Shooting Strangers with tact - Photojournalism

Katier · Jan 26, 2009

gsgary said:
Your right there the best street photographers only use 28mm

Indeed, actually a VERY good example of why is this shot :-

Taken with a Yashicamat LM ( with 80mm lens but that's MF so I think that's about 50mm equiv). Being MF I could easilly crop it BUT there is no way I could have taken the shot with a zoom. There was a building in the way. I'll be honest and self critique my photo and say it would have been better closer and me being slightly to the right. Guess what? right = closer to the subject.

gsgary · Jan 26, 2009

Katier said:
Indeed, actually a VERY good example of why is this shot :-

Taken with a Yashicamat LM ( with 80mm lens but that's MF so I think that's about 50mm equiv). Being MF I could easilly crop it BUT there is no way I could have taken the shot with a zoom. There was a building in the way. I'll be honest and self critique my photo and say it would have been better closer and me being slightly to the right. Guess what? right = closer to the subject.

Fisheye near the front wheel of the bmx as low as possible

LaFoto · Jan 26, 2009

Ron Evers said:
They had their masks & flippers on. I did not ask or tell.

Teehee

, Ron!

Well, I didn't ask him, either.
But this - I admit - was taken at 300mm PLUS is a crop from a yet larger frame, as we on our boat were simply TOO, TOO far away to otherwise get this photo...

As to the OP of this thread and his question, and NOT as to the video (!!!) - for that isn't actually the subject of this thread - asking people permission beforehand wouldn't give you the same photo, for the most obvious reasons, but I have been in situations when I felt that just snapping away in as into-your-face a manner as is shown in the video didn't feel right to me, either. That's why I left the photo untaken.

Which is probably why I am a nobody in a tiny place in the middle of nowhere, and other, less scrupulous, characters photograph for Magnum... Seems like I might have more ethics --- but also much less photos!