Shutter Sisters

street photography

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Lately I’ve gotten a bit tired of shooting with my Polaroid cameras, and what I usually do when this happens (quite often!) is that I try and learn something new about photography: portrait, medium formats, photojournalism, documentary and even sport photography. Exploring different genres and formats not only allows me to widen my perspective on life, but it also helps me experiment, discover what I like, what I don’t like, and eventually expand my understanding of my own creativity.

This is how my interest in street photography has grown into an abounding source of inspiration.

“Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with.”

A moment, a conversation, a gesture. Beauty, excentricity, simplicity. Joy, sadness, boredom. Small, big, exuberant or discreet.

My friend Jolayne is very good at blending in the scene as if she belongs there and taking photos while walking down a scanty street and the rain is pouring down. Even with her mittens on. I love how she sees something that catches her attention and is able to spontaneously take a picture of it. I am more self-conscious. I am very shy. I hide in the crowd of tourists, I turn off most of the “bip-bip” sounds of my camera and unashamedly take my kids with me as a solid alibi.

Street photographer Markus Hartel writes “just be yourself and act naturally, don’t be sneaky or overly “in your face” and everything will work itself out with practice. Let the camera be an extension, a part of yourself as opposed to the intrusive instrument it can be”.

Have you tried street photography? What do you like about it? Share your photos, and share your tips! If you’ve never tried it before, grab your camera, walk around in your neighborhood and see what happens.

Some of my favorite street photography links:
Myla Kent
Ying Tang
The hardcore street photography Flickr group

Comments

  2. I took these on the Shutter Sisters photo walk in San Francisco.

    http://flickr.com/photos/lawyermama/2694913988/
    http://flickr.com/photos/lawyermama/2705707232/

    It’s hard for me to just take someone’s photo without permission. It seems so personal. But maybe it is just to me b/c I know the photo is going to reveal something essence of another person and my subject may not realize that. So I usually try to catch people when they aren’t watching me.

  3. Just a note and perhaps a question? If you do commercial work with your street photography, by that I mean, selling prints or images… don’t you need model releases from the subject if their faces are recognizable?

    I shy away from stuff like that b/c I’m afraid to ask and I don’t feel comfortable posting images of strangers without their permission. And even if I did ask before shooting, you’d miss out on the natural expressions and ‘the moment’.

    How does everyone else do it?

  5. Laura, here’s what Wikipedia says:

    "In the United States, anything visible ("in plain view") from a public area can be legally photographed. This includes buildings and facilities, people, signage, notices and images."

    "In general, one cannot publish someone’s image to endorse a product or service without first acquiring a "model release," which is usually a contract between the publisher or photographer and the subject."

    if someone has experience with selling street photography, please give us more details!

  6. Thanks Irene! I’ve always wondered about photographers rights… especially if it’s just for our own photos to keep. I’ve been hearing a lot about photographers who have been told they are not allowed to shoot buildings and such… security guards coming out and preventing picture-taking.

    I don’t know about in Canada though. I guess I’ll have to look into it… someday. 🙂

  7. I really like street photography for catching real people. I like the lack of posing that you can get when you catch those who are just being who they are.

  9. Great post Irene. And thanks for the info re: rights, I’ve always wondered too but hadn’t had a chance to look into it. I too am very shy, but nowadays the moment grabs me more than the shyness and i can’t help but take shots on my wanders. But you will notice I rarely take shots of people (except the busker of my last paris soundscape of course!) The only thing I haven’t yet achieved is taking street shots of people with my 70-200mm lense, which I would love to do! I love that lense, but it is just too huge to point it at people – if someone pointed that thing toward me I would not be happy! I wonder how the satorialist does it??

  10. I didn’t realize how much of what I’ve been doing this summer has been "street photography." I don’t really have the option of asking when I don’t speak the language, and once again, if you do it often takes away from the natural moment. One thing I tend to do is use my zoom lens- for a few reasons- mainly, being an American I stand out enough already in Europe… also being a little farther away with the zoom allows me to capture the moment without the subject really knowing.

    This is one from my recent trip to Bulgaria.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/britspit/2719721345/

  11. Thank you so much for all this information, especially regarding the rights. I’ve wondered about this as well. I am very weary about taking photos of strangers without their permission. I would be interested in hearing from photographers who have sold their street photography – how do you handle that?

    It is times like these that I wish I had a scanner because when I was traveling overseas, I was much bolder and took several photos of people on the street. I guess I figured they would just think of me as a crazy tourist.

    Around my subdivision there isn’t too many interesting street shots, but I did take this a year ago when we had some out-of-town relatives visiting, and I’ve always liked this perspective.

    http://www.mamaofletters.com/Mama_of_Letters/Camera_Happy/Pages/Sony_Point_n_Shoot.html#51

  12. Funny, I thought the same thing as you all – am I allowed to do that? What I if I post them to my blog or Flickr, is that legal? Laura, I especially understand your concern I think Canada has stricter privacy laws (that’s my gut feeling as an expat living in the states for 8 years).

    Anyway, I did take these photos recently at the farmer’s market. And I actually asked permission first… I loved capturing people not looking at the camera.

    http://fimby.tougas.net/Stocking_the_Larder_Locally_Part_Two_Drive_Less

    one more:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/28442274@N07/2715125413/in/set-72157606391449215/

  13. When I had a tiny little point and shoot, you bet that I was taking pictures of strangers left and right-I could do it discreetly, point my camera and pretend to be taking a picture of something else and click the shutter to capture just them, blissfully unaware. And then I moved on up-a big black piece of equipment attached to my body… It’s hard to be discreet when people are all ‘oohing’ and ‘aaahing’ and what you’ve got there… Let alone the bulkiness and occasional awkwardness of shooting with it in public. people think you are some professional, journalist-whatever, they duck, they avoid, they watch you watching them..
    So I’m trying to learn new ways to be sneaky-and it’s hard…

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/edarcy/2715344510/

  16. I love the concept of street photography! It forces us to slow down and acknowledge the beauty that stares us right in the face… So far, however, I find that I have trouble shooting things that move (ie. people!). I have a small point & shoot and managed to take these pics during our local neighbourhood music festival.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jagspace/2320393990/in/set-72157604073023608/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jagspace/2266605467/in/set-72157604073023608/

    I’m inspired by the photos I’m seeing here – I guess I’ll keep practicing!

    Pace e bene,

  17. One unmistakable thing about me is that I have no qualms about taking photos anyplace, anytime!

    There’s that song or saying, "Dance like no one’s watching.", well, I "Shoot like no ones watching!".

  21. I LOVE street photography. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and also one of the hardest. Because I am shy and I never want to intrude on someone’s privacy, and because it’s hard to get a really good street photo sometimes. But people fascinate me…and I’m even getting better at asking strangers if I can take their photos.

    Here are two of my very very favorite shots…I hope you like them, too!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangobaby2/2495916039/in/set-72157606300926773/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangobaby2/2703415854/

  23. Here’s an interesting court case that ruled (in the U.S.) that you CAN take a photo of a stranger, display the photo, and even sell it for thousands of dollars WITHOUT the person’s permission:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nussenzweig_v._DiCorcia

    That being said, I think it’s just polite to get permission if you can even if you are not legally bound to.

    I am a big huge fan of street photography, even though I don’t get to do it much as I used to before becoming a mom.

    Some of my favorite street shots:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierraromeo/sets/72157606488207223/detail/