messier, more energetic compositions, where you're breaking traditional composition rules without even meaning to and maybe even accidentally creating new ones. It's probably the messiest of photography genres in regards to composition because the purpose for the most part is to show life. And life is usually pretty messy. In saying that though, I think considering how you might compose something when you can is part of the fun. And it's quite insightful to do a bit of experimenting with your framing choices too. For example, you could try shooting relatively similar subjects, but with different types of compositions, to see what you prefer and why, or why does it, or why does it not feel balanced to you. But overall, it just comes down to a feeling, both the feeling you're having and the feeling you're trying to create based on your ideas and philosophies. I wouldn't worry about the rules really in the sense that it's not really worth having them top of mind, that's for sure. They're probably all hard wired into us by now anyway, to be honest. The only thing I'll say though is that it's good to know sometimes which rules you're breaking. Because of course, you can definitely deliberately create a feeling based on common compositional rules in terms of things like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio or leading lines. Or where to place your subject in the frame to give them more power. Or where to place things to create a feeling of discomfort. Or what types of things could create a confusing composition or an abstract one, or a calm, comfortable, neutral one, et cetera. But if you're trying to go deliberately against the grain, it can be insightful to know you're doing it, if only so that you can do it better. Because honestly, sometimes you can be trying to break one rule to see what it does and you end up adhering to another. So it's just nice to know the landscape of all that a little bit when you're coming out with your own way to balance things out compositionally, you could flick through photographs and analyze composition until the cows come home and discuss the difference. But at the end of the day, I feel like you can break it up into three types of composition, conventional, unconventional and a mixture of both. Let's talk about these three compositional ideas and how the lines between the three of them can be so blurry at times. Sometimes you'll see a street photograph that feels like a bit of a mix as in a bit of a mix between conventional and unconventional. For example, it might have some conventionally placed subjects, but then the photographer might also have a clear interest in the unconventional elements sprinkled all around the subjects, leading to quite a dynamic shot with a mixed composition in the end. And that whole thing is going to come together via the dance between what subjects the photographer is interested in and how they intuitively feel about the frame. And then a split second, almost subconscious decision sometimes of how they want to balance it out compositionally. Next you've got a classic traditional, conventionally composed shot, which is usually easy to understand, maybe uncluttered for the most part, a little bit visually predictable, easy to look at. And these shots can drive home a strong clear feeling with strong obvious messages. Because perhaps it's not the composition that's meant to challenge the photographer and the viewer, but rather the content. Perhaps it poses a big question and to compose it unconventionally would meddle with that goal. But then in the same breath, you could head back towards mixed if you just used that conventional framing choice, but put something blatantly confusing right in the middle of the frame to create a much more complicated visual idea. Because you've conventionally framed an unconventional thing, say so you would still probably consider it as a conventionally composed shot. But there's a slight blurring of the line there. Then you've got unconventional compositions which would typically have things unpredictably scattered with perhaps no obvious rhythm, but still has a strong visual idea. Honestly, there's 1 million ways you can cut it and divide up how conventional or unconventional or mixed a frame is. It's just another way to help describe the visual. Really, there's definitely no right or wrong composition is the photo, No matter what, a photograph does not exist without composition. Because composition is just referencing the geographical pattern to the arrangement of the ingredients. So it's inextricably bound to all the other visual elements like the lighting of the scene, or the behavior of the subjects, and the direction and color and nature of the subject. It's all tied together. So you could have a scene framed up in a nice conventional way, but then say the sunlight comes cutting across the frame in a complicated way that divides your composition up and jumbles up the balance of it all. That might push the frame into unconventional territory. And so it's surprising elements like that that can make an unconventional framing choice, like giving, say, lots of headroom to a subject by placing them at the bottom edge of the frame and leaving lots of space between them and the more chaotic elements that might flip the whole thing on its head again, back the other way. Leading back towards a more balanced, almost conventional composition. Again, even though, in some ways it's unconventional in the sense that the subject may not be, say, placed in a typically comfortable position by being down at the bottom edge of the frame, but given the other ingredients, perhaps it does feel balanced and comfortable, which some would argue is therefore rather conventional in some sense. The bottom line here is that it's a really tricky one to define sometimes. But it's all part of the fun to use those ideas to explore your world visually and to play with the balance of it all. And usually in any given scenario, there are various things that feel balanced. So try both or all three compositional ideas, or however many you can find. Maybe they all belong together. Maybe you need to sitch together a panoramic from them all. At the end, you might discover this beautiful location or kind of subject matter that is so riddled with balance and beauty and intrigue that you want to make a whole book on it. Either way, you can't avoid composition. So I guess just have fun playing with the options. The definitions and labels hardly matter anyway. It's just how it feels or what it expresses that matters. There's lots of books on Zen art in photography. And I've heard Zen sync up with photography enough times on my travels to have given it some thought myself too. But the host of the podcast every day Photography Every day, a guy named Michael Rubin makes some very interesting points about how using the principles of the Zen arts, such as Kabana, which is the Japanese art of flower arranging as a way to teach beginners about photography and composition. But at the same time, he believes the Zen art principles can also help experts to find new ways of exploring the medium too. He describes how in the Kabana flower arranging art, the principles are to do with always taking a fresh approach. Movement, balance, and harmony. Those are the principles. And the elements considered are lines, color, and mass. So you can already see, just based on the Kabana Zen art, how it might be an interesting way to consider your compositions. To use your movement and find a fresh approach to find balance and harmony between the lines, colors, and masses in your frame. You know, I read a fair bit about kabana after listening to the podcast. And there are loads of different schools and lots of different considerations and additional principles too. And another principle that I stumbled across that I thought was a nice parallel to street photography was that your arrangement must be found not planned. And I think that's very on point. You know, you don't have to have such a big idea, just get out there and let life deliver the goods. You just got to be there for it quickly. Know it's not like these two arts are the same thing at all. And nobody's saying that, but I think Ruben was just making the point that the philosophies and principles, even of just Zen art in general too, are useful rules to live by and to teach by when it comes to photography. Even if just considering the main Zen principles which are to be present and to have an awareness of your impermanence. Which reminds me of that memento mori term, the sort of stuff that Alan Watts does a great job of explaining. And you're humbled for a moment and reminded that this is all just simply something to spend your time on before you inevitably perish. So enjoy your time on this planet. And that this craft that we do is just something to help whittle out the noise and help us in on a few nice things at a time to appreciate some of it rather than be overwhelmed by the wealth of stimulus in this world. So I appreciated that little zen art reminder from Ruben while doing some of that easy podcast listening. Because in street photography, you can get so caught up in the hustle and bustle. And it's quite refreshing to hear some other photographers sometimes who actually promote these more relaxed ways of being and thinking and shooting. So I just wanted to pass that on in case you're in need of a bit of that type of advice with where you're at. It's all very fun to think about. Ruben also draws parallels between Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes and figures to printing photographs. In the sense that they both make a piece of plain paper more than it originally was and imbue it with beauty and meaning. And I thought that was thought provoking too. But overall, the reason I'm touching so heavily on this whole topic right now in this composition section is because in amongst all this chit chat about the Zen arts, specifically the Zen art of rock balancing, Ruben references composition and dismisses the traditional rigid rules per se of composition in a way that I feel is very helpful and makes a lot of sense. And also in a way that was very much a throwback to the philosophies of photographers like Henri Cartier, Brasson. He talks about how if you're trying to teach someone to balance something, say like balancing a stick on your finger. To teach them that what you wouldn't do is give them a ruler and say, put your finger in the middle. Which would be the equivalent of trying to teach a beginner photographer the rule of thirds say. Ruben argues that telling them to put their finger in the very middle of the ruler, although it would obviously teach them how to balance a ruler, it wouldn't in fact, teach them how to balance a stick, which was the goal. Because a stick can have weird wobbly shapes, unevenness, hollowness, and whatever. Whereas a ruler is straight and evenly weighted. The idea is that you would teach this person to use both hands and to feel where the balance point of the stick is, where the central point of overall mass is. In a sense, they'd feel when it's tilting and they'd correct it. And he relates this back to how this is a better philosophical foundation to build upon when trying to wrap your head around composition. In the sense that the world is less like a ruler and more like a wobbly stick or a pile of rocks. In the Zen art of rock balancing, because life is dynamic and unpredictable and ever changing, and a flat, even predictable ruler isn't. So try to flow it a little bit and to feel it out like the stick and to try to find some balance in some way in the frame between the subjects and the sections of contrast and other points of interest, et cetera, is probably a more sound and suited approach. Teaching, or even thinking about composition in this world. It's not that you need to nail the balance every time. Sometimes you'll drop it or lose it, or you can't quite balance this certain set of ingredients at this time. Or something throws it off or a big chunk of it disappears. For me, it's a great analogy for thinking about your composition when you're out on the street and new things are coming at you constantly. Because it helps you adapt and reframe, and look around curiously with more of an understanding of what you might be looking for, the balance things. A good analogy in life in general too, I suppose. Because it reminds you to always be looking for the balance. Like work life balance, say. And being able to accept when it's off, but inquiring as to why you might feel off and unbalanced in your life, and then trying to feel it out and find it again. This type of slightly deeper thinking about it all really resonates with me. Because for me, one of the most rewarding things about photography has been when you accidentally stumble across those philosophical underpinnings of what you've been doing. Even if it's just simple philosophical learnings that you take on board. When, for example, you realize that, say, your patience has paid off or your perseverance or discipline has paid off. And you start to sort of accumulate these life lessons through doing photography consistently. And it starts to make you really appreciate the act as something more than an art. You start to sort of treat it as almost a way of being in a weird way. In the same way that a fitness guru will be able to teach you all valuable life lessons like commitment and overcoming flaws, and pushing boundaries and reaching goals, et cetera, through nothing but a dedication to fitness. We all have these things like that in our life, or a few of them. Some people have tennis or yoga or surfing. Some surfers will just do it for fun or to nail the best tricks and win competitions, But others will do it alone, all for themselves, just because it's a groovy positive way to spend time on the planet. And I find that for me, street photography is one of those things where you can head out and almost treat it like a Zen art or a meditation, but you're just entirely in it mentally and then you come away from it. And just like the Zenarts, you have something more beautiful or interesting to reflect upon at the end. And the whole process start to finish is really rewarding. One more common compositional idea that comes to mind is in relation to blocking large parts of your frame by four ground shadows, like a big shaded wall or big open spaces like sky or ground. It might seem like maybe it's a lazy move to fill up so much of the frame with just a block color, but it's not if what would be there instead is distracting from the story. In that case, I see it as creative problem solving because you're just helping direct the eye towards the right stuff and not letting the story get lost in all the mess. And it's even better if you can find a big, more unique shape that actually adds to the story. Sometimes you might even have shapes either side of the core story and sort of book ender in a sense, compressing the energy into the middle. That's always a really fun layering technique. I mean that's the entire essence of dynamic layering. Really to use the shape, brightness, contrast, and color of your ingredients to create layers between these things. To help turn this two D thing, the photo, into a seemingly three D thing. You can do book ending with people too, by sort of putting parts of people on the edge of each frame in the foreground to help hone our eye towards the subject you're most interested in. It's about cutting shapes. That's an Ozzy expression, actually. When you're having a bit of a loose night out on the town and you hit the dance floor, that's when you start cutting shapes. Like look at old made over there, scissor legs, cutting shapes, that's what you got to do with your composition. You just got to get out there and just cut some shapes. 58. When to Leave Something In or Out of the Frame: Something you might wonder is when to keep something in the frame or when to leave it out. And I think it's easy in the end, it just comes down to your own interests. So maybe start by keeping it in if you personally like it and removing it if you don't. Don't let other references or other opinions be the dominating factor of thought when you're deciding on what to leave in or out of a frame. Sometimes you get a really obscure frame just simply because you liked someone, you wanted to remove all the annoying around them. And so you were forced to do something a bit funky, like putting them at the far left edge of the frame or really close to the top of the frame, but it somehow works. And then that type of framing might please you so much that it becomes a part of your language. And it's things like following your interests in that way that lead to finding your style. Some people shoot from the hip rather than through the viewfinder because they either feel like it makes them more covert or they like the low angle, or they like the spontaneity of it in terms of giving up control of your frame to see what happens. There's pros and cons to this type of shooting, for sure. I remember a time when my frames were losing energy and I was focusing too much on composition. So my work seemed to lose its energy because everything was in order. And even if I tried a more chaotic angle or composition, it felt disingenuous somehow. So I started to do this thing where I'd see something quickly frame up and then not hit the shutter until I took my eye away from the viewfinder. Kind of relaxed my arms a little bit just to make it a bit more natural. Give it some more charming imperfection. And then I would take another frame a second later without even looking at the frame again, but knowing that it's pointed at something relatively interesting already, most people I know do go through phases though of keeping it all tightly dialed in. And then other times they're looser and that can be related to gear too, you know, like you're a bit looser when you use a point and shoot camera and you're probably a bit tighter when you're using heavy, medium format cameras. There's utility in loosening up your grip, so to speak, and giving up some of that control because it will reveal things in your frames that you might have left out, but later realized work quite well. It can add more of a carefree energy to your work and that might be exactly what you need in that creative season that you're in. I've heard it said in workshops too, master photographers, trying to open you up by not allowing you to look through the viewfinder. Telling you to just point the camera at what you like and shoot, because you'll find things in your frames that you like, but you would have initially removed if you were entirely in control. So it's a nice way to open yourself back up to new ideas and then re, include them in your thinking. Once you tighten your grip again and since you didn't rigidly compose the shot and decide to a Tee on everything in the frame, it allows you to look at your work almost as if you didn't shoot it, so you can be your own audience and that's such a pleasure. It's a bit of a trick against yourself in a way, forcing your brain to loosen up and then finding the creative patterns in the work later when you review it all. 59. Cropping: When you're thinking about the idea of loosening up your grip, or tightening up your grip in regards to how much control you want over the final frame, cropping might come to mind too. You might ask yourself, should I crop or should I not crop? And you've got a fair few traditional photographers to whom cropping is a crime. And you can see why they are this way, because sticking to that discipline has forced them to actually do the work and do the thinking on the day of the shooting, not later when editing. So there's utility in thinking, this exact frame is my final image because you then have parameters for the skill you're trying to master. But as with everything, the flip side has its positive elements too. Remembering that you can actually crop a bit might help open your mind to the possibilities. While you're framing up something tricky, it's good to think about the final photograph when you get a chance. If you have the space in your mind. I often think to myself that one annoying bloke is wrecking the balance of the frame. But if I pan left and remove him, I accidentally include something else equally as bad or distracting. And if I step closer to tighten it, I lose the top of these nice street lamps or whatever you know. And even if you don't end up cropping that photo, at least you are paying attention to your edges. And maybe you just wait for the guy to walk out of the frame. Or as another example, you might see a great scene playing out, but you know, you'll never get close enough in time. So you take the shot from however close you could get before it fizzles out and you know, oh yeah, I can clean up the edges or develop the compositional story a little bit. You know that extra 10% in the edit. I think that's fine. Maybe you don't. But I honestly think me, sometimes these scenes only happen once in life and I want to make a compelling photograph of it. And I'm just simply not going to get close enough in time. I remember the most recent time I didn't do that and I was kicking myself, it was when a dog fight broke loose in a New York City park. And I could see it, and I knew it was going to end and all the owners were pulling their dogs off each other, and it was total chaos. But I just waited, waited, waited, getting closer and closer. By the time I was where I thought I should be to make a good frame. The moment had passed and there I was on the edge of the fence, just desperately hoping for something to materialize. Street photography is so weird sometimes there I am at some dog park hoping for a fight. So random, the annoying part is that I was trying to cool down from a big day of shooting, of walking around on the streets. So I took my shoes and socks off and I was just chilling at the park near the flat iron building and then boom off go the dogs. And I made the critical error of putting my shoes on before running over. I should have topped the shoes off, got the shot, because it was mental. There were like 35 dogs off their leash. Just going insane, 35 owners, just trying to figure it all out. In such a ruckus, such a rare scene, you expect that some dogs will fight but not often is it a full dog population of the inner city dog park. Just going balls to the wally. 60. Find Your Style / Find Your Voice: Your style is the culmination of every single decision. What types of subjects are you drawn to? How do you personally view those subjects? Do you look for humor, or pain, or some other feeling? Do you keep your frames busy or clean? How do you compose things? Do you like when your subjects spot the camera and look down the lens? How close do you like to get? How do you use light? Do you tend to back light your subjects? Creating more silhouette type scenes? Do you front light them? Creating very revealing, vibrant images. Do you fire off a flash? What time of day are you drawn to? Like a moody dusk, maybe perhaps scorching, mid day heat. What type of weather do you choose? What kind of gear do you use? Do you use additional gear to spice it up? Do you use a shallow depth of field? Do you use a slow shutter speed for effect? What's your metering style? I typically expose for the highlights and to see what the shadows hold, but usually just let them fall to blackness. Whereas you might prefer to slightly expose those shadows a bit and keep a gentle evenness to the frame. What's your editing style? How often do you show what are your creative habits? These things all play a part in the experience. The result might sound like a broken record, but notice the things you're personally drawn to describe what some of those things could be. It might be faces or old people's faces or old people with their eyes closed. In India, to be precise, you might always notice a specific piece of clothing, like weird shoes or dresses, and they stand out to you. Maybe you're intrigued. When you see quite erratic behavior on the street or slumped posture, are you drawn to shadows? What colors appeal to you most? Do you want the full body of your subjects in the frame, or just a part of them or the whole crowd? Is it in fact, empty spaces without people that interests you? And why? In all reality, it will likely be all of these things at some point and so many more things. But it's about recognizing in the moment what you're interested in and how you want to show that photography is a language. Now, whether you want to say something or not, if you make a photograph, it does say something, it's unavoidable. So find what you want to say with it. Do you want to explore ancient tribes? Because your work could say something as simple as I learned that these specific things happens in ancient tribes. It doesn't have to be some big metaphorical thing. It can be simple. It can just say what your experience was and that's fine. It doesn't have to be some puzzle or some big symbolic thing, you know? I mean, it can have those things in it, but it doesn't have to be an overbearing idea. You can just say one simple thing or you can go the other way by the way you photograph it. And what you say could get more complicated. Like ancient tribes are being affected by these specific elements, and it's important that they are protected in these particular ways. Or this is an incredible culture that we don't know enough about. And if we don't do something to help them, we won't have the chance to adopt their wisdom. I don't know. It doesn't have to be political. Ozardous examples that come to mind because I'm personally interested in the more photo journalistic side of things. Your work can be anywhere from lighthearted to the weight of the world. Whatever interests you, You can find your style if you look for personal patterns. When looking back on your work, Joel Meyrowitz, one of my biggest inspirations, made a book called Wildflowers, comprising of all these photos involving flowers. As the story goes, one day when he was scouring through some work, some old work, he started noticing that he'd almost accidentally photographed a lot of flowers, but not just in a garden. In fact, it was usually much more strange than that. It would be tattoos of flowers, hats with flowers, dresses with flowers, graffiti of flowers. Someone delivering flowers, flowers in a bin, petals on the ground, being trodden on all types of things like this. But he had photographed them in such a way where they were rather understated and sometimes a little bit hidden in his frames. In his master class, he goes on to explain how he was obviously subconsciously drawn to these subjects at the time in the sense that he didn't really recognize a pattern. He just knew he was drawn to them. So when he traced back, they were appearing all throughout his work in ways he never expected. So he decided to go on a mission to find every flower photo he'd ever made. And that that journey gave meaning to some of his work and also informed his work. Moving forward, I took his advice and I did the same thing. I discovered that I was constantly using windows to help tell my stories, such a huge variation of ways that I wasn't that perceptive of until I heard Joel speak about the value of tracking back through your work to find your own themes and interests to help you move forward with more clarity. Sometimes, of course, this is overgeneralizing in some sense because that's only a part of Joel's work and part of my work too. But it's nice to know categories of things that you love to start to develop long term projects and give your work a direction to ground it a little bit more. Sometimes the more things you know that interest you, the more you've got on the shopping list when you go out to shoot. One mistake sometimes that I think is easy to make when we're just getting industry photography is we mistake shoot. What interests you as well? That photographer's work interests me, so I'll just copy, I'll just shoot that. You should feel free to be inspired and to revamp old ideas. But don't just blatantly copy because you won't feel that good or that proud about your work when you look back knowing that it isn't really your idea. And a good example is doing what Joel said, but not doing it with flowers, you know what I mean? So just break off from the original and find your own thing. Your style doesn't have to be that different before it can create a whole new take on previously explored subjects. It could just be as simple as your framing is usually a little off kilter or you only shoot at dawn, whereas someone previously explored a location or certain subject matter at day. So feel free to follow in the footsteps of other people. That is highly encouraged and is the essence of inspiration in some ways. But bring your own edge to it and you'll be adding to the conversation of photography. And you'll respect your own work a lot more in the long run. And when I say bring your own edge to it, it's not like you need to reinvent the wheel with your stylistic choices. You can just simply photograph your life as you see it, if you want to boil down to that, and the style will be borne through all those different decisions as you make along the way. But as long as you make a few key decisions that you really believe in photography will have your voice in it and if you take a decent sample size, it will reveal the personality and the authenticity that led you to click the shutter. I hope you enjoyed this styles and approaches section. I hope you're feeling like you've got an even better grip on your style and your voice. And are feeling inspired and ready to go out and explore it out there on the streets. Next we're going to talk about problems and common things you'll encounter on the streets. We'll talk about ethics, morals, general interactions, and when to engage with your subjects versus when not to. We'll talk about how to fail well and how to absorb and embrace missed opportunities as lessons, as well as what to expect when you put the time in to improve. In this craft, we'll touch on some ideas related to when exactly to release the shutter, how to decide on which moment is the moment for you, and what some scenarios are that you can put yourself in as fruitful training grounds when you're trying to grow in that department. 61. CHAPTER 6: Problems & Common Things You'll Encounter on the Street: Welcome to the problems and common things you'll encounter on the street section. In this section, we're going to dive into some of the controversial things like ethics and morals that you'll inevitably encounter on the street. We'll talk about when to engage with your subjects and when not to, as well as the general interactions you'll have. Depending on which approach you take. I'm going to talk about the idea of how to fail well and how to absorb and embrace missed opportunities as lessons. As well as what to expect when you put in the time to improve in this craft. 62. General Interactions: You interact with many people in your street photography endeavors. Sometimes they're lovely interactions, sometimes they're insightful ones, and sometimes they're unpleasant, but that's just life anyway, right, from my experience. And basically everyone that I know who also loves shooting on the street essentially reports that the positive interactions well and truly outweigh the negative ones. And quite overwhelmingly so, but there are a handful of negative interactions of different calibers that you may need to deal with. For me personally, I swear the most unpleasant encounters I've had on the street are when I don't even have my camera. The world is a weird and dynamic place and it's just about getting comfortable with what it means to photograph it. It'll mean that you'll eventually need to overcome feelings of being nervous, or being judged, or being scared or worried. And overpower them with feelings of optimism and intrigue, and courage, and passion, and humor and all the rest. People will get mad at you from time to time. But it's about using your street smarts and strategies to disarm their aggression. I mentioned it earlier, but it can be as simple as a compliment. If I had $1 for every time a quick little yo looking good buddy made a frown turn into a smile, I'd be rolling in cash. But then it does also depend on your style, your location, and your subject matter. Because that disarming strategy works in a lot of spots that are super public or harmonious for the most part. But sometimes if I'm like busting into a venue that is not going to want me to take photos there, I either have to get sneaky or try and fire off whatever I can while I can before I essentially just get booted. So in that instance, there's a whole other set of strategies that come into play. Then there are other times also on the abrasive end of the spectrum, where if you're taking a picture of someone who you know won't like it if they catch you. Sometimes you just need to be quiet and walk away. And if it really starts to go south, just calmly apologize and keep walking. I know I've recommended just looking away and pretending you didn't do it or being nice to them. But sometimes if you're sensing that it is going to be a serious blowout, you just have to flow. The world has not been kind to a lot of people out there and if you rub one of them the wrong way, you'll be up creek without a paddle back to the positive side of the spectrum though, I would say one really common interaction that I have that you might have too is interactions with curious people who have seen what you're doing from afar. And they aren't your subject. They've just sort of spotted you and come wandering over to inquire because they want to see what you see. This happens all the time. To me, someone who is just sort of people watching or who is just a very perceptive person, will come up to me and ask what I'm photographing. And usually they're very pleasant interactions. They're just happy, curious folks that love people watching, I guess. So get ready to have a few of those interactions as well. They're always really pleasant. I find it interesting that without even really trying, they've been able to be so covert that I haven't noticed them. Even though I'm out there specifically to look for people on the street, I feel like they are street photographers without a camera. These awesome characters just out there, people watching, enjoying being amongst the swarm of people, having a few chats here and there while they poke around town, doing whatever they're doing, get ready to meet lots of these people over the years. They're excellent humans. Two thumbs up. 63. Learn to Fail Well: You need to learn how to fail. Well, when you're out on the street, you'll miss a lot of shots and you've got to get used to it. Got to learn to let them go. Learn to fail. Well, learn to learn from the mistakes. The only way to reduce the agony of missing a beautiful photograph is to get better. It's the same in life, right? You just need to continue to improve, to minimize the chance of suffering. I know it all sounds so dramatic when I put it like that. But when it comes to street, if you can be lighthearted about it, learn from it and go easy on yourself, you'll be golden. I remember hearing Dr. Peterson talking about the purpose of memory and how memory doesn't exist, just so that you can reflect on warm fuzzy feelings. He explains that the primary function of a working memory, on top of, of course, many positive recall functions, is to prevent you from making the same mistake twice or three times, especially not in the same way. And he talks about how if a memory still haunts you, it's because you haven't explored it deeply enough or gone into it to unpick how it happened and why it happened, and you haven't created a strategy for how to avoid it in the future. Now although Jordan is talking about trauma, really, it's useful to use memory in the same way when you make mistakes with really anything you care about to treat the mistake. In the sense that if I look at how and why this happened and create a strategy for how to never do it again, then perhaps I can avoid it if that's what I want. And weirdly enough, when you do that with your street photography mistakes, you'll find clear pathways to improvement. And you'll be so impressed with how far you've come, just simply by leaning into the mistakes. For example, if you miss a shot and you can say to yourself, oh, I missed that shot because I wasn't expecting a new lighting condition. Then maybe improving your ability to look further down the street to see what's coming while maintaining concentration on the people coming at you could help. As well as also maybe speeding up how quickly you can operate your gear or if you miss another shot and you recognize, damn, I couldn't choose between two equally compelling but separate subjects, so I froze and shot neither of them. Then perhaps you need to uncover, more specifically, what interests you. Or maybe you need to increase your ability to react physically, change tacts, and maybe in that moment take a few backward steps so that you could perhaps fit them both in the frame assuming that they were coming towards you. So maybe it's that finding ways to bide more time with your physical behavior. Of course, they will give you a weird look, but if you can drop them a compliment and carry on, you'll be totally fine. And who cares if a few people in the world think you're a bit weird. There's 1 billion people so much weirder than you trust me. But anyway, you get the point, lean into your mistakes, and they will not only guide you forward, but also keep you engaged in the journey. T 64. The Ups & Downs of Missed Opportunities: Epic things always happen when you don't have your camera. It's truly heartbreaking. Sometimes the world's most interesting thing will happen right before your eyes. And all you can think about is how annoyed you are that you can't capture it because you decided to leave your camera at home while you quickly dip out to go shopping or something. I remember I did exactly that. And the second I walked into the grocery store, there had been a lady who slipped over and took all the body apples down with her. And she was just laying on the floor surrounded by so much damn fruit. And the medics were standing over her, helping her. Nobody knew what was going on. Everyone had covid masks on. Then the fire alarm went off for a separate reason and everyone was evacuating, leaving their trolleys all over the place in random spots. And I just couldn't believe I didn't have my camera to capture this strange event. Even if I didn't get the lady on the ground. Perhaps just a chaotic customer frantically hustling down the serial aisle might have been interesting, but nope, nothing. And weirdly enough, having such a strong urge to photograph, it nearly ruins those life moments in that sense, because you're not present, you kind of bum down, you're wishing a different scenario on yourself and you end up having a bad time rather than redirecting the excitement somewhere more natural. I think that's overall a bit of a tragedy to miss a moment, both photographically emotionally in that regard. And instead, you have a 100% negative experience that didn't actually need to be negative at all. And when I mean that you missed the moment emotionally, I just mean that you could have remained equally as interested in the event without your camera and just embrace the weirdness of this whole thing playing out in front of you, rather than falling deeper into the realm of frustration, and therefore checking out and hardly even experiencing it because you were more so just experiencing frustration. So here is my potentially unpopular strategy that I used to remedy that tragedy of checking out of life. I think it helps me to appreciate life and photography and the merge of those two worlds more if I have sections of time, like a week here or there, where I don't bring my camera anywhere at all, even if where I'm going will definitely boast epic moments. And I do it because it makes me more alert to life in those times. Because usually you've got your camera to capture your excitement, but without your camera, you just have the unbottled excitement. And it's about trying to change the narrative from damn, I wish I had my camera to ooh, look at that. Wow. Removing the camera, funny enough, allows you to see, to see properly. And it's worth feeling that excitement for life devoid of the camera. Just to keep the fire alive, and also to remind yourself that photography really isn't everything. Sometimes you can be so caught up in the headspace of being ready for any spontaneous event in street photography that you end up being more wired for photography than just general life experience. And your experience of life becomes the experience of a non stop photographer, which is the experience some people want and enjoy, and that's okay too. But I found that having sections of time completely away from it makes me more passionate and wide eyed during the sections where I'm completely in it. I remember watching Werner Hozogg's documentary filmmaking masterclass like six years ago now. And he talks about how to teach someone how to be a filmmaker. He says, walk 100 miles in any one direction without a camera. And what I took from it is that he's just trying to get you to see life, to really see it, to not get caught in recording it in any way. No journal, no photographs, no video, nothing. And you'll notice things. You'll encounter challenges and you'll overcome them because you have to keep going that one direction for 100 miles. Even when you get bored on the journey or when you start to struggle, you'll see life and you'll feel life. And you'll only have your mind and your body, and your senses to respond to it all and nothing to capture it. So it would burn these things into your memory. And it'll help you construct compelling stories by remembering what stood out to you. And those things are you, they're your perspective, they're your story, your interests, your challenges, your skills. Then maybe do the same trip with the camera and you'll know what story you're trying to tell and how to tell it. The photographer, Diane Arbus, reminded me of the Chinese theory that you pass through boredom into fascination, that they are the reverse side of each other. And I think it's true. And that if you took a journey like what Herzog recommends, you'll likely discover the same thing. You'll move through boredom into fascination with the very same subject. It's like when you're stuck somewhere for long enough and you start to recognize the fiber of the carpet or the pattern of it because you just sat there at the airport, say for so long that you start to become sort of mesmerized by little things. Maybe you start to pay attention to the hand gestures of the lady across from you. And you notice how while you have your headphones in, say how this lady's hands are moving, like a symphony composer. Or maybe you notice a sign on the far back wall. And you might notice that from where you're sitting, if you close one eye, half of the sign is sort of cut off by a stomach in the foreground. Which makes the sign say only a half word. And maybe it looks funny even if your mood is far from a good one. This type of fascination still happens once you pass all the way through boredom. The things you notice might not be overly poetic, they might just be generic things you're picking up on. But the point is that mental place is where you will sometimes access new ideas. Then if you put your photography hat on after an experience like that, since photographers are always trying to find new ways to look at familiar things, maybe you'll be able to find new creative ways to photograph the things you see. Okay, that was a bit of a tangent. Back to the point of having and not having your camera with you, other than those brief chunks of time that I mentioned where you're deliberately leaving it behind. Other than that exception, I would say try to have your camera with you at all times or as often as possible just to give yourself the best shot at making great street photographs and growing that muscle. And this only applies if you really want to push yourself to become the best street photographer you can be. If you're happy to just mosey along, just fine, that's okay. That's up to you. But I doubt you've made it this far into the guide, if that's truly the case. Now if you do genuinely forget your camera or thought it wasn't worth it because of the weather or something, which is a mistake by the way, or if it's in the back seat or just unreachable and you missed the shot, of course you'll want to beat yourself up over it. We all do, I have. But it might be better to learn to appreciate the actual passion that, that is evidence of. As in, if you didn't love this craft so much, it wouldn't bother you so much that you forgot your camera and couldn't capture that moment that you missed. And in a strange backwards way, it's kind of worth being grateful for that feeling. That strong impulse just means you care about the craft and you're lucky to have such a strong passion. What a bloody gift. My advice is to find your own ways to channel that passion and turn it into something better than just simply frustration. 65. Ethics & Moral Decisions: Ethics aren't something we've touched on yet, but I think it's relatively simple. First of all, don't make fun of people in a negative way. There can't really be a good outcome there, But honoring someone's situation is definitely okay. I remember taking a photograph of a street festival before it began. So there were like 300 vibrant blue empty chairs being set up in front of a stage in the middle of the street. And then a man in a wheelchair rolled up next to them to have a look at what was going on. I didn't quite know what to make of it yet, but there was a word association going on there between the chairs and the wheelchair. Not that it's that interesting of a word association, but anyways, I framed up to put him in the story properly and I took a photograph because it looked interesting. And moments later he looked up and jokingly said, at least Marlin has wheels though. Hey, and we had a nice exchange. I don't quite know my point here, but I think the bottom line is, people aren't stupid and they can sense when you're making fun of them. So if your intentions are good, I believe they'll usually come across in your approach. I remember Joel Meyrowitz talking about a similar topic, referencing a photo he took with a girl who had a broken nose and had bandages all over it. And I believe he photographed her and told her she was beautiful. And I think she was either flattered or saw the humor in it. But either way, he didn't sheepishly try to sneak a photo of someone and make fun of them. He saw their condition, found it interesting, and honored it by leaning into it authentically. And if you take that approach, at least you'll be able to explain yourself, even if you do. Unfortunately, offend someone by just flat out making fun of someone doesn't really go far in regards to moral decisions. It's worth understanding your own moral compass because being able to make quick moral decisions will help you capture great photos in tricky situations without taking advantage whether that's in relation to something like someone's personal space or maybe someone's appearance or an injury or condition of some kind. It's worth getting acquainted with that moral compass because these things will come up and if you don't know where you stand on them, you might make the wrong move and put yourself in a short situation. To be fair though, it can be a really fine line because people like Elliott Erwitt constantly took photographs with so much humor that surely people would get the wrong idea sometimes. Like there's one photo he took where a dog is sitting underneath this flimsy chair and a really heavy person is sitting on the chair, making the underbelly of the chair sort of droop down. And the dog looks frightened for its life stuck under the chair. And it's a humorous photo, luckily, most of us do have a sense of humor and we're all human and we should be able to laugh at ourselves sometimes. Otherwise we're probably a bit too tightly wound anyway, so. Yeah, tread carefully sometimes. Be prepared to explain yourself, be authentic, and you should be okay if things go south. There's an element of that, that's just life. Anyway, some people are just bitter. And if you truly didn't mean any harm, hopefully they'll be able to gauge that by your reaction and can then take your apology at face value. 66. Capture Multiple Versions of a Moment: Although it's good to be disciplined and to be intentional with your frames, you might hear or read from a few older photographers, that you should pick the best moment as it's all happening. I think that type of thinking developed from the medium of their day, which was film back then. And although a lot of our street photographers still use film, I think we've been able to learn new lessons from the digital age. And one of those lessons for me is that some of those complicated moments that you might find yourself in can have multiple, incredible moments within them. And of course, it can be a thrill to try and choose one in the moment, but it's quite a pleasure to be able to choose from three or four later when you're selecting photos. Because say when I look at these two photos, they're obviously quite similar and also taken a few seconds apart. And I like them both, but I like different things about them. I think they have two separate strengths, but they're of such similar moments, so it's hard to choose. Then there's also just the fact of reaction speed. Because in all honesty, a lot of the frames that are most interesting to me in my work on the day, the actions were too fast and spontaneous to even predict. And if I wasn't in a headspace of being open to capturing multiple interesting moments, I likely would have missed the fact that someone threw a punch at someone or dropped their coffee cup or tripped over your reactions would have to be so razor sharp to be able to capture some of those fast moving moments. If anything, working the scene a little bit is a good idea because it's nice to have multiple backgrounds to choose from, even if it's the same subject, doing a relatively similar action, because there will always be one that is the best in the end, but it's not always possible to know what one that will be in the moment. The bottom line is, the more options you give yourself, the more you'll improve your ability to predict the best one anyway. But to shoot as if you already can, that might mean you might miss a few shots you didn't need to miss. So maybe just treat it as practice because when those moments come, those crazy scenes that you couldn't ever dream up in your wildish dreams, with all types of interesting action coming at you from all corners of the frame. You will just be grateful to get anything. But hopefully, you'll be able to make a few exposures and excitedly take it all back to the lab or back to your laptop and eagerly await the results. Rather than taking only one shot and miss the golden moment because you were too tense to press the shutter a few more times and have some fun with it. It's also the case sometimes that you can be so fixated on one element within your frame. That seems to be the most interesting part, that you don't even notice the elephant in the room. So it's good to have options so that you can explore the beautiful surprises. If in doubt, click the shutter burn a bit of extra film or pop a few extra shots on the memory card, and you'll be more stoked in the long run. It's not about going wild than just firing off countless shots thoughtlessly. But in street photography, I feel like it's just about having fun with it. Still being decisive with your frames, but not being stingy either. 67. What to Expect When You Put in the Time: What should you expect when you put in the time? Well, first of all, expect to continue to be surprised. So many unpredictable things fall together when you're out on the street. Especially if you're actually focused as if it's your job. Which if you want to make great images consistently, it really does require that level of effort and commitment. Eventually as time goes on and as you pay more attention, you'll be able to predict people's movements on the sidewalk, particularly, you'll even be able to manipulate their movements to walk where you want them to walk by sort of stepping a little bit into their path trajectory to reroute them. If you want them to step to the right of you know, rather than to the left of you. Because you want to include a specific background feature that won't be possible to include if they go around to your left. So just by simply stepping a little bit to your left, naturally, we'll make them casually, sort of course, correct, because it's just natural to avoid people. So bang, use your body, they'll usually go around you and then you can just get ready to pick off the shot as they pass by. You'll be able to see multiple things coming together. And you'll know that in say, 3 seconds, all those things are going to click together. And it won't always turn out perfect, but it will be your best shot. For example, there might be a fluffy white dog coming from your left and a man with a strange white Afro hair do coming from your right. And then there's this fluffy cloud in the sky. And you know that if you step back and wait for them to meet at the pathway in the middle, you might be able to make a poetic frame with all three. But then as another turn of events, it might go all wrong and the man might peel off the path early, or the dog walker might stop to take a picture or tie up her shoe. And by the time she continues again, the positioning of everything is all wrong. But it's just about starting to be perceptive of the world around you to try to create a moment that was nearly impossible to think up. Sometimes what happens is just as you think the perfect frame is about to come together, it suddenly changes in a way that you didn't expect. And it makes it even better, like perhaps the man with the white Afro plus the fluffy white dog walker meet in the middle. And the dog unexpectedly jumps on the man with the Afro, or someone comes from behind you to add an additional ingredient, or perhaps bang. A noise goes off and everyone in your frame looks over towards the road in shock. And then you've got all these incredible ingredients plus these intriguing, synchronized expressions. And the best way you can set yourself up to do that is if you can set the groundwork first. It's that ability to see things formulating in front of you that will make it more likely to capture those miraculous moments on camera. 68. When to Engage with Your Subjects: Usually, as I'm sure you've experienced already in your street expeditions moments are too fleeting to engage with subjects. Other times though, it can be helpful for various reasons. It might be as simple as someone is going to take a sip of their coffee, and there might be a billboard behind them that says, coffee is bad or whatever. Some funny word association, some marketing line, and you're waiting for them to sip it, with the intention of making a cheap, little humorous photograph just for a bit of fun. It's not a groundbreaking idea, but maybe you're just greasing the wheels, starting off your day. But anyways, then they spot you and it's all going to change because they're gonna walk away because you've spooped them. But just by saying as simple, hey, sorry, I dislike the billboard behind you and being approachable with your tone. You might just get lucky and maybe they'll see the humor in it as well and perhaps even take a sip. In my experience, especially sometimes if there's something between you and your subject, like a glass window, you can sometimes have these silent encounters where the person catches you, framing them up. And there's this little moment of connection where they seem to know what you want, so you just give them a little hand gesture to continue and they just do. Then usually it's a bit of a thumbs up scenario through the glass and you never see them again. It's odd, but it's magical. It's these fun little encounters you have. I remember when it happened with this interesting old man in Lisbon, Portugal. He walked past this window and I was sitting in this local Portuguese cafe spot at night, and I wanted someone to walk past this big window. And as soon as this old man walked into the frame, we locked eyes. He wasn't spooked. He was sort of curious, and he seemed open. So I did that sort of picture frame type gesture with my fingers as I got the camera ready. And he just stayed until I got the shot and then he walked away. It turns out he definitely needed a friend because moments later, he actually did a 180 and came inside and sat next to me and we chatted over Google Translate for about 20 minutes. While I explained to him why I was in Portugal to do street photography. I remember I sniped another shot that I love of a girl wearing a headscarf in the back of the cafe while I was sitting beside him. And it really made sense to him. I remember he very much understood what I was doing. His name was Francisco, and the funniest part was that he got up and he went to pay for his food. And he walked out without saying goodbye. And then 2 minutes later he came back all flustered as if he'd forgotten something and waved goodbye. Such a funny guy, Old Francisco. Well, that was a little tangent, but that's what street photography is like. There's all these tangents and surprises. Back to the question we were attending to though of when to engage with the subjects. It's hard to say when and when to not engage with this subject. Some people are constantly engaging with their subjects, others never do. Some photographers do a bit of both. It all comes down to your own discretion. The important thing to remember is that sometimes engaging with someone might actually help you get the frame you want. As in if they say spotted you, and then you choose to not engage with them, there's a good chance everything will change. Usually they'll probably just move away. So in that instance, if they've caught you, perhaps quickly speaking to them might just make the moment return to what you wanted it to be. And you might be able to make the photograph you originally envisioned. The most common time that it happens is if I am photographing someone within a larger scene and then they notice me and think that they're in the way of my shot. So they move and I just say, no, no, no, it's okay. I actually liked what you were doing. It looked great against this background or whatever, some simple off the cuff line. And usually they're not only disarmed but also flattered in a funny way. And then in my experience, they either continue what they were doing or they do something better, or they get too shy that they might be in your photo and become a little bashful and perhaps even a little bit giggly. In which case, I usually still sort of fire off a few shots from the hip or just loosely as I'm semi engaging with them. And that's how I imagine Gary Wine grand got that shot of the lady laughing her head off while holding the ice cream cone. It usually ends up being a really positive experience. So if it's not something you do often give it a try sometime. 69. Clichés: There's a lot of repetition, or even copycatting that happens in street photography. And I think that's true of any artistic craft because there can only be so many good ideas. The amount of fresh ideas will never outweigh the amount of photos that exist, so they're bound to double up. I think it's also partly due to the fact that people get inspired by other artists work and sometimes you want to go and try it out for yourself. And sometimes it takes a lot of time to explore that thing and learn what you want to learn from trying it. And then of course, it takes more time to differentiate yourself from it and find your own voice and break away from your original inspirations and start to add your own layer or flavor on top of it. The whole process is very time consuming it, and in that time, a lot of double ups are being created. But it's important to hold your uniqueness to a high regard and to think up your own ideas that might help carve out your own artistic identity and move the conversation of photography forward. I mean, there's something to be said for practicing a new skill that you've seen another photographer master. And you should be proud to have that in your toolkit once you've acquired it. But it's about adding to that. That is the exhilarating part. I think a simple example is when I saw Alex Webb and similarly David Allen Harvey's work or William Eggleston, and how their photographs were all so bold and contrasty with such harsh blacks and such rich colors. Not to mention how masterfully they compose their images and how well placed they are within the scene. And how consistent and persistent and patient they each are. And how compelling and expert their storytelling is, and how fresh and wonderful their visual ideas are. And you think to yourself, oh, if I can just meter the way they do and look for some buildings with some vibrant colors and look for some harsh shadows. And dial in my editing to aim for those tones. I'll be just like them. And don't get me wrong, it is an accomplishment to learn those skills. It really is. And it's important to know that those skills or ideas were blind spots for you. And essentially to use your inspirations to help inform your work and push it into new realms. But I believe that it's not until you add your own flavor to it that you're starting to find your own voice. And although you'll be proud of yourself for the improvements you've made and you should be, it's no match for the feeling of photographing something truly unique or in a unique way for yourself. It fills you up and makes your heart sing because you can see that's me. I see myself in that photograph or I remember that feeling, or I haven't seen anything like this before. And that is satisfying or I'm so proud of this, I can't wait to share it with my mates and my family and tell the story behind it or whatever. There's so much satisfaction ready for the taking once you find your own unique way of seeing and doing things you love. But don't beat yourself up if you have to go and get all the cliche things out of your system first. Because there's utility in that too. Thanks for joining me for the problems and common things you'll encounter on the street section, having touched on some of the experiences you're likely to have out there, which I'm sure include many of the experiences you're already familiar with. I hope you're feeling pumped and ready to tackle the streets, all things considered and are excited to get out there and shoot like a pro capturing moments with a few more fresh ideas and reminders. Top of mind. 70. CHAPTER 7: Inspiration Sources: Welcome to the Inspiration section, where we're going to chat about all the various forms of inspiration that are available to you in this big old world. We'll talk in depth about all the Great Street photographers, and although I'm not allowed to show their work due to copyright, I'd recommend you type the various artists names in Pinterest and follow along in a separate tab. I recommend Pinterest for this because I've found it's got an exceptional algorithm and comprehensive database for this type of work and specifically for these well known photographers that I'm going to talk about within part of this section. Alternatively, you can use Google Images or another image website that you prefer if you feel like they're just as good. We'll also dig into other forms of media that you can look to to fuel your street work. Like some specific films, some photo books that I highly recommend, some painters and paintings of which I'll leave a big list of incredible painters, names that you should take a look at, a lot of whom's work at times resembles the types of remarkable scenes that you do see in great street photography will cover the utility of dabbling in other genres of photography as a source of inspiration or even as a reset button when you're feeling creatively exhausted. Then we'll spend some time talking about how to read photography books in a way that is not only entertaining and inspiring simply as a beautiful piece of printed art. But I'll talk about how to reread and reconsider them in a way that extracts lessons from the pages to more effectively serve as a guide book for how to move forward with your own work. We'll talk about the phenomena of how your visual tastes refine over the years. And how your blind spots, or the work of certain renowned photographers that you used to dismiss can grow on you as you move through different photographic seasons. And eventually be of enormous inspiration to you once you come into that new headspace. At the end of the section, we'll talk about the reality of shooting street while traveling. How unbelievably inspiring it is, how it can open you up to new parts of your style and your voice. And how different the experience of shooting street abroad can be from shooting where you come from and how to adapt to that. This section should serve not only as a reminder of all the inspiring things on offer to help you out of a creative rut, but also to help challenge you to push into new territory and fan that flame in the times that you are already feeling really fired up and driven and excited to create work. This section will also get you up to speed on a large number of your inspiring predecessors and the valuable insights and learnings that I've been able to distill from their careers and bodies of work via books and master classes and documentaries. Like I said, copyright wise, I won't be able to show some of the work that I'll talk about in the parts about the other photographers, because otherwise this lesson will just automatically be removed. So feel free to either treat those parts as more of a podcast or follow along on a separate tab. However, if you do decide to keep your eyes on the screen in order to stay more engaged in the things I'm saying, I'll still do my best to keep the visuals entertaining. So no matter how you digest this section, I'm telling you it's absolutely essential. As I was writing it, I unlocked countless lessons, even for myself, that can be derived from the works of all these diverse photographers. So trust me when I say it's a critical section to pay attention to, and it will shave years off your learning journey. 71. Photographers to Know: Inspiration is key, and you can find it everywhere. Of course, in street photography, a huge source of it is just walking around and looking for it in the world. But we've also got movies and paintings and that whole side of visual art. Then you've got music, and travel, and novels, theater design, and of course, the photography of others, plus so many other things. So let's talk about some inspiration sources, starting with some key photographers that you should get to know and some things that you can learn from them, or at least what I've learned from them. Keep in mind that a lot of these photographers, especially towards the bottom of the list, aren't street photographers. But you can still draw so many lessons from their work and their experience and bring it to your street work. As I go through, I urge you to follow along on Pinterest so you can start to get a sense of who you're drawn to. I'm admittedly, less knowledgeable and less versed in the current generation of street photographers. Whereas since there's a lot more substantial and conclusive information on the photographers that flourished in the previous generations, it's been more possible to paint a much better picture of their work and their voice and their career. So when I talk about inspiring photography, I'll focus more on the previous generations because I know them better. But after I finished with that, I will leave a list of some of the more modern inspiration sources that I know of as well like podcasts, certain Youtube shows, some curated Instagram pages, films and more. Now let's talk in more detail about some really great photographers. You might have heard some of their names, maybe even all their names. Or perhaps you're just getting started and you don't know them at all and are more familiar with just your own circle or your own generation of photographers. But no matter where you're at, it's worth getting to know the work of these photographers and what they brought to the table. Some of their names have become a bit of a cliche in street photography, I guess. But they're only cliche for a reason and it's because they're relatable. They're popular and they're usually popular because they're genuinely good at this craft. So let's dive in, I'm sure you've heard the name Robert Frank by now, And if you lean in the grungier direction with your work or that's what you enjoy looking at, I guarantee once you watch the documentary, don't blink about Robert Frank. He will quickly become one of your favorite photographers. He's mostly known for his incredibly famous photography book, The Americans, that inspired a whole generation of photographers. The work in that book, The Americans, was made while he drove all over the US with his small 35 millimeter licha camera, shooting countless rolls of film in search of America's identity. Since it was funded by the Guggenheim Fellowship, Robert was free to do what he liked. And although the book was initially despised, as a bitter look at America from someone who wasn't born there. Eventually after years and years, it gained the positive reputation that it deserved. His snapshot speed of life, imperfect style of photography basically made a whole new genre. His grungy style, his philosophies, his raw subject matter, the high level of experimentation that he did with his collaborators in the lab, His obsessive nature and the never ending stream of totally vulnerable art he created. It's all so inspiring. Start with that book, then watch the documentary and then see where it leads you after that. I'm sure you'll be so inspired by this bloke. Another big name in street photography is Gary Winingrand. He was considered the king of the 28 millimeter lens. And boy, could he fill a frame with energy with it. He shot most of his work in black and white, zipping around New York City, and then later in California and other parts of America. One thing that sticks with me from the documentary about him called All Things Are Photographable, which is a excellent film, is a clip of him talking about what makes a good photograph and how it's, if what is photographed is more dramatic than the thing itself. Is it more glorified, dramatized, exaggerated, more beautiful, more repulsive, more mysterious, more humorous, more anything really. That's what a good photo is to Gary Winergrand, and it's a very helpful thought to take with you out on the street. You can learn a lot from that documentary and a lot from Gary's work in general. The book, The Street Philosophy of Gary Winergrand by Jeff Dyer is an absolute must read. I'll probably keep saying this as I remember different important photography books along the way as I talk about other photographers. But I can't recommend that one more highly. On each spread, you'll find a short creative essay by Jeff Dyer about the corresponding photograph on the other page. And it's the single most informative how to read a street photograph tool that I've found. The way Jeff poetically deciphers and describes Gary's work is bloody fantastic, and the way he writes really sticks with you when you're out on the street because he really breaks each photo down to its smallest details. And Jeff knows that he's unpicking the poetry of Gary's work through his own interpretation. And it's not like Jeff thinks that Gary intended for all this poetic meaning in detail to be sprinkled throughout the photos exactly as it is. Gary may have intended for some of it to be there and other times I imagine his work was more reliant on the mixture of persistence. L. Excellent editing skills. But the bottom line that I was trying to get to is that Jeff Dyer's take on Gary's work in that book is such a great learning tool for how to look at photographs and how to think about photographs in order to perhaps uncover a deeper, more interesting layer to it all. And then bringing that thinking to your own work when putting bodies of work together is a very helpful tool. The other fantastic book that traverses Gary's whole career is a big fat collection of his photos put together by Leo Ruben Fein. It's pretty costly though, so I went to the library, which if you're lucky enough, you'll be able to find it there as well. It gives a really great overview of Gary's eye, so I really recommend you have a look around for it and flick through that book. You'll absolutely love it. Joel Meyrowitz outlook on life is as appealing and admirable as it gets for me. He's just a lover of life, A passionate man with a fantastic eye, And who from the day he picked up a camera in New York City, has spent his life dedicated to the art of photography. Starting with a small, a snipping, timeless little moments out from New York City life in something he called his field photographs. In an attempt to move away from the Henri Cartier, Bresson decisive moment type photographs that he and everyone else was trying to make before then. In his master class on the Masters of Photography website, which I highly recommend watching, he, among so many other things, talks about how he just wanted to capture as much information as possible in these photographs. That was the purpose of his field photography approach. He simply wanted to show life as in, what does life look like here in New York? At this period in time, he then moved to a large format view camera to help slow him down, in which he found another part of his voice in landscapes in his incredibly relaxing Cape Cod book, which is a meditation on light itself. Really, his book where I find myself is a book that I really relate to. And you might as well if you find that you have quite broad or diverse interests, subject wise or stylistically with your work. Because Joel really has made some big pivots in his time. From making really rad, energetic street work, to portrait, to landscape, to still life. All the while, sort of zigzagging and doubling back, sometimes dabbling in them all, letting all the styles and choices inform each other. And he does such a great job in that book of eloquently describing that experience retrospectively when looking back on his entire life, being in his '80s now, of how beautiful and diverse a photographer's life can be and what types of things can dictate those visual shifts in your life. And that's the part that I found really inspiring and important to keep in mind as I progress through a few of those genres or styles myself. So definitely get that book if you can. Wild Flowers, which I mentioned earlier in the guide, is a personal favorite too. It's like the War's Wally of street photography books because you've got all these incredible street photographs as compelling as they get. Yet somewhere in the frame there'll be something involving flowers and not always in a literal way, so you really have to search the frame to find the flowers, and that's what that book ground into me is the habit of reading street photographs for longer periods of time. It taught me to look everywhere and find things that interested me and most of all, take my time with it. I feel like you should read a photography book at the same speed in which you read a novel. Take your time with each page. It might feel silly at first, but it will help you learn how to see, especially in a street photography sense. Alex Webb is an incredibly talented street photographer. He has a rich color palette, a ruthlessness when it comes to darkening his shadows, and an overall dramatic feeling behind every composition. He makes complicated, mysterious and compelling frames with endless layering. He has an impeccable eye and a remarkable sense of timing. If you're into street photography, you will surely love his work. There's a great chat between him and Roger Deacons, the cinematographer on the Team Deacons podcast, which you might also really enjoy if you already like his work. Alex Webb's book, The Suffering of Light, is potentially my favorite photography book to date. Everything about it is perfect, in my opinion. It's mind blowing. It's on display in my apartment just simply because the cover itself is a piece of art. That book is his life's work from all over the world. I can't even begin to fathom how he refined his selections down to what he finally chose. It's the kind of book that's so high caliber that you're thinking about. The photos aren't in the book almost as often as the ones that are in the book. Just simply because you want more, your imagination just goes wild on every page. At least mine does. You've also got his more recent educational book that he did with his wife Rebecca, called On String Photography and the Poetic Image, which is a really great insight into his and her philosophies and practices, definitely give that a read too. Also, his book, Hot Light, Half Made Worlds, is an absolute must read, as well as under a grudging sun, and also from the floodplains to the clouds, they're all so beautiful. And my gosh, this book comes up with great book titles. All of his work is so incredible. So do yourself a favor and check him out. Sure you've heard of this French bloke, Henri Cartier Brisson, who some people have referred to as the godfather of street photography. He's a great example of someone who always thought poetically and who used a great deal of discipline, but also things like empathy and curiosity to make his work so human. Henri is a traditionalist in every sense to the point where he is strongly against cropping, was never interested in color, mostly used a 50 millimeter lens and was intent about being in the moment. And you can't deny that his philosophies and approach worked for him. They might not work for you, but they certainly worked for him time and time again. And therefore, he was able to create some of the most powerful and memorable photographs to date. A very brilliant man. Also. Just as it heads up, I'm going to use Henri as a segue to briefly chinwag about a few of the interesting photography learnings that I got from listening to and reading about the principles of some of the Japanese Zen arts too. But I'll try and keep it mostly about Henri. If you can get your hands on one from a library or borrow it from a collector, you'll save a fair few hundred dollar, if not a few thousand, depending on its condition on Henri's photo book. Images a la Savant, or loosely translated in English to images on the run or stolen images, definitely worth to read. It contains so much gorgeous work and a stunning layout. It's about this big and it really is such a beautiful photo book, although the book itself is fantastic. There's also a story about the title of the book itself that is quite interesting and holds within it a few compelling lessons. So I think it's a story worth telling, but it gets a little bit fiddly and wordy, so pay attention so we can just whizz through this and carry on through to some other epic photographers that I'm really excited to tell you about now to start the story about the title of the book at the start of the book on re, used a quote from one of the Memoirs of the 17th Century Cardinal Dora. And the quote reads, there is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment. And then **** Simon from Simon and Schuster Publishing, when appropriating the book for an English market, suggested the decisive moment as the English title. And once the book took off in the English market, Henri basically got appointed the founder of this idea or concept in street photography called the decisive moment, which is typically referred to as the capturing of an ephemeral and spontaneous moment in time in such a way that the photograph represents the essence or meaning of the event itself. Essence, meaning the heart and soul of something. Its truest, most indispensable qualities. Or something that defines something's character. Right? Okay, so Henri got assigned leader of that idea. But the problem was Henri didn't actually even live by that specific theory at all. He got misconstrued and misunderstood and just basically blatantly taken out of context. Luckily, how he used the term decisive moment and how people think he used the term aren't in all reality that different. But by describing both understandings, I think I'll be able to better convey how Nri experienced the world and what his philosophies around photography were, while also trying to explore some other worthwhile lessons. Forgive me if Henri's section is a bit longer, but in relation to how much you'll see and read about him in street photography, it's good to just get it all out of the way. Okay, now. So to be clear, based on his writings, it seemed that when Henri used the term decisive moment, he was likely only referring to composition. Because composition or form was what mainly preoccupied him. And that is evident in so much of his writing. He believed that inside movement in life, there is one moment at which all elements in motion are in balance. And that photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it, IE, pours the balance of it. He's not really talking about essence or meaning like the other description of the decisive moment suggests, he's just talking about the elements being in balance. And when you read Henri's preface to Images a la Savant, or read the dialogue in the book titled Interviews and Conversations with Henri Ti Brisson, 1951-1998 which is a must read by the way. His philosophies can have a profound effect on your work. But the point is when you read that book or the preface I mentioned, you come to realize, through his preoccupation with composition or form, that when he refers to balance, he's referring to compositional balance. To form, Henri says, composition must be one of our constant preoccupations. But at the moment of shooting, it can stem only from our intuition for we are out to capture the fugitive moment and all the interrelationships involved are on the move. He wasn't trying to pin down life and say this is how it is or how it felt or what it meant. He also wasn't saying this is the whole essence and entire contextual essence of the moment I encountered. I believe he was more so just saying simply, this is what I saw and this is how I saw it, or this is how it looked visually through the lens from where I was standing. And how beautiful is that? That this is how all the visual elements fell together from where I was standing when I clicked the shutter. And that how it felt and what it meant and what the essence of the event was to him were only really the circumstances that led him to the place, to the moment where he made the exposure because Of course, his feelings and his values are going to be the things that place him somewhere physically. Because those are the things that orient you in the world the same way that the feeling of hunger eventually places you at the cafe or the grocery store. But he describes that for him, it's more so intuition, which I guess is just based on life experience and personality, et cetera. He says there's more intuition when a composition is forming that brings the viewfinder up to the eye and then makes him click it at the right time. So I feel like he was just saying, hey, look, I saw it. Look what I saw. How marvelous look at this wonderful moment where all these elements came together harmoniously. And how wonderful is it that things like this exist. And that a photograph was made what a joy life is. And if it makes you feel something to look at it or if it means something to you when you see the photograph, that's different. That's the consumption of art. The creation of art is different. The same way that cooking food is very different from eating food. The same way that food presentation or composition on the plate, if you will, is very different from the essence of the overall meal experience or the venue. They're different things, they contribute to each other, but they aren't the same thing. You can be interested in both but still favor one. So in that way, you could say that Henri was more interested in composition than essence. To be fair though, enter flip sides for a minute. It's hard to believe sometimes that he didn't care about essence because he was such a philosophical man. So it's easy to believe that essence was something he wished to attain. And even though he wrote mostly of composition, he did once describe an urge he had one day to capture the essence of a full scene. When he wrote, I proud the streets all day, feeling strung up and ready to pounce. Determined to trap life, to preserve life in the act of living. Above all, I crave to seize in the confines of one single photograph the whole essence of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes. I'm not aware of another time where he wrote like this without favoring composition as his main focus. Though, a comment that he wrote in his book that says, sometimes there is one unique picture whose composition possesses such vigor and richness and whose content so radiates outward from it that this single picture is a whole story in itself. But this rarely happens. So this quote does suggest that he believes it is possible, but just difficult to capture the whole essence of an event in one photo. This tells me that it's not that people are wrong about his philosophies, but that they're just mixing up his priorities. He appears to have cared less about the essence of things, but it's not that he didn't care at all, it's just that he was more focused on how it was composed though, if it was possible to compose it in a balanced way that adhered to his tastes and intuition. And that also visually described the essence of a scene. I'm sure he would really appreciate that photograph very much. The only other thing that would make it less likely for him to go out looking for essence often, rather than just hoping for it. The way he did in that quote I mentioned was that he had a blatant disinterest for thinking about the process at all. And to capture the essence of an event a moment, you would very much have to think what's going on here? What is the essence of this event and how can I capture that? Whereas he wanted to remove all that, it wasn't about thinking for him, it was more of a meditative thing. So although I believe he would appreciate the final result, I don't think he would have often been hunting and thinking for essence in that way he was more so looking at the world as a bunch of geometric moving parts and clicking the shutter when all the parts in his frames felt right to freeze. Moments of compositional balance in the world. Michael Rubin, who wrote an article about this whole decisive moment mix up on Petopixel.com He describes how the decisive moment, as Henri uses the term, is a property of vantage point and framing and of course, timing and not about the quintessence of the external event. Henri's point is that in the swirl of humanity and nature all around us, there are occasional fleeting moments where moving objects align naturally in the frame. And that although a great photograph can reveal something magical or iconic, that, that is the result of composition, not the result of organized analytical thinking or forced structure. It happens through instinct, made real by pressing the shudder based on intuition. And that is all on re, lived by really the rest we've made up. Gosh, it'd be so strange to be an artist who had ideas and concepts that you lived by, but then the whole entire world had a different understanding of it. The writer of that article, Michael Ruben, shows this physics demonstration as an attempt to illustrate, although it's a far less complicated example than in life itself, how moving objects in the real world can seem chaotic and random. But periodically, in certain moments, there is pattern and harmony which quickly dissipates. And I think when watching the videos, it's very easy to imagine which moments might be compositionally speaking, most balanced or most harmonious. It's such a nice example of how many different moments can seem balanced but in different ways, and depending on your perspective, you will agree with or prefer some moments over others. I mean, you might literally be drawn to the chaotic moments and that might be your version of beauty. And that's great. That's because we all have unique perspectives. We want to see yours. It's so exciting that even though all moments are comprised of the same elements for each individual in attendance, that depending on how you compose it and where you physically put yourself, and when you click the shutter, we'll all get different results. It's such. Way to explore this planet we're on, and this life we're living, and this life fundamentally is unpredictable, right? It's chaos, really. And I think photography is partly our attempt to give it order to understand it, to take it apart and look at it, stop it, and say, oh, I liked when it was like that, how can it be like that? Again, the bottom line for me with where I'm currently at with my work and how it relates to these types of philosophies is just that it's nice to have both composition and essence on your tool belt, as well as using a mixture of each idea at times because we can learn from them both. Take essence, for example, if you arrive somewhere and want to capture the essence, all you need to do is simply ask yourself, is the essence of this moment, this event, this scene, what does it mean to me? And then try to capture that and do it quickly before it changes. Asking yourself that question will immediately rule out lots of options. And it will steer you in the right direction towards interesting, meaningful things. Because you'll be paying attention to more emotional notes to understand what is really going on here in this moment or in this space. Then on the other hand, if you lead with composition as your guiding thought, when you walk into places, you'll be paying complete attention to the shape of things, to the movements, the speed and geometry of everything. Your brain will start to take pleasure in almost decoding the places you're in. You're using textures and elements, and shadows and shapes to help compose something that feels right, the same way that an abstract painting can feel right. Or how a written signature can feel, either right or wrong when you do it. And this isn't to say that the compositions have to follow rules, quite the opposite. They should follow no rules, there should be no thought in an almost meditative way. It should just feel right and look right to you, even if it only feels right because of its wrongness. Its ugliness is its beauty in that way, like a blurry bird or a blurry portrait. They could be crisp, but the smeared movement of it, which is photographically imperfect in a sense, is beautiful sometimes. And I know this all sounds quite flowery and lofty, but do you ever have those moments when you're making a landscape and you're shooting through a window in the trees, but the trees are blowing in the wind. So the branches are opening and closing that window in the canopy. You know that feeling when it feels just right when the branches open as wide as they're gonna go. And then click, you take the shot. That's what your intuition is telling you, it likes, other people might favor a thinner slither of light through the tree or a complete blockage when the wind closes the canopy, creating a, you know, a complete silhouette. But it's about just watching the details, paying attention to life in that way. And then click the shutter when it intuitively feels right. A similar thing will happen with a wave crashing on the shore. Everyone will have a different favorite moment of that wave. Some will like it once it's already crashed and is now flooding up the beach. Or others will like it when it's running back to the ocean, or when the wave is at its peak, or as it just topples over, but it hasn't crashed yet. Or once it's exploded off the shore and throws whitewash over everyone. Some people won't even have liked that specific wave for some reason, but it's about trying to listen to your intuition as much as you can and just losing yourself in that moment out there in the world and enjoying that Zen like experience. Joseph Kudelka, whose most popular book, Gypsies, in which he lived with and photographed European Roma communities for years in the late '60s and early '70s, will leave you speechless. To make a project like this is not for the fainthearted, though that's for sure. This block was sleeping outside in his sleeping bag during the whole time he was shooting this project. He was getting through the day the same way. These communities were completely immersed. Meanwhile, building relationships and photographing the ongoings that eventually led to the book. His book shows scenes so intimate in these communities that it makes you realize, oh, I really have to commit. If I want to explore stories of this depth and power, his level of commitment is unparalleled. Joseph opened my eyes to how rewarding long term projects can be. And his work shows how incredible of an inspiration source, humanitarian photo journalism is. And how an endeavor like that can be such an epic source of information, transformation and fulfillment. The joy seen in that book, the sadness, the hardship, the camaraderie, the detail, the overall experience, it's all captured so unbelievably well with such impeccable framing and compassion. It's a must see book project for sure. Very powerful work that you can learn a lot from. Sol Litter is another favorite. His books all about Solta and Forever Sol Litter are superb bodies of work. He's a very creative guy, it would seem. He was a photographer, a creative thinker, a painter. You can even find some of his paintings in his book, just titled Simply Sol Litter, and they're very beautiful. Judging from his photography work, he seemed very patient. He often used reflections and long lenses to create his work. His framing choices are really pleasing, but often unexpected. He worked mostly in portrait orientation. He's a really great photographer to study the work of, since it's so different to a lot of other photographers, especially of that time. He was working in color much earlier than a lot of people, which I would imagine is because of his passion for painting with color. But my God, the colors you see in his work are so satisfying. He's the lead inspiration for me in terms of coloring. He's known for being quite a shy character, and although he didn't have much fame or popularity until very, very late in life, it seemed to suit him based on a quote in his book that says, being ignored is a great privilege. And despite his shy nature. There's a very nice documentary by Thomas Leech about soul called In No Great Hurry, 13 Lessons in Life with Soul Litter. And since he was alive at the time of filming, it's a great look into the quaint character. He was such a treat to be able to see firsthand, in a sense, what he was actually like. Because you get to see that although street photography can seem so go, go, go. Trying to photograph all these beautiful moments all the time. Soul is a great example of how it doesn't have to be that way. I remember in the documentary he talks about how people would ask, when are you going to make another book? When's the next book, Huff? About people's need for more and more more. And he would say, what's wrong with just making one book that you're proud of? And that's it. I appreciated his reminder to just relax, take it easy, enjoy the process, enjoy life, enjoy just simply making things for yourself. He talked about how he has tremendous respect for those that can just do some great work and then stop for a while. Although apparently Saul was very well studied in the backgrounds and bodies of work of other artists, he does talk about how he despises, how we naturally always want to know about an artist and how he wishes it could be just about the art, the work, the painting, the photograph itself, rather than always being about who made it and why are they the way they are and what is their story and why did they make it this way and not a different way, et cetera. And it's an interesting and valuable reminder to just try to appreciate the art itself, especially when it's your own art. It's so ironic how it seems. Saul would have been happy to basically be entirely unknown, yet he became a famous street photographer in the end. And yet others yearn to become known, but will never be so famous. So this seems to happen time and time again because it's the people that do things for the right reasons and that have a wholesome sense of why and who truly enjoyed the journey, whose work eventually rises to the top at some point. Because we're very good at seeing authenticity, it oozes out of the work and we really like it. I watched a movie recently called Mardi about Maude Lewis, the Canadian painter who had a similar perspective to Saul. In which your love for the art, rather than its consequences, not only enhances the work, but makes the journey the most enjoyable and authentic journey it can be. It's a beautiful story. Give it a watch if you can anyways. Good on Saul for living the beautiful life that he lived. He kind of got the best of both worlds in the end, in some sense by having the quiet private life that he wanted and then some nice recognition towards the end too. So horay for him, we're lucky to have his art in this world. Martin Parr has one of the most recognizable styles of anyone I know. I highly, highly highly recommend his books, The Last Resort, Small World, and Bad Weather. If you're into flash photography and awkward, quirky street photographs, this is your guy. He captures things you feel you're not allowed to look at. He captures unfiltered, unflattering life in the most brilliant way. I love his work. It's one of those styles that makes you feel like you've got so much to learn in street photography. He's so expert level that you just ride that line of being super fired up to get out there and find great moments simultaneously. So insanely deflated by the fact that you'll hardly ever get the types of compelling shots that someone like Martin Por does. It's quite strange how much his work can rear you up, no matter how brave you are. When you read the last resort, you often think how on earth did he get to where he would need to be to take that and then still fire off a flash? You can't help but imagine what would have happened afterwards. You feel this tension in his photos because so often people are looking at the lens as he fired his shot. So you know, they saw it happen. And since it's such bizarre scenes, sometimes it gets you thinking it's almost the best proof that nothing that bad can happen to you. Because if you can make Martin Par type work without getting into too much trouble, which is mostly the case with him, then you'll probably be pretty fine. No matter what Sebastio Salgado lived an incredible life. He's a documentary photographer and photo journalist and would definitely never describe himself as a street photographer, but he and his work are worth studying to understand the compassion. Knowledge, commitment, and storytelling skills necessary to make work of that caliber. He traveled the entire world many times to capture his stories. He often did an enormous amount of pre planning too. So he is a good example of how good ideas and planning can pay off with really rewarding work. The documentary about him and his work titled The Salt of the Earth, will perfectly acquaint you with his life and his work. And I'm sure it will inspire you to reach a little further when it comes to your photography work. And to consider the meaning or purpose of it all, if any, especially if you have an interest in the more photo, journalistic or serious side of documentary photography, as opposed to the lighthearted hobbyist street photography angle. Vivian Meyer's story is quite well known to most street photographers by now. But just as a quick refresher, Vivian spent her life working as a nanny and shot street photography her whole life keeping the results to herself. It wasn't until a man stumbled across her negatives in a storage container after she died that her work shot all throughout Chicago and New York was discovered. If you're familiar with Vivian Meyer's work, but not the ins and outs of her story, I'd recommend the mysterious documentary titled Finding Vivian Meyer, because it will illuminate parts of her that you would not expect. Her work is nothing short of exquisite and it just goes to show how much you can get done when nobody's bothering you and you're just chugging away obsessively with your passions. She had an excellent eye for emotion and her use of the waist finder, roll reflex, twin lens reflex style cameras is a good example of how powerful that slightly lower perspective can be. Not only do people usually look up at the photographer's eyes to see what they're doing, In which case Vivian, with her waist high camera, would catch a moment of them looking over the lens. But also if they ever did look at the lens from that angle or create quite a dominating, striking energy in the frame, since the subject would be peering downwards from quite a childlike camera perspective. Or it would actually create quite a normal eye to eye angle when photographing children, which funnily enough was a common subject of hers as she was a nanny. Photographing children has become a bit of a no, no in my experience in Western culture. And I remember one of my mentors who is about my dad's age, being quite bummed out that you could no longer freely photograph the crazy rad innocent that kids get up to climbing trees or what have you. Because they really are so hilarious, interesting and creative that they make for such incredible subjects. Which of course I'm sure we'll all find out when we have our own kids, potentially some day. I know it's a bit of a tangent to just deep dive on the kid thing here for a second, but I can't think of a better place to chinwag about it. So I may as well just tie it all up in a neat little bow under Vivian and Myers section because she really did do a great job of captu 72. Speed Round of Photographers: I feel like I could go on and on about photographers and their work, but I'll try to speed it up as we reach the people that I'm less knowledgeable about. I'll try to just mention their name and a quick few lessons that I learned from them. Okay, speed round, Elliot Witt reminds me to have a sense of humor for God's sake. There's so much to be explored there in humor. Life is so rich with humor. Don't be so serious all the time. Also, you must read his book, Elliot Wit's Personal Best. You won't regret it. Jonas Bendixen urges you to let your photography be guided by your questions about life. His book, Satellites, is perfect. If you don't read that book as soon as humanly possible, you'll be kicking yourself years from now when you realize how much it would have helped your photography. His style of storytelling is other worldly. I can't get enough of it. Also, his master class through Magnum Learn is invaluable. Do yourself a favor and watch it. Harry Gruyere reminds me that while most of the talk about using zoom lenses in street photography is that they can make you lazy and that you should zoom with your legs. Instead, he teaches me the contrary, that with the right mindset and discipline and obsessive creativity, a zoom lens can actually just you be more refined. His books, India, and Edges will melt you. They are so beautiful you'll want to rip every single page out and frame the photographs on your wall. Unbelievable. David Allen Harvey taught me to have a deep interest in your subject, but that you don't have to go so deep as to become a journalist. But that it's okay to just get close and be invested and interested just simply as a compassionate bystander. His books, Divided Soul, and Cuba, to me as some of the most impressive photo books I've read. And I know I keep saying things along those lines, but trust me, the photographs in those books will change your life, especially as a photographer. Todd Jo reminds me to slow down. You can take your time with your ideas or your projects. Photography doesn't have to always be so abrasive. So fast can be calming and relaxing and therapeutic. Spending some time to compose your frames or conceptualize your ideas is a beautiful way to spend some time. Trent Park reminds me to experiment, to play. How you take a photograph can be just as important as what you photograph. And when you nail both, it can be so incredibly magical. Trent's book, Minutes to Midnight, is unbelievably captivating. It will sweep you off your feet. It's surreal and haunting, and majestic and thought provoking as all hell ige taught me to be brave. This is going to be a super fast one because I don't know much to say about him except for his work is so intense. He reminds us to find our niche and commit to it, at least for long enough to learn from it. Diane Arbus reminds us to honor everyone in this world to challenge deeply formed social norms and controversial topics. When she saw someone who looked unique, she loved them for it. She tried to see them for who they were. Arbus spent time with her subjects. She wasn't your fly on the Wall Street photographer. She tried to connect with her subjects and it's worthwhile learning from that approach. Annie Liebowitz shows that it's okay to really be a photographer completely. That living your life through a lens on this Earth is something you can be proud of. In the documentary on her work aptly titled, A Life Through a Lens, Annie explains how her relationship with her camera is her longest lasting relationship and how there's something special about that, something significant and lasting. Also in her early career, her Rolling Stone magazine days. I like that she partied while working. I know she worked really hard in those years too, but I appreciate that she had loads of fun with it, but she cut loose that she was herself. I think that's awesome. It's also nice to watch these documentaries of these hugely successful photographers. Because you come to realize things like, oh, she was mentored by Robert Frank, of course, she was going to be insanely inspired and off on the right foot, you know? And to remind yourself that if you're not quite as lucky to land in that place, to go easy on yourself. But to also remember that it's your responsibility to find your own inspirations and pave your own pathway. Ernst Hat reminds me to be an artist, to think like an artist, to think like a painter, to play with your settings, to use your camera emotionally. He embedded so much emotion and movement, and color, and story into his frames. It's truly masterful. Ernst books are so expensive now that I've only really been able to invest in his photo file, photo pocket type books. Because they're a nice, affordable way to get an overview of a photographer's work. But from what I've seen, his work is exceptional. Based on what I've seen. I have a hunch that when I do get the opportunity to read his original photo books, he'll instantly jump to the position of my favorite photographer. But since I've only read the compilation books, as well as his New York in color book, which was so good by the way, my overall opinion of his work will need to be paused until a later date. Jeff Mermlstein is another man whose work I love but haven't had a chance yet to invest much money, or loads and loads of time into just yet, I've only scratched the surface. It's weird though because some of the street photographs that sit rent free in my mind most prominently, were taken by him. I don't know what he specifically teaches me yet. But he does remind me that there are just endless incredible photographers to explore and that you can't get to them all right away. And that instead of getting overwhelmed, just think of yourself as lucky that you'll have a lifetime's worth of photographers to explore. It wasn't always like this. A lot of people back in the day hardly got a chance to see the work of photographers from all over the world the way we do now. So just embrace the overload. Anyways, Jeff is clearly a master. He also casually sort of does video street photography on Instagram in New York nowadays too. And they're such awesome little videos, very humorous, very cheeky, yet still quite gritty and hyperreal, quite visceral. It's exactly the feeling that you get from the rest of his photographic work that I've seen Lee Friedlander teaches us, among many other things. And this is totally oversimplifying his mastery. But to be your own subject, sometimes to use your body, and your reflection, and your shadows, and the things in your everyday life to create art, to express yourself. To get a great introduction to his work, grab the book called New Documents, which also includes work from Diane Arbus and Gary Winegran. Excellent book. Philip Luker, Decors's photographs are almost too good to be true, and that's because they are in a sense because he stages them. He is a genius for sure. Although his work isn't street, it may as well be because the things he photographed do happen in real life. So it gets you excited to be out on the street to potentially find moments as potent and powerful as his frames. The same goes for Alex Prager, Jeff Wall, and Gregory Crewdson. They all had staged work in the same ballpark, and all four of these photographers had such wonderful imaginations. If you can just try to think as creatively as they did with your street photography, you might find yourself going to the right locations and getting lucky with being in the right spot at the right time. There are some other key photographers that belong on this list, this list of photographers to know, but I really need to learn more about them before I can confidently form much of a proper lesson on their behalf. I've seen some of their books, and I'll leave those books on the essential readings list that I'll show you. And I know their work contributes a lot to the street photography movement, but I just don't quite have the words to do their legacy justice just yet. So I'll let you know their names, but other than that I'll leave it up to you to do your research on them. All right, So we've got Walker Evans, Robert Dueno, Richard Calar, Eugene Atget, William Klein, Alex Soth, Margaret Burke White. Dorothy Lang, Linda Mccartney, Renee Bury, Helen Levitt, Bruno, Barbie, Constantine Manos, Andre Cote, Mary Ellen, Mark Raza, Ian Berry, Alfred Stieglitz and Peterson Do Mariama Gordon Parks, Fred Lyon, Mark Cohen, Willie Roness, and Nan Golden. So they're also really important figures in the street photography movement. So look them up on your own time and I'm sure you'll be very impressed. 73. Photo Books & How to Read Them: When it comes to photography books, read them slowly like a book of prose. Spend as much time on a page as you would if it were a page full of text. It'll feel overkill sometimes and your mind will drift off sometimes too, but that's okay. That's when your mind is generating its own ideas. Your mind drifts off when you're reading a novel sometimes too, and that's okay. So it's okay here as well. It's leisure. It's all part of the experience. If you want to learn from photo books, study the pages, study the details, study the layout and the choices. Decide whether you think the photographer deliberately left each detail in the frame or not. And depending on the answer, ask why. As in, did the artist leave something on the edge of frame deliberately, and is it helping tell the story or not, even if you don't think they did it on purpose. Sometimes it's nice to imagine that they did just to try and study what the purpose might be. Gives you a framework to learn from. For example, if the photographer has just managed to squeeze in an additional element on the edge of the frame into the story, you could think, hmm, what does that element add and why do they leave it in? Is there some kind of symmetry going on? Does this geometric element help direct the eye to the middle of the frame and therefore contain the action into a more confined space closer to the center of the frame. Does this little detail contextualize anything for us? Perhaps it's a German street sign which can help us understand what's going on in the moment more clearly. Maybe it correlates to photographs before it or after it in the book. So maybe keep an eye out for a pattern, whatever it may be. It's a worthwhile thought exercise and I mean, this is just a way for you to personally get more out of the image. So of course, in all reality, if you don't actually think they left it in the photo on purpose, at least you can think, I wonder what happened that this element landed in frame. Perhaps the artist was rushed to take the picture. Perhaps there were even more distracting elements just beyond the edge of the frame that were even worse. So this is as good as they could get. Perhaps the rest of the image is quite bland and they just simply needed something else to give it a point of interest. Who knows that when reading a photo book, it's worthwhile to give the artist and the editor as much credit as possible so that you can get more out of reading it, really, even when it comes to the arrangement in the book, you can ask yourself questions like, why would this photo come after that photo? Assume there's a reason and speculate on the answer. Think, does this photo prepare me for what's next? Is there a pattern here? Does it lead the story in a new direction? There are all kinds of questions you could be constantly asking. And even if you don't like a photo, you could think to yourself, am I supposed to respond negatively to this photo? And if so, why would they put that idea or that emotion here? Because it's okay to dislike a photo. But you can get so much more out of it and respect the entire artwork so much more if you can realize, oh, I'm meant to hate this photo the same way that filmmakers will deliberately sprinkle in some negative or doubtful foreshadowing of a character that we're meant to distrust or dislike. But overall, the point is all these questions and inquiries will give you food for thought when it comes to making your own long term projects. And you'll be able to make more interesting informed decisions, which is all part of the fun for the opening photograph of a book, that's obviously a huge decision, right? The same goes for the cover and for the final photograph. So you could think to yourself, why would they choose these? Surely they chose these for a reason, right? What's the reason they didn't just pluck them out of thin air? They chose these photos. When you see the first photo, it might not be until the last photo that you realize it's deeper meaning. It's the same with a film. How a lot of the time the final scene in a film will explain the opening scene in a profound way. And it doesn't mean that the first scene is meant to feel half finished until we see the last scene, or in our case, the first photo, rather than the first scene. But it's just about the fun of exploring the art form and finding ways to go full circle to add depth and complexity and detail and mastery to the story. It's about pushing the art form to its limits and seeing how much you can say with the medium. So try and reverse engineer it by thinking that way, the whole way through the reading process. And you'll get a lot more out of it, you know, get suspicious. Think to yourself, Mm, this picture leaves a lot to the imagination. Perhaps I'm meant to be adding pieces to the puzzle throughout the journey and to the same point, reread the same books, because in the same way that you can never see a film for the first time twice, and how you experience it differently the second time, The same goes for books, right? So try and experience it in a few different ways. Read a book a few times, and again, give the photographer and the editor credit when you notice something new in your second viewing, think to yourself, well played. Was that an Easter egg? For those who came back for seconds? Thinking that way will encourage you to be just as complex with your own book projects if you can already see how it might be possible to construct such a woven journey. Okay, just one more fun idea on the reading photography books thing. That you might enjoy or it might not be for you. You might say, nap screw that. That's lame. Not for me, but basically when I first got into photography books and I couldn't get enough of them, it sort of synced up with that study that was done where they said you shouldn't look at your phone for like 15 or 30 minutes before you go to sleep, so that you can give yourself a chance to wind down. Otherwise, social media will get your brain racing again anyway. So I'd be reading photography books at night instead, or I'd be pottering around the house or whatever. And the idea was that I'd have a photography book open on my bedside table or my coffee table. And when I'd turn the lights out for the night, I'd then turn the page while it was dark so that when I'd wake up, I'd see this new piece of art in my house that I'd never seen before. And I mean, it's all relative to how much you're into all this stuff. Because if you're just not there yet, I'm sure you wouldn't get much of a kick out of it. But I'd wake up and see one of the best street photos ever and instantly I'd be inspired for the day. So maybe that's something for you to try to have a book laid out that already really excites you. And go through one photo a day or maybe a few photos per day if you can't help yourself. But the point is to make it last, grab your morning coffee, flick through a few pages, slowly start your day, right? If you want to burn through photography books, you can have a few on the go at once. But try to have that one that you're slowly having that day to day experience with. It's just an interesting thing to do, I guess. Give it a try, I promise you'll get something out of it. 74. Magnum Level Photographers: The photographs, the paintings, the drawings, the collages, movies or the scenes within movies, or the specific frames within movies, whatever it is, the ones that really speak to you, the ones that really affect you, they never really leave you. So when you recognize, whoa, this one really grips me. It moves me trying to figure out why, why that one in particular affects you more than the rest do, especially when it doesn't do the same for other people. I'll often show people the photographs that affect me and they'll have nowhere near the same reaction. Or they'll see something entirely different. And that's interesting to me because it helps me understand myself a bit more. You start to realize what parts of your experience or personality connect with that moment in the photograph. You learn about yourself when you inquire in this way, and that's a good thing. It's worth noting too, with us having just gone through a bunch of photographers work, that it might take a while for some of these photographers to really speak to you. I definitely had that phase where I'd look at like Magnum level photographers and just be totally lost, like what is this garbage? It's all in focus. It doesn't look good per se. It's really quite hard to look at. It's messy or it's confusing, it's abrasive, it's weird, it doesn't look professional, it's dirty or whatever it may be. If you're just starting out, it's hard to understand what some of these photographers were or are trying to do, and why it's great. It's the same with movies, or music, or painting. Some of the greatest works of art are too hard to understand until you get more educated or experienced in the art form and you realize what they were trying to do, trying to say. And the level of craftsmanship that led up to that point. And the context in which it was created and the tools they had to use, et cetera. And then after starting to finally understand what some of the masters of the craft were really up to the next big step is being brave enough to take your own work in that direction of creating challenging work of heading into the Unknown, the hard to understand the meaningful as opposed to the simple, crowd pleasing slice of light across a Dina chair type work. It's difficult to start stepping in that challenging new direction because people will like your work less. Of course, they might not understand it and why would they? They might not have seen it before, they might not have a mental framework for it. You might not even completely understand it yet. And it might take a lifetime for the right audience to arrive and they might never arrive. But if you do it for yourself, for the most part, you should be okay with that. It's similar to music in the sense that a band will be loved for their first album or their early work, and then as soon as they head in new directions, they get shunned or they're misunderstood, or people say they've lost their touch. But they're just exploring. They're playing, they're enjoying the process of discovering new sounds, discovering what's possible for them. And then sometimes it even happens where those initially despised new albums eventually find their audience and are recognized as masterful albums that were ahead of their time and good on them, because I can only imagine how easy it would be to sell out. But it's so soul destroying because you're just making crowd pleasing work rather than chasing your potential and exploring new territory. So the takeaway is to just, do you follow your own path? And don't be guided by an already existing audience. Or a fear of never even having an audience. Because all that will do is keep you jogging on the spot forever. Either regurgitating the same things you've already done, or doing nothing at all really, in which case you'll get bored. Or it'll become more about satisfying the ego with surface level praise rather than just getting out there and enjoying the process for yourself. You might die tomorrow. So who gives a **** about all the judgment and pressure? Just get out there and have fun with it. It's about aiming. Aiming, if anywhere, to be respected by the people you respect, Including yourself, mostly yourself. In fact, not a bunch of online randoms hold your work in a high regard, not to the regard of people who are just scrolling online for a quick poke around. And it's not that people online are doing anything wrong, It's just that for the most part, they're not really there to get deeply involved in the experience of great complex photography. And if you're doing it for the right reasons, their opinions shouldn't really matter. Anyway, I mean, to be fair, some critical, constructive artistic discussion can be really inspiring, especially if you've been in idle with your work for a while. So reaching out for that kind of interaction to help generate new ideas can be great for sure. But just make sure you stay on your own track after you've absorbed it all. Now on a different note, but still related to the idea of creating really challenging work, I want to talk about the whole eight, sort of everything in focus, deep depth of field look that I mentioned, rather than the soft focus look. And also just quickly, I'm not talking about sharpness, I'm referring to depth of field, as in how much of the image is in focus. You might relate to this if you're just starting out. Because back when I was getting into street photography, having a deep depth of field seemed like the opposite thing that I liked. The look of everything in focus looked so gross to me. And it wasn't until a cinematographer that I love, Emmanuel Lebeski, who shot films like Birdman and The Revenant, and The Tree of Life, and Children of Men, and loads of others. He started posting pictures on Instagram taken during the shooting of the Revenant on a little digital point and shoot. And they were in focus from like 1 meter to infinity, and it still looked pleasing, not too jarring. And I thought radio, If this Academy award winning cinematographer is into it, maybe I should try and look into this. At the time, I was just doing classic portraits with blurry bouquet backgrounds. Point is, sometimes it might take someone that you respect to open you up to something you're ignorant to. Because I didn't know the Magnum photographers back then, but I did know Emmanuel's work. So it was like reading a good review in that sense. Because in that moment I instantly started to see it. I thought, ooh, okay. I see how by keeping everything in focus, he's not able to be lazy with the background and he has to put himself in the right spot so that it can all sort of balance out sort of thing. And also, ooh, look at how many epic, interesting elements he's been able to include simply by positioning himself in the right spot. So it's a taste thing too, because if it's just messy, for Messi's sake, it will be so. But if it's well crafted and there's been some thought and skill put into the photographers positioning and timing, you can tell, I guess what I'm saying is there is a difference between just a messy fight of elements all jammed into one photo with a deep depth of field versus a very busy scene of which the detail of it's been taken into consideration and given a certain degree of interesting balance or order, I think the best way I can explain making the transition from visual pleasantries to more complex, detailed, deeper, depth of field, sometimes grittier type images, is that it's only when your interest in the story overtakes your interest in the pleasantries that you start to go, oh, I can't hide behind that thin veil of just bouquet anymore because I've opened up Pandora's box and it's fantastic. You start to see that those photographers whose work used to go over your head, we're just trying to include as much detail in their stories as possible. And if you realize that you're interested in doing the same thing too, and your taste buds have matured in that direction. If you then don't lean into it and you keep shooting easy images, instead you self sabotaging and maybe you got your priorities a bit wrong. It's good to challenge the viewer. To challenge yourself. Sure, there's a time and a place for really delicate, beautiful photography and that can be one half of your voice. And it's good to have that range, but if you've got it in, you try to make the other half complex and dynamic, and meaningful. That commitment to lean into the challenge of making challenging imagery. When you finally move away from making easy images, that's what will take your work from being mediocre to being great. It's easy to be mediocre, but it's hard to be great. And we all know that because at the edge of mediocrity, every so often we create something great or something close to great. Because you can see how it could be great if it just had that tiny extra ingredient that you narrowly missed. And for me, it's better that it's difficult to be great, otherwise we'd all be bored. The pursuit of those perfect moments or that exciting yet seemingly unattainable degree of quality that only seems to move further away. As you move closer, that whole wonderful journey wouldn't exist and there'd be no fun. It'd be like playing a game of football with goals in every direction without goalkeepers. And we'll all find different parts difficult too. That's important to mention. That's the dynamic part about it. The part that you have difficulty with might just simply be the time spent. Perhaps you're naturally gifted at a lot of the other stuff, but it's still difficult to spend lots of time on this craft because it's a sacrifice. You sacrifice things to do it, and that's difficult to commit to. But if you love it and it brings you joy and satisfaction, it's worth it. 75. Your Crowd: Who you surround yourself with, and what types of arts or entertainment you digest will shape you. You are where you eat. Remember, if you just follow a bunch of travel bloggers, the types of inspiration that will come your way will be very different to someone who follows the New York Times say, or if you only look at black and white albums on Flicker, I'm sure you'll grow of fondness for black and white, right? Or if your friends are all wedding photographers, you might find it hard to have conversations that drive you forward in street photography because I don't know much about that kind of stuff. And from them you might just be geeking out on the newest fastest gear that has the fastest frames per second or whatever it may be. So that's why trying to put the things that actually interest me in front of myself is important. It might mean unfollowing everyone who posts. Uninteresting things. If you want say your Instagram feed to just be great photography. Or maybe it's about changing the way you ingest art. Maybe you only read books. Maybe you just use a different website that's more user driven, like Flicker. Or maybe you surround yourself with a few local street photographers, which are highly recommended because having those like minded fellows in your circle to be able to share your experiences with, encourages you to keep shooting. And it challenges you, and it opens you up to your blind spots within the art form. You can also use those friends to hold you accountable for some of the projects you're trying to work on. It's a very good idea to find a few street photography buddies who get a lot out of that relationship. I remember one chapter of my life during film school where lots of my mates were cinematographers and we were all going to the same college and I was studying film directing. But just because I was around all the cinematographer types so much, and all they'd harp on about was the dynamic range of a cinema camera. Or shooting on raw and anamorphic lenses and blah blah blah. But I was totally in that world. And so then when I saw these ruthlessly contrasty shots by magnum level photographers with barely any dynamic range, I mean, the shadows were just pitch black without a scarrek of detail. And I just couldn't come to grips with how all this work was so highly renowned. I guess it was a bit bothersome too to be like, wow, what am I missing? Why is this good? And being humbled by the fact that I can't even tell what's good about it, really. But eventually, you find yourself somewhere new, surrounded by different people or different art. And you step into a clearing and it seems to just make sense to you. Now you go, why it is good. I get it now. It's like, you know, when you're watching an art house film and you don't quite get it yet, maybe it's a bit ambitious or abstract in its weird visual storytelling approach. So you don't get it and therefore you don't really like it. But eventually, if you have a conversation about it to someone who loves it and they know more about it, they might start to give you an appreciation for how much art history, meaning there is embedded in the film. Or how many references there are to famous paintings or famous poems or other films or whatever. And you start to realize how hard it would have been to create in whatever way they did on the budget they had or when you watch those Youtube videos called like 20 Things you didn't Notice in the film inception by Christopher Nolan. And show you all the hidden compositional meanings or sneaky prop placements or deliberate continuity errors, or little hidden clues along the way. And you realize how brilliantly thought out it all is and how there are multiple themes and stories and ideas being conveyed in all these other ways throughout movies like that. It's things like that that sometimes unlock a new perspective in you. And you start to then have an appreciation for the art form you're ingesting in a new way. So it's worth having a bit of a look around for some of those keys to unlock some of those new perspectives from time to time. Honestly, it still happens too. I'll see a photo and it just doesn't really work for me. And instead of writing it off as it's not good, I've found it's more helpful to think, hmm, what don't I know that is actually making this whole thing genius. And even if it doesn't turn out to have any genius in it, at least you used some of your own genius, your own intellect to look into it and further your thinking. It's annoying, isn't it? When you're young and all throughout life too, really, you don't know what you don't know. You've got the things that you know, and then you've got the things that you know you don't know. And then there's this invisible category, which is the things you don't know, that you don't know. So who knows what they are, you don't, you don't even know that. You don't know them. So you can't even look for them. You don't even know there's a blind spot, so you can't aim for them. So I think a lot about this phenomena of artistic maturity and growing to eventually appreciate the great works of art in the world. It's all a part of that idea of coming into the knowledge of that world and being opened up to it. And then you can start that journey of learning about it. And when you start to head down that pathway, you discover a whole new world of things to explore. 76. Books to Read: I've mentioned a fair few photography books along the journey already. And if I've mentioned them, there must reads in my opinion. So try to find all those eventually and tick them off. Over the years, I feel like I'd love to harp on about all the ones I've already mentioned, but I need to draw the line somewhere. And I'm sure you're already deadly bored of all this and just kind of keen to get reading some of them anyway. But here are just a few more important ones that haven't really come up just yet in much detail and a few brief words on them. Bystander, A History of Street Photography by Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyrowitz. This book is great for a formal history of street photography. I thought about trying to do a chapter on the history of street, but I think the photographers I've talked about mostly exhausts my knowledge of the history anyway. And this book does a great job at giving the actual timeline of more specific events and milestones along the way from the First Street photographs to today. So, I'd highly recommend reading that. If you're interested in the ins and outs of the history of street, you'll be in very capable hands with Colin and Joel Valparaiso by Sergio Lorraine. This beautiful book, made in an old, lovely Chilean fishing village, is a glorious example how to blend photography with living the life that calls to you. You don't have to travel to crazy places to show life. Life happens wherever you stand, wherever you walk. And this stunning slow walk through the village of Valpadaizo was such a wonderful experience. I couldn't even believe how well the experience of being in this town was translated into photobook form. It was one of the most impressionable books I've read to date. Get It 100% Subway, by Bruce Davidson. What a rad book. For most people, it's too expensive to buy a secondhand nowadays, unfortunately. So I read a copy at the library, and my goodness, there's so much grime and grit, and personality, and energy in the photographs in that book. It has a very strong voice. Magnum has quite a nice amount of the photographs up on their website too, so you can get acquainted with it there. There are also people doing Youtube and Vimeo videos nowadays where they flick through photography books in a sort of tabletop view of the pages so that you can almost try before you buy it. In a sense, you just type in the name of the book and the artist on Google or video on Youtube. And it'll just show you a point of view video of someone going through the book page by page. And you can just pause on each page, but I don't know how I feel about that whole thing yet. I feel like on one hand, it's nice that you get to choose if you'll like the content before you spend 40 to $60 and upwards for a photobook. But on the other hand, it sucks that maybe some people are just looking at the photo books online and not supporting the artists. And it's not even about those artists exclusively. It's about the future artists too. Because if the market keeps decreasing, publishers won't feel that there's any demand. So they'll allocate less and less budget to them. So if you're ever hoping to make a photography book, make sure you buy photography books. The filming the photography books thing is tricky and I don't quite know what to make of that whole thing yet. I mean, it's great for rare books because in all reality, if we're probably never going to have the chance to read it in person anyway, if we can't find it at a library, then at least it's possible to see in some form what the book is all about. And perhaps seeing a huge amount of views on a video about a rare art book could perhaps prove to publishers that there are people interested in those types of books. And maybe that could do good things for the print industry somehow. In some way too. I don't know. Like I said, it's a tricky phenomena. I could chinwag all day about photo books, but I'll pump the brakes a little bit and instead I'll just let you know which on top of those three that I just dove into, are what I consider are your genuine must reads right off the bat. I've already talked about each of these books independently under the banner of their respective photographers. But let me just quickly list them so that you know for sure which ones to prioritize. Okay. You've got Alex Webb's, The Suffering of Light, David Allen Harvey's, Cuba Elliott Irwit's personal best. Ernst Haas's New York in Color. Fred Herzog's Modern Color. Jeff Dyers, The street philosophy of Gary Winingrand, Henri Cartier, Bresson's the decisive moment. Joel Meyrowitzs, where I find myself, Joseph Udelka's gypsies, Magnum's contact sheets. Martin Parr's, the Last Resort. Robert Franks, the Americans. Sol Litters forever. Sol litter William Eccleston's Portraits and Willie Rons's Paris. Trust me, trust me, trust me. Get those books. Here's a visual list of all the books I think you should read. Many of which I've already mentioned throughout the various lessons. And I just figured you could perhaps screenshot these titles and slowly chug through them. I can't read every book in the world. I wish I could, and it pains me how many I will likely never see. I can hardly even handle how many photography books exist that I wish I could read, but can't, and maybe never will. Especially since finding some of the Instagram accounts that post photos of their collection and a few example pages. And I just wish I could read them. I wish I could have them in front of me in big print form. Some of them either out of print or rare, or hyper expensive, or whatever the issue may be. Either way, this list will keep you busy for quite a while. And by then I'm sure you'll have your own favorite artists and you'll know which books you want moving forward. Here's a list of painters that might strike your fancy. The work of all these painters, to me, transcends the subject of which they painted in the sense that their paintings seem to feel more powerful, more beautiful, more dramatic, more interesting, more whatever than what I imagine the actual scenes they were depicting really were. And I think that to me is the main reason I think they're brilliant sources of inspiration for street photographers, because we're trying to do something similar. We're shining a light on specific moments and lifting them out of the world. Plucking them out by taking a photo to say, look how beautiful or interesting, or gloomy or simple this moment is. We're trying to show how special that is and that's what these painters do so well, I know I've given you 1 million names and references to look at. And of course, you're not expected to go through everything now, but it's just for the future if you're looking for a new source of inspiration and you want a list of artists to refer to. 77. Movies & Other Forms of Inspiration: In terms of other forms of inspiration on top of photo books and painters. You've got gallery visits. You've got music to inspire you. You've got exercise, socializing traveling novels, poetry, theater, and dance performances, and the big one, for me, at least, movies all watch movies and TV series. But I'd recommend from time to time that you watch movies that pair well with your photographic style. It will get your juices flowing. You might even just get a feeling that you might want to follow with your street photography work. You might see an emotional note that you're keen to explore. You might get a location idea, but honestly it's just an engaging way to cook up some inspiration to get you out there. This might be for the more movie inspired or cinematography lovers out there. But I'd recommend you check out a website called Shot Deck. I used to use this website, film grab, but eventually Shot Deck popped up and definitely blow it out of the water. For me, in terms of being a great source of inspiration, basically on Shot deck, you go on and you can look at frames from almost any movie you can think of. But you don't have to go on with a specific film in mind. You can just go on the website and on the sidebar it has dozens of different filtering tools, things like what time of day was the shot taken, or what type of weather is in the scene, or what type of lighting or what shot size was it, or how many people are in the frame, or what aspect ratio is it, or what lens size they used, or what genre the film is. So you can go on and basically tick the box or boxes that you want and then you'll get, say, a big long page of shots taken at sunset, if that's what you picked across thousands and thousands of films. Or more specifically, wide silhouette shots taken at sunset with two people in the frame with a wide screen aspect ratio on a 35 millimeter lens, in black and white. Like I said, you can just choose any of those specific filters like only silhouettes. And you'll get hundreds and hundreds of silhouette shots from all different movies side by side, like a mosaic of epic shots. Or you can just type in keywords like hands. And you'll get all these hands shots throughout cinema history, like hands hanging out of a car on a road trip, or people holding hands, or a hand chopped off in a horror film or whatever it is. But the point is that website is a seriously incredible source of inspiration. And I can't tell you how much I use it when I'm planning film shoots. So if you're in the film industry, I think you'll dig it. But if you're just looking for a new source of inspiration, maybe give it a look. Another one that I love and I know it's still really popular, but I feel like it's a slight underdog is interest. I feel like Pinterest has the best algorithm of all the platforms in relation to going on there in search of inspiration. If I pin something, which is essentially Pinterest's version of liking, I feel like it does an insanely great job at finding related work. But not work that is exactly the same. It'll just be similar artists or the same subgenre of photography, or the same ballpark color or contrast wise, whatever. I can't tell you how many artists I've discovered through Pinterest. I used to use it religiously, so I'd highly recommend getting on board. If you aren't already to Instagram, All you need to do is type in street photography in the search bar and you'll find countless curated street photography pages, as I'm sure you're already very aware. But one of my favorites in regards to my taste is called at. I hate street photography. Unfortunately the people who used to run and stopped posting, but they have said that they'll leave the page active for archival purposes. So I'd recommend you go on there and have a poke around for some of your more modern peers. Now it might sound obvious, but another inspiration source is watching documentaries on photographers. I love it because whether I know the artist or not, they're always putting their photographs on the screen. And usually it's their best work. So no matter what, it's usually pretty ******* good if they've made a movie about them, then still refined their entire body of work down to only a set to show on screen. And it's so satisfying to learn someone's approach and their story while you see their stunning work. It might be inspiring because you relate to their story or because you admire their style, or because the subject they work with is interesting to you. Whatever it is, those types of documentaries are a powerful source of inspiration and I'm sure you're not even remotely new to those types of doccos. But it's still worth mentioning to give those who haven't dug too deep into them yet a nudge in the right direction. Honestly, documentaries in general about anything get you thinking. They make you curious and they inspire you to get out there because you know it's real. So you know, you could find just as interesting of a story if you start looking in the right places. I especially like older documentaries, no matter what they're about, because they just look good. They're usually shot on 16 millimeter film with old school lenses, so they're quite grungy with uploads of character in the optic side of things. And they just feel like the moving version of a lot of the photographers that I love. Now, in terms of must watch films about specific photographers, here are some, I've mentioned some of these when I was talking independently about each specific photographer. So if I've already mentioned them, I'll breeze past them quickly. Okay, so you've got the Art of Street Photography by Magnum, which features a lot of epic street photographers. You've got everybody's street, which has loads of incredible insights in this film. Is big, broad strokes on the genre and includes so many great photographers, opinions, ideas and styles of working. You've got contemporary photography in the USA. This is an older documentary from back when Joel Meyrowitz and Gary Winegrand were making. The crux of their work features lots of key players from that generation. So it's essential talking about techniques, philosophy, and just seeing these people in action. Joel Meyrowitz, masterclass done by Masters of Photographies. Fantastic. Magnum's master classes with Alex Soth and Jonas Ben Dixon are must, does Robert Franks, Don't blink unbelievable. Gary Winigrand's All Things Photographable. Perfect film. Vivian Meyers. Finding Vivian Meyer, you'll love that one. Sol litter in no great hurry. Liberwtzs. A life through a lens, fill the frame by Tim Jun, Sebastieo Salgado, the salt of the Earth. Ron Galla smash his camera. He's a Paparazzi photographer and it's wild to see that lifestyle in action. Now, these next ones aren't street photography films, they're dramas. But if you want a bit of additional inspiration without it being specifically about Street, there's the Bang Bang Club, a biopic about a bunch of photo journalists in South Africa. There's life with Robert Pattinson working for Life Magazine as a photographer. There's a film called The B Side about the polaroid photographer, Elsa Dorfman's work, who used to work with life sized polaroids. There are a lot of documentaries about photography or photographers or just short form things that you'll find if you ask the old Google and of course the ever growing and amazing sources on Instagram and Youtube and video made by up and coming artists which I'm sure you're all aware of. Things like frame lines and similar shows are good for just lighthearted street lessons and useful chit chat about the genre. There's a lot of quite practical ones around gear if you're trying to figure out what type of set up might work for you. But when it comes to gear, I would urge you to not obsess too much over that side of things. One resource that I really appreciate is the podcast, the candid frame. There are over 500 episodes at this point in time, speaking to countless photographers, you've got photojournalists, documentary photographers, and street photographers. The guy who runs the show asks a lot of good questions and the photographers are diverse. It's a good one to chug through and get inspiration on ideas and also a bit of a map of what's going on in the world of street photography. Because as I scroll down a list of people he's interviewed, I realize I don't know any of them. But that they're actually creating really incredible work that's worth knowing about and really starting to explore new angles on everything. Another podcast that I semi recently got introduced to, which I can't believe I didn't know about earlier, is called Every Day Photography Every Day. And there's also the Street Photography Magazine podcast, two, many others. And I'm sure they're being created more and more every day. But those will get you started. If podcasts are how you like to learn, I'm sure you can relate to the fact that it's definitely hard to research every artist new and old to get a grip on the damn genre itself while still actually doing the hobby. So keep a balance, but knowledge is power, so try to slip some of that in there where you see fit. 78. Dabbling in Other Genres: I urge you to dabble in all forms of photography in order to gather inspiration. Just try it all. You won't know your favorite genre until you try them right now. You might love street photography, but later on you might love landscape, or portrait, or something else. And by then you'll have a melting pot of great ideas that you've picked up from each different corner of photography. And you'll be inherently unique, purely by the nature of your explorations. In all reality, if you use your camera to create art or express yourself, you're a photographer. You're obviously more than that, because that's just a hobby or a profession. You're other things too, like a human, a father, a mother, a friend, a hiker or a farmer, a reader, a lover, a poet, a chef, or whatever. But when it comes to photography, the only utility in calling yourself a street photographer is just to help describe and define to yourself and others your. It's just to help the world sift through all these genres of things in the world. It's a filing system really. If you arrive at a serene landscape type location, while you're walking around with the intention to take street photographs, it's not like anything happens to you. You don't become a landscape photographer in any noticeable way. It's just a mental shift. You're still who you were, you're still just a photographer whose subject right now happens to be a landscape. So in that sense, I feel like you should embrace jumping in and out of these different pools as much as you see fit. Dipping your toe in all of them at some point. Remove the label and don't pigeonhole yourself. Learn to pivot and find all the sides to yourself in the process. Take a photographer like Annie Liberwitz, for example. Someone who wouldn't really describe her work as street work. She's done mostly commercial work at this point. But she started her career doing fly on the wall photo journalism, mostly in the music industry. So studying her work might offer a clue to how your career might be able to branch off from street, or documentary, or photo journalism if you ever wanted it to. It's just a lesson in exploring the whole art form to help find yourself. 79. Landscape & The Blurred Lines Between Genres: Landscape scenes can be street. But don't get all hung up on categories and titles and descriptions. The term street photographer has been assigned to so many photographers who actually class themselves as something other than that. That it's kind of ended up as quite a loose broad term. For example, people like Bruce Gilden. He's taken a wide variety of approaches in his time and he's definitely done more than his fair share of sporadic street shooting with a flash. One of his other popular approaches is to cherry pick somebody that interests him out of the slew of street subjects and then just essentially ask them if he can take a super close up portrait of their face. Some people would call that portraiture, others might say it's street photography, but whatever you call it, it doesn't really make much difference. In the end then you've got someone like Todd Do who is quite literally physically shooting on the street all the time. But his work is so still and controlled that it feels more like landscape. The bottom line is you should feel free and excited to explore all these different categories of photography. Dipping your toe in all these different genre pools, in all the different corners of photography will only help you stretch your ability. The only reason we've assigned names to these categories anyway, is so that we can sort of describe what we're doing a bit better. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. It's the work that matters. Rather than asking yourself, is this street photography or what genre is this? Perhaps a few better questions to ask yourself. Are does this work further the conversation of photography and art and culture? Or does it make me happy to do it? Or does it help me grow as a person? Do I enjoy the process? Why do I enjoy the process? What am I trying to say? If anything, does it say something important or interesting? But I say it in a different way. Why do I feel compelled to do this? If in doubt, ask more questions. Because the answers only lead to more direction. If it leads to a diverse direction, with many paths that need exploring, I'd say it's still better to know that info than not have a clue. Although it sounds like maybe I'm urging you to mix and change genres. What I'm actually trying to do is to help you not needlessly pigeonhole yourself based on a few words like portrait, editorial, landscape, sport, street, aerial, architectural, abstract, still life, macro documentary, fashion or whatever. See what you don't want is that this isn't what I usually do. Thought right at the critical moment. And therefore not make the photo because blurring genres frightened you. You were inspired by the visual, so just make the photo and then you have it. You don't have to love it forever. But something told you to take it, so indulge in the making of it. Don't stop yourself for no good reason. Just take the shot and enjoy it. You know, if you ask yourself a bunch of questions and you're honest with yourself and you realize, oh, okay, I seem to be equally as interested in portraiture as I am in street photography. Then that's all the more reason to blow the lines of the genres. And the good thing about knowing that about yourself is that as soon as you start to head in that direction, you'll feel positive emotion. Because as I quoted earlier, positive emotion is mostly generated by evidence that you're moving toward something you value. So knowing what you value is paramount, then you can head in that direction. And moving even slightly in that direction, even if you don't even have many photographs to show for it, or even if you don't have any photographs to show for it, only an idea. You'll still feel good because you've taken a step in the right direction. And if you don't take this approach, you might find yourself feeling aimless and deflated. And if that does happen, and if shooting, whatever you're shooting does stop feeling positive, That might be an indicator that you need to re, evaluate and start to head in a new direction yet again. And this is just the journey of life. Or it might be an indicator that you just need to explore the same thing, but in a different way. But the point here is to just ask yourself questions, honestly checking with yourself, and explore the things that you're drawn to. 80. Photography Trips: Nothing will inspire you more than a photography trip. Go somewhere simply to explore and learn and uncover it for yourself when selecting where to go. I think the best reasons are if you have questions or a curiosity itch to scratch about a certain place, not just simply because, you know you might get good photos there. Because the trendy nature of snapping street photos in New York or Tokyo, just because everyone else does, will eventually wash away if you're not actually interested in those places. However, to be fair, I do find that visiting places actually makes you curious about them because it reveals the place to you in a different way than you'd expect sometimes. But I'd say you can't go wrong if you're a bit more intentional about it. It doesn't have to be much. It's not like you need to be obsessed with the place before you go. You can just be, I like the colors of that country's landscape, or I like the food or the culture, and you can just go and see where those things take you. I mean, I feel like those are the three big ticket items to start with, usually, right? Food, culture, and the landscape. And then once you arrive and you start doing street photography, then you can dig a little deeper and you might realize the more nuanced side of things that you like about the place. Or you might realize what you don't like. Or on a bit of a different note, that new location by necessity can open you up to a whole new visual style that interests you if you're in a new place that is much more spread out or much more condensed, or has 30 days of night, or has unbelievable poverty, or has very noticeable cultural barriers, or whatever it may be. They say necessity is the mother of invention. So these things that might stop you from working in your usual way can sometimes force you to be more creative, to innovate, to adapt, which can crack open new visual styles, or maybe not. Maybe you're resilient and crafty, and depending on the place, maybe you're able to push through the barriers and then something even more unique might happen. In that sense, perhaps you bring a foreign style to a foreign place, who knows? Whatever the experience happens to be is fine. But one thing is obvious to me, and it's that photography definitely opens up doors to explore places more deeply the amount of time people have welcomed me into their homes or their property, or they want to start showing me around or they start telling me about the area or the history or whatever they can see. You're curious and interested, so they open up. What I will say though is that whenever I'm traveling, I feel like the street photography side of things can start to blur more into documentary photography. And although it's semi hard to differentiate the two, I think what I mean is just that in street you're typically going unnoticed, but that isn't as easy to do in a foreign country because you stand out more. I mean, it depends where you're traveling. There are still many countries where you can blend in in a similar way to how you do at home. But there are obviously many countries that will interest you in which you might look fairly different to a few of the locals. And you probably don't speak their language, or at least not without an accent. And you don't have that familiar local ease to your body language. So your typical semi inconspicuous street approach is met with the problem of every move being completely noticeable. But the upside, in my experience of traveling, is that you end up, if you're outgoing, getting welcomed into more intimate scenarios like people's houses or shops, or just into their lives somehow. And of course, you can still slip back into street mode once you're in the scenarios. But it's just that it plays out a bit differently to where you come from. When you're traveling in countries really foreign to your own, I feel like you end up photographing parts of that country which are really not easy to photograph where you actually come from. As in, you know, when I went to Cuba or even anywhere in Southeast Asia or India or Nepal, it wasn't uncommon that I'd be welcomed into someone's house. But never in my time living in Australia or Canada, or any of my experiences in America or Europe, have I felt like it was acceptable to just sort of ask to have a look around and photograph someone's joint, And being invited in is definitely not a thing really. So it's weird when you travel, depending on where you go, you can end up seeing the intimate lives of this new country in a way that you barely even know back home, outside of your friends and family's houses. Super weird, but really interesting. Anyway, I know you've all traveled in your life, but traveling and exploring places with your camera will open up new experiences and opportunities that you never expected. And I'd recommend doing it as much as financially possible. Save up, book a flight, take some time off, pack your bags, get amongst it. My only additional piece of advice on the topic of travel is to be careful of becoming only a photographer and forgetting to have experiences outside of that. You might feel different now, and in my seasons of obsessive passion, I definitely wanted to photograph everything too. But like I suggested in the section about leaving your camera behind, I've learned that that idea very much applies when traveling. Of course, it seems more difficult to leave the camera behind when traveling, say back in the hotel room for the day. Because you might feel like maybe you'll never see these things that you're seeing while traveling ever again. And although seeing with and without a camera are both valid ways of seeing are different experiences. And having diverse experiences in life, funnily enough, is one thing that will not only make you a better photographer, but a better person. I remember a quote from Sontag again, right at the start of her book on photography that hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it, because it was so me at the time. And she published that book in 1977. And we're much more camera obsessed nowadays. She warns us of this same thing when she writes, today everything exists. End in a photograph. Needing to have reality confirmed and experienced enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Today, it seems positively unnatural to travel without taking a camera along. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves, whatever is remarkable that they encounter, unsure of other responses, they take a picture. This gives shape to the experience. Stop, take a photograph and move on. The method especially appeals to people handicapped by a ruthless work ethic like Germans, Japanese, and Americans. Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work driven feel about not working. When they're on vacation and supposed to be having fun, they have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work. They can take pictures. A way of certifying experience. Taking photographs is also a way of refusing it. By limiting experience to the search for the photogenic. By converting an experience into an image. A souvenir. The very activity of taking pictures is soothing and as sage's general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exasperated by travel. The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality. And eventually, in one's own end quote. And apologies for the huge quote. All I'm suggesting, and this won't apply to all of you, only the overly obsessive ones, is you just keep an eye on your obsessions in order to be more open to more diverse experiences from time to time. Because it will only inject more passion in the end, rather than, as Susan says, exasperating yourself to do another 180. And talk about the flip side again though, when you are shooting while traveling, really feel do it. We've all seen enough drab lead characters and movies turn their life around to know that whatever you do in life, do it fully. You're allowed to take photographs in this world. So just do it. Thanks for joining me for this inspiration section. I hope you're feeling all juiced up and full of knowledge and fresh ideas to go out and play around with. Next up, we're going to talk about post production and what happens after you take the photographs. We'll dive into the ins and outs of editing in terms of how to create a feeling editing suite. As well as touching on how to create a professional filing structure so that you can easily revisit your work as your editing tastes evolve over the years. We'll also talk about printing and how printing your photos can affect your future work and help tune you into the details. And then we'll finish on long term projects. The process of bookmaking and how taking your work all the way to book form can help stretch your storytelling abilities and offer you valuable insights for when you head back out on the street. 81. CHAPTER 8: Post-Production (Editing, Printing & Book Making): Welcome to the after the fact post production section where we'll talk about all the things that come after you've taken your photographs. We'll deep dive into the editing process in terms of how to create a feeling and a look in the editing suite. As well as looking at how to create a professional filing structure so that you can easily revisit your work as your editing taste buds evolve over the years. Then we'll talk about printing and how printing your photos can affect your future work by helping you tune into the details. And then we'll finish on long term projects. The process of bookmaking and how taking your work all the way to book form can help you finesse your storytelling abilities in an analytical way and offer valuable insights for you when you head back out on the street. 82. Editing: When it comes to editing, you have the selection process and the color correction, color editing process. Both are referred to as editing. When it comes to color correction and finding the look of a photo, I would always urge you to try and edit the feeling into the photo. Don't just try to make it commercial and popular in the sense that it's all clean and lovely with normal skin tones and average contrast levels. If it needs to be dirty and dark with a rank green tint over it, then so be it. Even if it seems to take something away from it, try and evaluate whether or not what it adds is more valuable for the feeling and the story than what it takes away. You might think, do I want to use warmer tones for a more nostalgic romantic feeling? Or cooler tones for a colder, more bleak feeling? Do I want to crush my shadows in blacks to make more of a bold statement and direct the viewer's eye towards specific things more effectively. Does this moment actually feel like it belongs in a black and white world? Should I give it a vignette to take the edge off some of the harsh, distracting details outside of the central action? Do I want to use my dodge and burn tools quite dramatically to direct the eye where I want it to go? More specifically, there are countless ways that you can shape the feeling of your work when you're editing the look of it. Sometimes though, I find that in the attempt to edit the feeling into the photo, I can sometimes lose the original story. As in perhaps an element that was key to the story falls into darker areas a bit too much. And even when using the dodge and burn tools to try to gently bring it back to light, it can start to look a bit obvious or heavy handed. So in that instance, if you're set on the look that you want already, it can be difficult to keep the story how you originally saw it. So it's a tricky balance because perhaps in some of those instances, you need to find a new story that you can tell. And perhaps that's a nice creative challenge to take on. So yeah, that is a problem that comes up every so often. The problem of not having the story you originally thought you had when you finally review the work or the story not quite coming across how you wanted it to once it's been edited. And you will need to deal with that issue from time to time. So I thought it was worth mentioning if you deal with it creatively though, and you consider the editing phase just as much of a storytelling phase as every other phase, which of course it is, then it can offer you some great storytelling experience that you can then take back into the field when you're editing the look and feel of a photo, do you ever go a bit hard on the look and then you pull back and you don't pull back because you personally don't like it. You pull back because you think it will be too much for people, that's a mistake in my opinion. You should follow your gut, because even if you do throw a bit too much pepper on it and it might fall into the realm of losing taste, perhaps you need to learn that by going through the lesson rather than completely avoiding your tastes. Because the other side of the coin is that you might find a new way of seeing that people aren't quite adjusted to yet, but that actually hold something special within it. As an exercise, try this. Go so harsh on an edit that you can't even believe it's the same image anymore. It will start to expand your photographic mind for what's possible and it's not like you have to leave that crazy edit as the final piece. But it's just a good exercise for seeing what's possible. Try inverting the colors, or go with a heavy sepia look, crush the blacks and dim the vibrants and see what happens. Maybe go black and white and bloom the high lights so much that they're exploding and oozing into the shadows. Do intense dodges and burns. Who knows what you might end up with? It's only an exercise in seeing what's possible for your work. So just go a bit crazy sometimes just to open yourself up to what your blind spots are, rather than sitting within the comfortable style you've created for yourself forever. Just step outside of it every so often just to have a look around. Sometimes when I'm editing and I copy and edit over from one photo and paste it onto the next one to save time because say they were shot in the same lighting condition. Sometimes if I've done some dodging and burning as in some lightning and darkening of certain areas on that previous photo, the copy and paste function will sometimes bring those previous Dodge and Burn edits over to the new photo. And since they don't apply for this new photo, it can give the new one a really unexpected nuanced shape of lightened and darkened areas that I never would have done, as if there were some scattered clouds overhead or just some kind of dynamic lighting situation that breaks the image up. And it seems to work sometimes, even though obviously those particular Dodges and burns weren't custom designed for this photo. So if you okay. Just go for it, try a few random things like that from time to time and see what happens. A quick note on the clean up tool. I don't quite know the traditional etiquette if there is one, but I feel like removing minor things from an edit to clean it up or fix an issue is fair play, especially in this digital age. I mean, I can see why some people might turn their nose up at it like no, no street photography should be left as is. But I just don't completely agree. I agree to a certain extent for sure, but it's a creative outlet and removing nonsense from the frame from time to time is definitely fair game in my opinion. There's a line for sure and it's not like you want to make the image something so different to what it originally was that it turns into some fantasy image. And if you are doing that, I'd say it's a different genre of photography anyway. It was say, for photo journalism purposes, of course it isn't ethical, I guess, but for me, with where we're at with street photography, removing some distracting stuff from the frame is just as fair as crushing your blacks. Because when you do that, sometimes you remove loads of key elements that were actually very visible on the day of shooting the shot. You know, I'll remove garbage from a beach if it's distracting from the story, or I remember once duplicating a bird in the sky because it needed another one on the other side of the frame to balance it out. Or I'll remove a bright hot spot or bits of annoying shot on the ground. If it's distracting the eye the wrong direction, I'll remove power lines. Sometimes if they're just clipping the top of the frame, or I'll remove bits of bright bouquet in the background if they're distracting, for example, if it's just hitting blue hour, I'll remove that one distracting dot of orange bouquet from a distant street lamp in the background. If I say want to create a more subdued feeling, instead of this pop of amber white taking away from that soft wash of that time of day. These things don't always apply, but if it helps convey the feeling better or tell the story better, or deliver the information better, or allows us to ask the right questions, I'd say it's fair. One funny one is, I remember there was a dog owner kicking a little ball for his dog in New York. And when I was editing it, I was sort of Ming and ironing about the shot in general. And I remember my girlfriend leaning over and being like, what happens if you remove the ball? And so I tried it and in the photo, the owner was mid kick, so his leg was up in the air about to kick the ball. And so when you remove the ball, it's obviously gonna leave a funny impression. And either way, it's not really a good enough photo that I'd put it in a photo book, I guess. But it was definitely a lesson in abstraction in the sense that when you look at it, if you didn't know about the removal of the ball, it gets you thinking, what on Earth is happening, as opposed to just the simplicity of the real moment which is also okay. It's just different. And for me, the point here is just that it's not like the moment without the ball is a totally unthinkable fantasy. It just creates more intrigue, more curiosity. It changes the story from dog owner playing with a dog blatantly to, are they playing or what's happening here? Is this his dog or someone else's? Is he reacting to something? And it draws you in a little more. It gets you to explore the image. And I don't know, just from trying that, I feel like I learned something. I feel like it's worth exploring, especially if you like a photograph you've taken, but it's not quite getting there, creatively speaking. If it feels like it's missing something or it needs an additional something, maybe just play around with it a little bit. I mean, Jonas Ben Dixon made a book called The Book of Vels, which you should definitely get. But I'll give you the quick overview. As I understand it, there was a town in Eastern Europe whose population has since become infamous for creating countless fake news websites. Took off during the Trump election and went viral because the Facebook algorithm didn't know they were fake. So these websites have since been attributed to the victory of the Trump victory. So Jonas went to this tiny little town to photograph it, but immediately realized that it was going to be very hard to photograph these places and the people that were accountable. So he actually decided to create his own version of fake news by using some of the same software these people were using to create fake news articles and photos. And what he did was he took more or less empty shots of different places all over this dinky run down town and added his own fake little characters into the scenes with only about a week's worth of training on some basic three D modeling software that costed him next to nothing, apparently. And he said that it actually really frightened him in the end because of how convincing even he, a guy who couldn't be further from an expert in the three D digital stuff, could make these fake photographs of people doing things. He was basically making street shots that some of us would die to photograph, but they never even happened in his Magnum master class. He goes into it a little bit, but it was basically things like sometimes he'd just have an empty scene of a street and he'd maybe add two characters into the shot that were doing something. Or other times he'd have an actual person in the frame, but he'd add something into their hand that they weren't originally holding, or he'd add an object near them that would change the context of what they were already doing. Or from memory, it might be something as small as just adding a little cat or a dog somewhere into the frame. Or he'd make a window, look smashed. The idea was that he was sometimes quite subtle with it to the point where you obviously weren't supposed to know what was real and what was fake. So anyways, I'm not saying you need to or should go to that degree unless you're a digital artist, in which case you're probably not watching this guide. But what I am saying is that there's a whole spectrum of things that are fair game out there. And you should feel free to follow your gut and tell your stories how you want to tell them. And if that means you accidentally change genres into a more digital art genre, who cares? At least you're doing what you like. But if you're just removing bits of clutter from a street shot from time to time, I think you should be sweet. Okay, moving on to editing in terms of selecting photos, and this is a rather dry topic to talk about, but it can be quite engaging to do. First of all, you should know that I only go through all my street photos once or twice a month. It gives me time to emotionally distance myself from them. So I don't bring any bias to the photograph. Because if a moment felt super good at the time and I went home and selected it and edited it that night, I might not be able to see its weaknesses yet. So a bit of distance is good. Just to note though, I didn't always do it that way. There have been many years where I'd rush straight to the lab and develop that day. Or if it's digital, I'd rush home and start editing. So don't beat yourself up if you're currently really hungry to see your shots right away. But just remember that eventually when you do have the time and patience to give the work some more room to breathe, just to try that approach because you'll get a lot out of it. I want to quickly run you through my filing system because I remember when I was first going through photography books and reading the titles beneath them and the shots would say August 2, 1962. And just thinking, my goodness, these photographers were so on point with their filing. And that perhaps there's utility in doing that and getting a handle on it sooner rather than later. So that I can revisit chapters of my work years down the line without it being a complete nightmare in regards to software, I use light room. So I create what's called a catalog for each year, say 2022. Then inside the catalog, I'll create a folder called January 2022. All. And I'll go through the entire set of about 1,000 photos, say. And I'll throw anything that is even remotely usable into another folder beneath it that I call January 2022 selects. And the intention at this stage is just to simply remove the completely unusable ones. Some months you might pick 50% of the full set, sometimes it's only 25% It depends on the content, but the idea is to not be overly strict. You want to be relatively generous with what you put into the selects folder because the main goal at this phase is to just never need to spend the time going through original set ever again. And I mean ever so, make sure you're generous. The next step is to do a second pass by going through the selects and get more strict and throw the best shots from the selects in another folder called January 2022. Highlights. Because say in the selects you have a scene of seven photos taken from ten or even 20 in the original set. And you can't quite pick the best one because it might be seven photos of the same scene. And in the highlights folder, you want to get that down to one or two. And then if you ever realize you might have chosen the wrong one or two to go into your highlights folder, at least you don't have to scan through 1,000 photos to find it. You can just click on your selects folder and you'll see what your next best options are from the seven you selected. Then you can easily copy and paste the edit over and away you go. This kind of system is basically designed to have cleaner filing that you can revisit easily and that limits ever having to go through the full set again. Plus, it helps you to kill your darlings bit by bit rather than having to be so cut throat right off the bat. Which most people can't even do. And when they do, they might miss the potential of the other images surrounding that moment due to bias or tunnel vision. So the system gives you a few more chances to consider your options at different stages in more contexts in order to refine your selections bit by bit, while also giving your process some structure and removing any time wasting when revisiting the work later down the line. 83. Printing: Seeing your work printed big helps you understand the necessity of paying attention to all the details. Because when it's blown up even a little bit, you immediately recognize all of its strengths and flaws. So it helps you remove or include minor elements in a photo that can help improve your work. For any of you that don't do it, often print your photos out and enjoy them. Pick a selection, get them off the digital screen and send them to a printing lab. Admittedly, I don't do it that often, but whenever I do I'm so excited by the results and I don't mean to sound all cliche predictable, but just having that physical object to feel and inspect just makes it quite literally more real. It's really satisfying. Even if you're not that into it, I'm sure it will move you even if only a little bit. But my guess is that you'll really appreciate it, even if you only ever print your top top top favorite photographs and keep them somewhere, at least you'll have an archive of these milestones to flick through and share with people when they visit. You know, part of the joy of photography is sharing it with people and you're so much more likely to share some physical prints with your friends and family rather than gathering everyone around a digital screen while they're at your house to flick through some photo files. It's genuinely so satisfying to still have a way to absorb this stuff outside of the digital world because everything's so screen based nowadays as we know. And quite small screens too. Even if you have a big computer screen and you're on your editing software, you still usually have those side tabs and editing tabs all around the edge of the program and the photos just somewhere in the middle. And then if you add screen glare and the fact that you're just skimming through hundreds of photos that day, maybe it all ends up leaving a pretty forgettable impression on you, even if the work is really great. So just print some photos out every so often and spice it up. I remember the first time I took a photo to a professional lab and chose an expensive, fibrous textured paper. And when it came out, I was so impressed, it felt so damn heavy and dense, and so different of the digital experience. Even the process of going to the lab to pick it up, it just adds a bit more emphasis to the work. It feels like you're putting more care and consideration into the work. And since I didn't grow up doing any of this, because my school didn't have a dark room, it left such a lasting impression on me. I remember even printing my photos that weren't my best work and still being excited by the look and feel of it. By the way, I promise it will make an impression on you that will get your cogs turning. It gets you really immersed in the hobby, which depending on where you're at, if you're wanting another element to deep dive into, it might be exactly what you're looking for. Because for some of the people that I've spoken to who started getting into the presentation side of things, they now shoot with a certain paper in mind. The same way that people explore different film stocks or lens types or cameras, or filters, or sensor types. Paper is just as impressionable as all those things. So proceed with caution because you might get sucked in and absolutely love it. 84. Book Making: I'm not the world's most experienced bookmaker. I've made five books. I make them on Adobe in design, and you can get templates online to give yourself a rolling start. Three of my five books still only live on my computer. Two of which have been made and printed, which just sit in my house as test prints. And only one is potentially being published as of yet. But here are the important lessons I've learned in the process of making them. First of all, when you know you're sending it to print, which is easy by the way. There are lots of websites that make great one off on demand prints. I've personally used Blob and Lulu and I was very impressed with both. And when you send it off, there's no turning back, the pages are set, plus it costs a chunk of change. So it makes you more critical because you need to kill your darlings quite brutally, usually to make it a manageable size. So it makes you get your fine tooth comb out, which is a good thing to learn how to do. You basically become a ten times better editor overnight because you'll either start to see that some photos aren't as strong as others or as strong as you thought they were. And anyone you ask for feedback will probably notice too. It's good to have those photos in there though, because once you remove them or repurpose them, the book starts to find its shape. Making books is nice too, because it puts all your best work into more of a theater play or a film. Where although you might be biased and emotional towards one photo, you're forced to consider, does this moment really belong in the story? Or is it just saying something pretty generic in a way that some of the other photographs already have? But worse, you want to think, does this photo have any emotional weight? What's its function? Is it necessary? And then you might either cut it or move it somewhere else in the book, or place new photos either side of it. Or you might find a new purpose for it. Perhaps its purpose is that it's preparing you for the next page. Or perhaps it's doing the opposite. And it's serving as a bit of a surprise emotion in the middle of the book, because it's good to have surprises in a book. Surprises keep the reader engaged. It keeps them awake to the fact that new ideas can come on any page. It's like an explosion in the movie where it shakes up the plot, it gives you new places to go, and it means that the reader's expectations are thrown off, So don't get bored and just put the same weight on each page. Instead, it builds anticipation for each next page, creating a more dynamic and exciting experience overall because they don't know what's coming next. But overall, it's about creating a flow of emotions and curiosities and experiences throughout the book, using these types of critical thoughts. One interesting and encouraging thing that making a book is useful for is it can help give you a reason and motivation to fully explore a subject. As in, once you commit to the idea of, I'm going to make a book roughly about this topic. It gives you direction, it gives you some goal posts and at least a potential finish line, so you can start to orient yourself around those parameters. If you say to yourself, I'm going to make a book about summertime lake culture, you've instantly got some parameters. You know, the work has to take place in or around lakes or lake towns. And, you know, it needs to be summer. So then off you go. The project has been born and the topic might sort of change and morph, grow along the journey of making it, or it might fizzle out. But at least you were able to take a few steps in a certain direction. And then on the back end of the project, it can also help you put a certain type of subject matter to rest and move on once you're satisfied with the book. Because that's almost like closure in a sense because you know you've told that story you wanted to tell, you've explored it. You learned things. You grew artistically. You got it out of your system and passed it on, and now you're onto new things. I remember I got this photo once where this guy was screaming and it was such a compelling picture to me that I wanted to see more of it. So I went to this sketchier part of town to meet some looser, more open minded characters. And I asked them to yell their favorite swear word at the camera. And I'd capture a moment in the middle of the yelling. And I was going to make a digital photo series or maybe a Zen out of it. And it was such an interesting and fun experience making these photos. But weirdly, by the end of the day I'd got it out of my system and didn't really feel like I needed to pursue it any further. You might not be that way though, if you're still obsessed with a certain element of a project you've finished, like perhaps you're still obsessed with the visual style or the subject matter, or the country or town that the project is based in. In which case, maybe you can extract the things that you like from that project or that book and find another angle or another story where those things can still be applied. And then off you go again digging deeper, but so in a new direction, and that's great to follow your instincts with that kind of stuff. The whole process can kind of happen in reverse too sometimes. In the sense that you might have been working on a long term project for years, consciously or not, and you might already have the content. You might already have countless photographs of a certain subject matter. And you don't really know when to stop or what it all means or what you're doing with this theme or idea. And there are multiple stories that could be told with the photographs you've taken. So in an instance like that, attempting to make a book out of some of your raw material could start to be the process or the reason in which you finally give the work a home. Or in which you finally figure out what you're doing or what it all means, or what you want it to mean. So I'd say parts of the storytelling, bookmaking process are a little reversed in that type of scenario. And that is just as valid of a place to start from. I think it's worth experiencing multiple different types of bookmaking in that way. It just keeps you on your toes the process of making books, even if they never really see the light of day. It helps you learn to tell a more complicated story, weaving it throughout the book, even if it's only complicated via being a longer format than one photograph. The challenge to keep the reader engaged for that full journey, you know, you have to think about how one page of your photo book can and will inherently influence the next one. And how a double page spread with a photo on each side will bounce off each other no matter what, even if you don't want them to, so embrace it and use that feature to tell your story. There's really no avoiding it outside of just making your book full of single photo double spreads, which is very common. By the way, ordering the photos is like scenes in a movie, right? You can't just take all your favorite scenes and choose whatever order you like. It needs to serve the overall story. If you just jumble them up, the whole thing might look visually nice, but it won't make much sense at all. And I'm sure if you want to go that angle, you can. It might turn out rather abstract and different and liberating in some sense. But even in that case, I feel like putting some degree of thought into the order would still be really beneficial. Otherwise, isn't it just being lazy? One tip that I got was to be careful of not being too on the nose about your storytelling. You don't want to patronize the reader. They're probably more intelligent than us anyway, right? Or at least it's helpful to think that way. Otherwise, you'll make choices that are beneath your own creativity or imagination. And your audience will feel that. Plus, if it's beneath your own potential, even you won't appreciate it as much as you would if it was really well crafted. So it's much better to weave as sophisticated of a journey as you can. However, it can be hard to do that though, because you so badly want the audience or the reader to feel it and get the ideas in the work deep way that you do that, you can easily find yourself jamming the message down their throat. So it's just something to keep an eye on because your books will definitely be of much higher quality if you trust your audience. Thanks for tuning into this after the fact post production section. I hope you are able to latch onto a few things that you can bring into your process right away. As well as maybe clocking some points that you might be able to revisit further down the line like printing and bookmaking. But either way, I hope it got you excited to make some more work. Or to revisit older work with fresh eyes in hopes that you can unlock new parts of your overall voice, refine your tastes, and improve your overall storytelling abilities. Next, we're going to wrap up this whole street photography guide with a section called The Future Autotelic and the Ending, where we discuss the future of street photography. The idea of doing it for yourself, plus some farewell notes and some hopefully inspiring key takeaways and words of wisdom that I've picked up along the way. 85. CHAPTER 9: Autotelic, The Future & The Ending: Welcome to philosophies practices and great street photographs where we're going to talk about thinking poetically and why it's helpful how to bring your emotion into your work. And why shooting in all, whether the necessity of bravery and what makes a great street photograph. 86. The Future of Street Photography: It would be interesting to be able to predict where street photography is going to go in the future, and I'm sure an expert photography curator could give it a good shot. It will certainly continue to get more popular and who knows what creative surprises or technological advancements will shift the overall movement's direction. But I feel like the bottom line is that every art form has its chapters or eras and they'll always fluctuate. And sometimes they'll go backwards and other times they'll progress exponentially, or they'll take a side step or whatever. So it's hard to predict, but you can be sure that it will be a fun journey to be a part of or to keep track of regardless. As an example, most of us know that painting has had various popular new movements and styles that mark new eras like Renaissance realism, Impressionism, et cetera. And I think it's worth recognizing that photography is likely the same. Sometimes these changes come from technological advancements, sometimes they come from creativity. Usually it's a combination of both. They sort of feed off each other in the sense that creative innovation leads to technological need and technological invention leads to new creative output, right? And photography has already come through many, many iterations. In that way, from the camera obscure to Dagereotypes, to gelatin silver prints, to wet plates, and dry plates to black and white roll films, to color film to Polaroid, to digital, to smartphone photography, to 360 photos to three D. Virtual reality type photographic experiences with all sorts of lens and body advancements and chemical advancements every step of the way. All of which changed the way we're able to use the tools. But the point for me at least, is that if you have an idea or you feel like you're doing something different and you like it, lean into it. Or if you have an idea for a tool that doesn't quite exist yet that would help you create something unique and special, try and create the tool because it could be very important for us to see those new ideas in order to break new ground and go somewhere we haven't gone before. So as for the future of street photography, I don't know what it will look like, but I know it'll be full of exciting creative surprises. 87. Autotelic & The Ending: To touch back on and paraphrase that thought from Susan Sontag's book from earlier in the guide. Remember that your uniqueness is what will be exciting about your work. And that doesn't mean that you have to have the most groundbreaking feature to your style, but it just means that you should recognize how you are different and lean into those things. Regardless, it's a little morbid. But there are many dead artists who died well before their work was appreciated. And to them, it makes no difference that their work is appreciated now because they're dead. So their best bet was to try and enjoy what they did while they were doing it. To enjoy the process, the journey, not to focus on the outcome, because that day might never come or it might come the day you die. But that won't do you any good if you don't find meaning and enjoyment in the process along the way. It's awesome that their work is appreciated and that that time came and that we can learn from it, and that's fantastic. But the most valuable thing that you can do to honor that moment, if it ever comes, is to make sure that your work is new and meaningful, and representative of who you are and what you think, so that the world can benefit from the lessons of your unique perspective. Let your uniquenesses and interests guide you towards the parts of this craft that you find meaningful. And you will win every single time. I sound like a broken record. I know, but I want to drive it home here. Do it for yourself. Street photography, any photography genre, any art form, anything at all. Really do it because you see value and meaning in it. Do it only if you feel compelled to do it and because you're fascinated by it. If you don't feel that way, maybe you need to keep searching for what does give you that feeling in life. Because it's that passion that will illuminate the path for you. And without a path, you might very well get lost. So keep looking for your path. Keep looking for what really excites you, what captivates you, and what engages you. In today's world, we value external outcomes like likes and views and all that rubbish. Rather than our own personal outcomes, like the wisdom we acquired in the process or the diverse feelings we had on the journey, or the stories we've got to show for it, or the relationships we've built along the way with ourselves or others. It's time to reverse that culture of external value. And it's time to pay attention to the thing itself, for yourself, be in it, for the experience itself, not for its consequences. And I get it. It's irritating because it's an uphill battle sometimes, especially with all the apps on your phone that are designed to make you value that stuff. Because as we know the research teams that work for those companies, they know your brain and they're clever at. But it's worthwhile to push back against those things sometimes and be disciplined with your usage of that technology. Don't let it cloud your judgment or dampen your enjoyment because you want that enjoyment for yourself. You don't want your hobbies to be watered down and stolen from you by the fact that some big companies want to make a quick buck off your naturally addictive side, in the sense that you'll start shooting street for likes and praise and ego boosts. And then eventually become resentful of your hobbies and stop doing them if the audience dries up. So try to remove all of that noise when you can and lean back into finding personal satisfaction and enjoyment in the act, in the process, and you'll be much happier and healthier. Whereas when you prioritize the satisfaction of the outcomes, your passion erodes over time. It's such a mistake and such a tragedy to lose that for yourself. So keep it close to your chest and you're more likely to stay passionate and find enjoyment out of this hobby for longer, and perhaps even a lifetime. In Adam Westbrook's video essay is called The Long Game Part 12.3 He dives into the idea that ever since the Internet, all of us creative types are expecting or hoping for overnight success as soon as we do something new or something that we deem is interesting in our own creative endeavors. And then when it gets washed away with the plethora of other content, we get deflated and disheartened. Or even envious of someone who we see is similar to us wishing we were the one with commercial success. And it's a dangerous game because if you let it knock you down, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. You'll have less of a chance of getting back up again. You need to do it for you. If you can fall in love with what you're doing and find meaning in it, you'll transcend the suffering of life in that way. If you do it for your own enjoyment and you're realistic with what that means, you'll be able to withstand any of the knocks and blows. It might mean you never get recognized or you don't get where you want to get to, but you'll have enjoyed doing it anyway and that's what matters. Westbrook references a term called autotelic from the book Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Hi. Chick Semihi. The term is a combination of two Greek words, auto meaning self, and telos meaning goal. In Hi's book, he says autotelic refers to a self contained activity. One that is not done with the expectation of future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward. When the experience is autotelic, the person is paying attention to the activity for its own sake. When it's not, the attention is focused on its consequences. Westbrook took the time to describe a few of the moving parts in relation to this whole phenomena of why us creative types are in such a rush nowadays. And he dates its inception back to the late 1950s, when a group of top tier marketing fellows from the big brands got together on Madison Avenue in New York. And they decided to try and sell products to younger people. Because they thought that if they can get them on board early, then they'll buy products for the rest of their lives. But it wasn't like that before then. Before then, everything was marketed to adults because that's who could afford to buy things. And these marketing people didn't really know what the extent of the effects would be of this new strategy of glorifying youth. But what it did was it made being young fashionable and desirable in a way it never had been before youth. And being young was the new thing. It was cool to be young or to seem young, or to act young or feel young. And this celebration of youth that is now embedded in our culture, when paired with where technology is now, has distorted our perception of time. Because we see or hear all of these success stories online that largely leave out the section of that person's life where they were practicing training, studying, working hard, experimenting, experiencing. And it tricks us into thinking, we don't need to put in the time to master something or to be deserving of the accolades. We're rarely reminded of this thing that Westbrook calls the Difficult years. In his video essays, he references loads of famous artists and scientists, and leaders and entrepreneurs and public figures. And explains what actually happened in these huge chunks of time in their life where they were just practicing and usually without much attention at all, let alone any encouragement or any money. But it's rarely talked about. When we see their work, we just see their work and notice their fame. And half the time, we don't even give them credit for the years and years of hard work they did. We're just hoping to arrive at that place as soon as possible, and we're probably all guilty of that. I know I certainly was at one point. Now, I'm paraphrasing Westbrook here, but he talks about how it wasn't until Leonardo Da Vinci was 46 that he made The Last Supper, which was his first masterpiece by his own definition. And Leonardo had been drawing since he was a kid. He was quite good at drawing even as a child, though. So at age 14, he got an apprenticeship to learn how to paint with one of the great painters of the time. Fast forward through years and years of that. And he finds himself working on all types of projects. And although a lot of them looked promising and compelling, lots of them lost their funding before they were able to be finished. So his reputation started to go down hill and eventually at age 30, he'd lost all prospects. And he found himself painting dead criminals for a quick buck to keep him afloat. Flash forward another 16 years. Most of which is just blatantly not mentioned when you hear about this guy. And he finally makes the last supper, which like I mentioned, is the first artwork that he even considered to be a masterpiece. That's 32 years after he began his apprenticeship 32 years later. And in all those years, he was just grinding away, learning, researching, drawing, painting, sculpting, studying. And by the way, this is back when the human lifespan was half what it is now. So this blok may as well have been 70, in today's terms, when he got his first real break. It's absurd. The passion and commitment to his craft is absolutely astounding. Vincent Van Gogh is another interesting case. He painted nearly 1,000 oil paintings in his life, and he didn't even really pick up a pencil until he was 27, and it took him ten years from that point until he sold his first painting. Ten years, he was 37 when he sold his first painting. And it's not like he even sold it for much. Whereas nowadays we're in such a rush, by the time we're 27, we want to be successful already, let alone 37. We just think we'll make a few nice photographs, make a website, maybe sell some prints, or get a feature in a magazine. And it'll all just take off somehow. But history shows us that it doesn't quite happen that way. There are many other case studies in Westbrook's video essay, and they're all the same story. They all had these enormous periods in their life where they were quietly plodding away, doing their thing, refining their craft a lot of the time without an audience. But they loved their craft and the act of doing it enough to keep doing it for the sake of the thing itself. Robert Green, in his book Mastery, describes these years as a largely self directed apprenticeship that lasts some five to ten years and receives little attention because it does not contain stories of great achievement or discovery. End, I recommend you try to enjoy those years. Enjoy that self directed apprenticeship. Forget the rest of the noise. You might die on the journey, so you may as well have a good time doing it. Sure, it can be a slog at sometimes too, you can work hard, but do it in a way that you find meaningful and engaging. Don't focus on the consequences or the future outcomes of what your hard work might lead to because you might never experience them. And I know it's hard because it's fun to share it. And feels nice to be riding the wave as street gets more and more popular. So it's hard to keep the craft to yourself and to be clear, you don't have to. It's just worth remembering that you don't need to prove anything. And I know I've sat here going on and on, telling you 1 million different tips and techniques and tools, and ideas for how to level up in a sense. But at the end of the day, you can leave all that shop behind, follow your own instincts, make up your own rules and ideas, and define your own path in this art form. The bottom line is to just get out there, have an experience, and enjoy turning over stones to see what you can find out about yourself. End this incredible world we live in. Thanks for spending some of your precious time on this guide. I hope it got you keen and excited and inspired and itching to get out there. I hope I was able to pass on a thing or two that will help you with your own journey on this storytelling adventure on. There's not a lot left to say, folks. I just hope you can use photography as a vessel to experience new things in life. Let it deepen your understanding of yourself and life itself. And let it expand your experiences. Let photography, and specifically street photography, take you somewhere new, physically and mentally. Photography is a passport. It gives you a reason to be in rooms that you wouldn't usually belong in. You'll be surprised and delighted with the things you witness. So have fun be present and at the end of the day, to have made beautiful, artistic, meaningful, creative, insightful, vulnerable, unique photographs to pass on through the generations will have been a wonderful way to spend your time on this planet to go and get amongst it. Folks enjoy. I'm Troy Baird. Thank you, Cho.