Some street portraits (with some more)

[jaycar85]

Shows how much of a noob i am the one every one dislikes is the one i like (#6 the one with the girl smoking) i guess it has more to do with her look its almost seductive, as if she was flattered you took her pic.

 

[bribrius]

2,14.
Dude, i am going to say this in the most polite possible way.
Anyone can walk up to someone and take a photo, with or without them looking at them.
You need to find something more if you are going to call yourself a street shooter.

see person, snap, catch photo, okay........ and....... you have a head shot.
and......................................................
lines, reflections, odd occurrences, some type of composition... anything would help.
I like your work, but i can do this and i don't even consider myself a street shooter.

 

[bribrius]

I wish they were numbered, so I counted down. #5 is my favorite.

agree. i do like the opposing colors/outfits in 5.

 

[sashbar]

2,14.
Dude, i am going to say this in the most polite possible way.
Anyone can walk up to someone and take a photo, with or without them looking at them.
You need to find something more if you are going to call yourself a street shooter.

see person, snap, catch photo, okay........ and....... you have a head shot.
and......................................................
lines, reflections, odd occurrences, some type of composition... anything would help.
I like your work, but i can do this and i don't even consider myself a street shooter.

I am sure you can do this. Everyone can do it.

 

[kdthomas]

Street is not easy, at least not for me. I keep thinking (fearing ) I'm gonna get yelled at, or worse, in a fistfight, and fear of people's reaction is death to street. Sometimes I feel sneaky and scurrilous. The only way I'll ever get better is to force myself to keep doing it.

I hear the best way is to grab and go ... Be a lightning bug. You're gone before they realize what happened. Compose and get what you can and toss out the turkeys with no regrets. I do a little of that. Really I traipse around and try to look for something expressive and grab it. If I get it, I get it. Sometimes I'll camp out in a place for 20 mins or so and snipe. I wear darker clothing so as to blend in. I carry one lens usually a 50 mm.

What I struggle with, is that images that seem great to me are only that way because I knew the context at the time. How people were shouting at the homeless man a moment before, and he stoically goes on. But the picture doesn't show that. Just an expressionless bearded man. My street pictures many times aren't strong because the PICTURE doesn't tell the story that I remember and have an emotional attachment to. The pictures wind up only having meaning for myself.

 

[sashbar]

Street is not easy, at least not for me. I keep thinking (fearing ) I'm gonna get yelled at, or worse, in a fistfight, and fear of people's reaction is death to street. Sometimes I feel sneaky and scurrilous. The only way I'll ever get better is to force myself to keep doing it.

I hear the best way is to grab and go ... Be a lightning bug. You're gone before they realize what happened. Compose and get what you can and toss out the turkeys with no regrets. I do a little of that. Really I traipse around and try to look for something expressive and grab it. If I get it, I get it. Sometimes I'll camp out in a place for 20 mins or so and snipe. I wear darker clothing so as to blend in. I carry one lens usually a 50 mm.

What I struggle with, is that images that seem great to me are only that way because I knew the context at the time. How people were shouting at the homeless man a moment before, and he stoically goes on. But the picture doesn't show that. Just an expressionless bearded man. My street pictures many times aren't strong because the PICTURE doesn't tell the story that I remember and have an emotional attachment to. The pictures wind up only having meaning for myself.

If you fear you will get yelled or, even worse, it can end in a fistfight, it is not nessessary your problem. It way well be that your fears are grounded, and the streets in your area are just too unfriendly for photography. There is a lot of macho talk about how to grab and go, but you really need to be careful where to go, and where not to.

As for you struggle with capturing a story - this is one of the biggest pitfalls of street photography in my humble opinion. Street photography mostly captures a moment, not a story. There is a crucial difference that I have learned only after two years of shooting street. Some never get it, keep looking for wrong things and can not capture anything.