Street Photography - Sunday April 13

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by boomerd35

But I always think in the back of my mind that I hate to bother people.

That's a common feeling. What I tend to find is that rather than being bothered, you actually are more likely to make someone's day. More often than not people are flattered that there's something interesting enough about them that you'd want to take their picture. Least that's what I often find.

[laawaaris]

Unfortunately, it was just me on the streets. Some of my classmates came a little later, though.

After I photographed people and told them what I was doing, some of them told me the names of places and locations to go to in order to find more willing/interesting people to photograph.

Gordon, you have some nice captures as well as a unique layout. It gives me some ideas for when I go out next Sunday! How involved do you get in order to ask/allow the people to smile/laugh/act on their own?

I went to Discovery Green with my classmates as well - just way to easy to shoot people there. Everyone and their mom had a camera with them and I felt that they would just assume I am the event photographer for the opening.

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by laawaaris

Gordon, you have some nice captures as well as a unique layout. It gives me some ideas for when I go out next Sunday! How involved do you get in order to ask/allow the people to smile/laugh/act on their own?

That isn't so much a layout as just a raw dump of all the shots I took, something similar to a contact sheet. I still have to do any editing and selection of keepers.

I'm usually talking most of the time that I'm shooting now - I find I get better reactions that way. Also, I'm shooting these as part of a book project that has a theme relating to different expressions, so I'm talking about that. Some people are more than willing to then ham it up, when given the freedom to do so. Others are more reticent, which is part of what the project is really about, anyway.

[toverman]

I have a system, because working for a newspaper I encounter photographing strangers all the time.

For example, if I'm at the park and there are kids flying a kite, I'll tell the parent who I am, where I work and what I'd like to do. Unless they're teens, I almost always clear shooting pics with a parent first. When I get permission and some good shots, I'll stop and get the kids' names and ages. This works well in getting candids because I haven't contacted the kids directly, and they may or may not notice me at first. If they do, they'll forget about me soon enough.

I shot a few pics of a carnival this weekend. I shot first, but then approached parents of kids I got shots of to tell them who I was, what I was doing and if I could get their kids' names and ages for the paper.

My job has a built-in excuse for taking photos of strangers, which is helpful. But you've got to just do it. In most cases, it does make their day. People love to see themselves or kids in print, at least around here. For street shots, if you get pics of families, you might offer them your card and tell them to e-mail you so that you can e-mail photos back to them. That leaves it up to them whether they want to or not, and they get something for being agreeable.

It takes practice. For weddings, I've only had one real issue where I inadvertently rubbed one of the groomsmen the wrong way. I learned from that one not to kid around with someone who I'm not sure had a sense of humor at all.