streetphotography

It can be very easy to arbitrarily limit oneself by genre; I think the effect this has on the mindset of a photographer can potentially really damage the quality of the work they look to produce.

I always wanted to shoot Japan during the winter when it was snowing, and earlier this year I got the chance when I headed to Sapporo—the biggest city in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. This city is seriously underrated for street photography.

First things first. For me, street photography is more than just taking candid photos. Street photography can also be asking strangers permission to photograph them or photographing empty streets. Whatever it is, the common nominator is that you go on the street and take photos of the “street life.” That’s how I see it.

Well-known portrait photographer and YouTuber Manny Ortiz recently gave himself a challenge. In an attempt to get out of a creative rut, he decided that he would try street photography for the first time. As those of you who regularly shoot in the street can probably predict, it didn't necessarily go so well.

One of the best parts of being an active member of the online photography community is the range of criticism I have access to when I share my work. Being open to constructive criticism is an essential part of growth as an artist -- not only can it highlight shortcomings, but it can also emphasize areas in which you may be strong without realizing it.

Whether it’s a wedding, a festival, or a protest, crowds present photographers with some unique challenges. I’ve spent some time working on figuring out the best ways to handle crowded environments in order to produce images that are consistent with my style, while conveying the energy of the crowd in that moment.

For many years, the only lens focal length I felt comfortable with when doing street photography was a 50mm.

At first glance, all we see is a dinky point-n-shoot camera; not much to it. It slips inside my front pocket, I mean, how powerful can it be? Well, photographers shouldn’t be fooled by its size and minimalism; like many of our subjects in the street. The Ricoh GR III is called a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” for a reason.

YouTuber Guy Jones created this 20-minute video that offers a brief history of street photography. It's a slideshow of 182 photos -- one photo for every year between 1838 and 2019.

Bruce Gilden is one of the top street photographers of our generation. He’s controversial, talented and he has his own style… so there’s no question as to why some might want to emulate him.

After moving to New York City from London in September 2017, British photographer and actress Marielle Clare began wandering the streets of her new city with her camera. Over the following year, she captured NYC from the street and from the air, shooting photos from all angles and across all seasons.

As with any genre of photography, there is no "one size fits all" solution for exposure in any given situation. There are as many different means of achieving a "look" as there are photographers practicing those methods, and any can be adapted to fit into the kind of photography you want to be doing.

A very common piece of advice for photographers looking to take their work to the “next level” is that they must invest time in themselves in the process of developing a “style.” A photographic style can mean many things; a theme within the subject matter, a specific color palette, a certain compositional approach, and anything else that leaves the artist's work with a distinct "fingerprint."

Autos is a project by street photographer Nick Turpin, who photographed the lines of cars under the glow of big city billboards.

Street photography is one of the best ways to exercise and train your eye for application to photojournalism projects. I've written before about the way I apply the techniques and style from my street photography to my set stills and BTS as well as my long term fashion BTS project and I think that practicing some form of street photography every single day is an incredible way to keep your eye active and your mind constantly searching for new possibilities.

A very slight and easy change one could implement to an otherwise straightforward approach in street photography (as well as other genres) is to play with shooting from angles other than eye-level. It may an unconscious choice by some people that their perspective doesn't shift much from their own, so I think it's important to discuss how even a minor alteration in angle can improve, or at least change, the image.

There is an observation about stand up comedians that once they reach a certain level of fame their material becomes less about "grounded" observations and criticisms and instead becoming more about airplane food and hotel rooms.

Great photography tells a compelling story. Weaving narrative into photos and photo series is a challenging task -- the storyteller cannot simply make the world conform to their imagination as the author or painter can. Photographers only have one frame to convey meaning -- motion and action have to be paraphrased and the moment of transformation captured.

Well-known London street photographer Nick Turpin has started a new point-of-view video series to allow people to "come along for the ride" as he creates his work. The 17.5-minute video above is a look into how he works and things on the streets of the UK's capital.

"Streets in Mind" is a new short film by SmugMug Films that looks at the life and work of London-based street photographer Alan Schaller. Walking the streets of NYC, Schaller offers thoughts and insights on shooting street photos in major cities.

My first time in a Sub-Saharan African country was in Ethiopia, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. Well, yes I know, I was expecting to get ‘in the zone’ at all times and take hundreds of great pictures like I expect from all my photography trips. Not too much to ask, is it?

I recently shot this image while teaching a street photography workshop in London. I had been talking to my students about noticing things that were “odd” or out of place which normally makes for an engaging subject.

I started photography on perhaps the most popular focal length, 35mm, in the form of my RX1R, which I shot through my time at university. From there I moved to 50mm, which was a revolution to me in the way I saw and thought about my images. I now shoot the majority of my favorite images on a 90mm, which although not entirely unconventional is still far from the “standard.”