Street (Photography) Smarts
Let us be decisive
If your street pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.
Or, maybe you’re too close.
Maybe you missed your focus, or lost your resolve. Maybe you released the shutter a microsecond too soon, or too late. It could be that you’re just out of sync with the rest of the universe today and you keep finding yourself on the wrong side of the street, regardless of how many times you’ve crossed back and forth. Street photography is hard. It’s frustrating. Richard Avedon tried to do it, wished he could, but gave it up.
It’s not like the studio. As a photographer, you don’t have much control over things when you’re shooting on the street.
It’s scary too, at least when you’re first starting out. Making a picture of a stranger on the street is one of the most nerve-racking things you’ll ever do with a camera.
Scary, frustrating, random events beyond your control, a high level of difficulty — these negatives are really positives. They are what makes street photography a crucial component in developing your photographic skills and improving your eye. They also make it extremely fun.
Street photography isn’t a new thing. The first photograph ever made was of a street, or maybe it was a building. Honestly, I’m not…
