Probably the best way to avoid negative reaction when shooting street photography is just to SMILE 🙂

Although many street photographers prefer to remain invisible and take candid photos of people, there are times when people notice us taking their photos. From my experience, most people show a frustrating face when they spot me pointing a camera towards them. Imagine you are chatting with your friends on the street and suddenly there’s a camera pointing at you, you feel uneasy, right? So, it’s reasonable that people are often frustrated in this kind of situation.

To break this tension between the photographer and the subject, just SMILE! We should never underestimate the power of a smile. Happiness (a smiling face) is one of the seven universal facial expressions according to psychological studies. With a smile on the face, we are non-verbally telling our subjects that we mean no harm. Most of the time, they smile back too! The tension is simply broken by a lovely smile! Most importantly, they feel more comfortable being photographed because they know WE MEAN NO HARM.

So, when you are shooting on the street, don’t forget to SMILE! 🙂

When we light a fire, it burns hot. Then it starts to fade and eventually stops burning.

My passion is street photography. I still remember when i first got into it, I was energetic and the passion was burning hot. I shoot the street almost everyday. After shooting for a period of time, I became bored because I feel like everything i see on the street are the same. The passion starts to fade, and i do not shoot as frequent as I used to be.

Keeping the passion alive is one of the most important thing no matter what your interest is. Without passion, we will give up because we don’t enjoy doing it anymore. As long as the fire keeps burning, we keep working harder and harder no matter how hard it is!

How do I keep my passion for photography burning?

My passion for photography drops once in a while. Whenever I am not inspired, I read books, watch videos especially documentary of those famous street photographers, and read any articles regarding street photography. When I see them shooting on the street, it makes me wanna grab my camera too! Also, starting this blog helps me to think and write down my ideas about photography, and I find it super useful!

No matter what your passion is, always find ways to keep your passion burning! Keep the fire ignited!

In life, it seems that imagination is often associated with fear. Why?

I believe human beings are risk aversive animal.  My theory is that whenever we see something that may potentially harm us or put us in danger, our mind will tell us to avoid the risk as much as possible. I think this is rooted in our human DNA. That’s why fear is often associated with risk aversion behavior.
Fear comes along the way and we avoid putting ourselves at risk by thinking about how bad the consequences will be.

This kind of mechanism definitely helps us to survive. However, I think it hinders us from maximizing our potential because we refuse to take risks to achieve our goal. We are fearful of the negative consequences if we fail. In the end, we do nothing.

In street photography, fear will only hinder us from taking potentially good photos. So, why don’t we imagine positively?

Look for the bright side! Imagine people smile! Imagine people like being photographed! Imagine people ask you to take a few more photos! Imagine the photo taken will be the one you love the most! Imagine you got discovered because of the photo! Alright…I may have gone too far…but the point is to make use of your imagination to create positivity! So you can keep actualizing yourself and push yourself to the fullest potential!

Never stop imagining!

An idea: just go out for the sake of taking pictures!

so you have your camera with you and you see something interesting on the street, however you do not click the shutter, why?

This happened to me many times when I am shooting street photography. I hesitate to take a shot because I am scared of negative consequences. Will they react negatively? Will I get physically assaulted? Will they get irritated? Am I being disrespectful?

All these questions come to my mind whenever I think too much. Just god damn shooooot! The regretfulness stays with me for a long time whenever I hesitate. So, I know I really need to push out of my comfort zone to take photos. Whenever I see something interesting, I just click instinctively. Even though the results may not be good, at least I take actions! And I actually got some pretty good images by completely shooting on impulse.

Fear Vs Danger

“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me danger is very real but fear is a choice.”- Will Smith

In street photography, we overthink the negative consequences before we shoot. It all comes from our imagination and none of them is real. It’s our mind playing tricks on us. However, when someone threatens you and try to break your camera, that’s a real danger. We have to distinguish between fear and danger and always remember fear is not real! Never hesitate to shoot anymore! Cheers!

“If you want to be a photographer, first LEAVE HOME.” – Steve Mccurry

I understand very often we are not motivated to go out to shoot with different reasons. For myself, I sometimes hesitate even if it is a sunny day, and i just want to stay home for the whole day. I just don’t feel like going out to take photos. YES i hate that feeling because it feels like it’s not within my control.

But then I realize staying at home all day is not going to motivate me to go out to shoot (maybe watching street photography videos on youtube helps). Street photography is about capturing the beauty in the mundane. How am i supposed to be motivated if i do not leave my home? When i go out on the street, that’s the time when the adrenaline starts to kick in. I constantly look for interesting subjects and compositions. I just click the shutter when i see something worth capturing.

I will just grab my camera and go out on the street even if I do not feel like taking photos. Who knows what i will see on the street! As Steve Mccurry said, just leave your home if you want to be a photographer!

One of the most common question regarding street photography is whether one should shoot from the hip or with the viewfinder. I wanna share my experience and see if it works for you too!

Shoot from the hip

One of the biggest advantage of shooting from the hip allows me to shoot more candidly. This is good when I do not want to draw much attention so I can capture the moment without people noticing. It is also a great technique when I do not want to stand out on a busy street because most of the time I want to remain as invisible as I can. However, I do think it looks more suspicious to shoot from the hip if people notice your camera.

Also,I can shoot with different angles. By using the LCD to compose a shot, I can move the camera up or down, left or right to take a shot with more interesting angle. It is definitely more versatile to shoot with the LCD without bringing up the camera to my eye level.

Shoot with the viewfinder

Shooting with viewfinder allows me to compose a shot more accurately. When i am holding the camera to my eye level, I am more focused on what I see in the viewfinder and get less distracted by the surrounding environment.

I usually shoot with the viewfinder if the subject notices me at the first place before i start to shoot. I prefer to stand out more as a photographer as they have already noticed my presence. I am more confident by bringing the camera up to my eye level. (Probably because I look more professional?) I would like to make my intention of photographing clear so they can take their guard off.

Also, it is a more private experience to shoot with the viewfinder than shooting from the hip. People are often curious about what i am taking. I have to say I feel much safer to shoot with the viewfinder.

Takeaway point:

Ask yourself why you are shooting from the hip. Do not shoot from the hip because you simply do not have the courage to bring your camera up to the eye level. You should overcome the fear instead of being sneaky with the camera at the hip level.

Conclusion:

There is no definite answer whether one should shoot from the hip or with the viewfinder. It depends on the shooting style and the situation. Just keep shooting to find the style that work the best for you!

Flâneur is a French word who refers to one who strolls around aimlessly but enjoyably, observing life and his surroundings.

So, how does this word relate to street photography? From the definition above, the characteristics of a flâneur is very similar to that of street photographers. Both of them walked around the city without a purpose, they are part of the crowd, yet detached from a certain degree.

Written by Susan Sontag, a book called “On Photography”, she mentioned a walker on the street with a camera becomes an extension of
flâneur with the invention of small and portable camera.

Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world “picturesque.” – Susan Sontag

To start off, i think this is a good question to be answered.

I started shooting street photography two years ago. One time when i was hanging out with a friend, he brought his camera., which i remember to be a FUJI XT-20. He let me play with the camera, and ever since I found my love for photography. (I know it is not really a big reason for me to start photography but sometimes things just happened! Isn’t it?)

As my love for photography arise, i start to dig into the work of some masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt, Bruce Gilden, Ho Fan ,etc. I discovered I was particularly fascinated by the notion of capturing life on the street. As I am observing life with a camera, it feels like unexpected things will just happen around the next corner, and waiting for me to be discovered. I always go where my intuition leads. It almost works like a meditation for me to set myself free from all the burden by losing the sense of place and time.

To all street photographers who are reading,

“Life on the street never ceased to amaze me.” – Joel Meyerowitz