Street Photography

Street photography is all about capturing interesting day to day happening on a street. These photographs can be of people, animals, market place or just traffic. All of these subjects have potential to tell a story. Our reflexes has to be fast, along with our camera.

Camera always catches attraction of people. When we are on a tourist spot, then comparatively we are safe, as lots of other people also are clicking. However, on other public places, we may fall in trouble. Once we are noticed by people, we will never get a good candid shot. Over friendly people will start giving a smile or they will wave their hands. Or we will be questioned about why are we taking photographs.

So better way to capture street photographs is by using a small good quality compact camera. With some practice, we will be able to shoot photographs without even looking in the view finder. We can use a tele lens to isolate the subject but give some room for recomposing the final print.

Compact cameras generally have auto focus lens. So we need not have to worry about focusing. We can also use auto exposure mode, which can be "auto," "program" or "aperture priority" mode. Try to keep aperture at about f 16 or f 22. This will give a good depth of field and we will be able to capture our target.

Avoid using flash light. Flash light catches attraction of the subject, even if we are shooting without looking in the view finder. Forget about using a tripod, which is another center of attraction. With simple and minimum equipment, we can casually keep on shooting without being noticed.

Obviously, we will get only few good images from the entire lot of pictures. However, with practice and little bit of luck, the ratio will improve.

Always carry spare batteries and enough memory storage devices. Or if possible, then carry a mass storing device like external hard disk or a laptop. Transfer the data the moment there is an opportunity. Unlike wild life photography, where we may have to wait for days or months to get one good photograph, street photography gives us number of chance to capture story telling photographs.