Street Photography may sound pretty simple for the outsiders & it may seem a very ordinary and easiest genre to produce good photographs. But the starring truth will hit you quiet strong when you start considering going on a mission alone. So often than not, the current generation of street photographers do not bother to go out alone. This might be due to various reasons but let’s not iterate on the f word quiet soon here.
Its been quiet a while since we gave you a tutorial for street photography, hence in this post I wanted to quote some of the nuasances of fighting fear when it comes to street or travel photography. How to approach strangers, getting out of the comfort zone and so on.
Photos by Tarek Zaïgouche
#1 Mindset
It all starts here, having the right mindset to conquer fear and to move daringly out there will help you win lot of good photographs. In the beginning, try to shoot with a small compact camera rather than a bulky dslr. This would probably make you feel that you are out there to get some fresh air rather than shooting closeup portraits of strangers. Try to gel with the environment you are in, dont be that odd person who is going to get numerous stares all over, this will obviously ruin your day for photography as well as the privacy of the people out there.
#2 Comfort Zone
Once you have gathered enough courage to go out there all alone with your camera, you are already out of that no productive comfort zone. A big congrats for that first & now what needs to be done out there with your gear is most important. Start visualizing stuff, think out of the box, be proactive and start feeling the moments through intuition, because most of the great street photographs are out of pure luck and sheer anticipation of the photographer.
#3 Dealing with Strangers
I hate the word strangers, lets put this in the most appropriate way. You go out to shoot someone in their own locality and call them a stranger wouldn’t do any justice to your objective. Its more about showing a bit of attitude and calming your nerves at the right pace to gain some faith towards the so called strangers. Try to click a conversation or some good jokes about the place or any thing complimentary before you keep your prime lens in front of their face.
#4 Sweat for the Best
Good things are hard to achieve, so are good photographs. Toil hard and sweat for the perfect shot with the perfect lighting, the place, these people may all be completely foreign for you but make sure you translate the same surprise you sensed at first place into a photograph. This is not easy and breaking this puzzle is really worthy for any photographer to pursue photography.
#5 The Mood of Subconscious
Fear is a choice, while danger is real. Differentiating between these two words will make most of the toughest things in life pretty simple. Try to go out there well dressed, show up that you are here to take some good photographs for the sake of art and nothing else. Make sure you dissolve into the essence of the environment thoroughly enjoying the surprise and slowly you will feel the mood of subconscious taking you further down.
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1 comment
I like your insight about “strangers”. This is a good point since many peolpe would be annoyed by someone walking up with a camera and “stealing” a picture of them. Establishing a relationship witht the subject so they are no longer a stranger is a great idea.
Thanks,
Kevin
http://elatiphotography.com/