Street photography is a VERY difficult genre, keyseddie. You can not (yes, by the way, Derrel is right, these are pretty shi**ty images),.. where I was... yes, you can not just think "OK, now I gonna try street", go out and then think, "Well, what do we shoot now?"
If you want to shoot street you must have a reason, I mean there should be something that you have seen many times and wanted to keep it as a picture, as a frozen moment. Just think about it - what draws you to the street photography, what do you like. The funny juxtapositions, human emotions, the chaos of the colors, the unorthodox composition, the urban lines, the shades and reflections on city concrete and glass?
I am convinced that to be a good street shooter you need to love a big city. I am not a really good street photographer, but I am drawn to it because I am a city animal. I do not care about sunsets, birds, flowers , roads that stretch to the horizon and trees. I am fascinated by the people and their interactions with the environment that they have created.
Alex Webb ( who is a Semi-God of street shooting, and I am, like many, in total awe about the guy) says the street shooting is about discovery, and he is so right. By shooting street you discover things, but first you need to discover what is it that you want to discover. Then you will look for it.
Portraiture photographers are farmers, they cultivate their land and have an almost guaranteed harvest. Street shooters are hunters. And the wood defeats them all the time. Alex Webb admits it himself. "Street defeats me again and again", he says. So it is not easy. Street photography does not give you an opportunity to be a weak photographer. If you are doing portraits, and you are not good, with some preparation and copying other's technique you can still produce a decent photo. If you shot street and your vision is not good enough, you produce sh*t. I know, I have produced loads of it. But, like the portraiture skills, the street vision can be developed and improved, if you work on it. Luck is another huge factor in street photography, but luck is proportionate to the time spent on the street.
As for discovery, Alex Webb is so right about it. Just a couple of days ago I was shooting in Kingston-on-Thames for 2 hours and had nothing. Zero. On my way back to my car, in the middle of an empty square, all of a sudden, I saw that little blond girl in an Arab scarf and had no time at all to adjust, just grabbed my camera, snapped it, and it was gone. So the picture is poor, nothing special, but that was a moment of a little discovery that has captured an emotion and a story which no portraiture can achieve. I wanted to ditch this image with the rest, but something tells me to keep it.
You can buy "The Street Photographer's Manual" by David Gibson. It was published recently. He is pretty average himself as a photographer in my estimate, and I do not like some of his categorisations and rules, he also simplifies the genre to an extreme. But he is a very experienced enthusiast and a pro, and all in all he gives a beginner some great clues about how to start and what to look for and how to find theyr niche. If you have never done it before, the book is quite useful, with some top class, good and rather pedestrian photographs from variuos masters and the author. So good luck. Yes, and here is the girl
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