http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs11/f/2006/227/e/2/street_photography_for_the_purist.pdf

Enjoy.

Bob

Thanks Bob,

Really good complilation, I will read it carefully I Have a lot to learn....

Symantec flagged this link as unsafe, found 3 viruses...

mmmh... I found only one called "Leica M addiction". Thanks for the info.

Is this the Chris Weeks one? it is so poorly written as to be incomprehensible - regardless of what the content is. They gy can't string a sentence, paragraph or essay together in a whole coherent fashion.

:)

That's just my bbs talk. ;-)

Forgiveness can't be proffered for a research, organised and "published" diatribe.

Now - back to my LOL cats...

Interesting one.... but sorry... i´m reading almost every page the same thing: "Leica... does it, digital SLR is no real street"... kind of... creepy. I can´t afford Leica...i would, but can´t. BUT i love street photography... i love watching people doing their stuff..love working with my DSLR (still love mine :D ) and i´m really not sure, if it´s no street, even if it´s no pure. I think street is "catching a moment"... that can say something, express your or someone else´s feelings. Does it really matter, if you add some saturation to your picture, get it b/w or i don´t know.. crop it??? If you didn´t catch a moment, it´s still no street... no matter how long you work on your photo. I think it´s even harder to make a picture with a big DSLR than with small Leica (that´s the reason i´d love to have one) . Maybe i´m wrong but i can live with it :) This way it still makes fun watching at your photos at the end of the day...
Good Light

Hi Konstantin.

I tried the M9 having never had a Leica before. I wasn't too keen and sold it fairly quickly. It was very flawed IMO. I went back to my Nikon D3, but picked up a Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm (40mm equiv) pancake lens and I love it. I'd pick it up before an M9 every time. The only thing that lets it down is the crappy optional electronic viewfinder, but the screen is good and it doesn't seem such an issue now.

I'm sure you can do great street with any camera so long as the shutter releases quickly. Many pocket cameras have shutter lag that means you'll nearly always miss the moment.

Regards
Bob

Hi Konstantin,

as a long time SLR-shooter, I did not become comfortable with the finder of my M7. Like Bob, I sold it after a few weeks.

All the best,

Frank

Hey you both...thanks for the tipps. I won´t buy me a leica :) There is no way, i get that much money (not in next few years)...I just wanted to say, that my opinion on, it doesn´t matter what camera you use: street is still street.

Leica this and Leica that - I think you guys are right. The camera is just a tool, it's the photographer who makes the picture.

Konstantin, for a bit of inspiration (and titillation for all you analogue camera lovers out there) check this site out. Scroll down and take a look at Mr Yamauchi's FM3a.

http://tokyocamerastyle.com/page/6

Edit: copied URL

Hi Song Yao,

thanks for the link, very interesting :) And i like the comment on his camera: "some use 10.000$ cameras to shoot HDR pictures..." :) i would say: Bull´s Eye...well, i think it´s time for me to learn how to "use" my old Zenit and my soon-coming-Lomo ;)

Know your 35mm and know your 50mm Bob. Hmmmmmm, You know if you know just two lenses. It all starts to look the same. Kind of like being at a bar with one too many too drink. Like being (S) Faced. There's another way to look at it. For the most part everyone here keeps their sanity. Zoom lens, 70-200. Yeah a few shoot the magical 14mm-24mm stuff. But look how they use it. They treat it like its an 85mm lens or a 50mm lens. In this street photography realm. What is spoken by the photographer is purely a reflection of the depth of his work. Not much to learn, not much was discovered. Keep it safe, keep it cool, and forget about the degree of real. So is it pure, real and is it the Holy Grail?

I would think if you are shooting street you should feel you are on a roller coaster gone wild. No time to think about flying off. You just shoot. SO why not with a 20mm at 24 inches to 48 inches. Now you can smell what you shoot. Get a black eye. Get your camera knocked out your hand, learn something about fear, and learn how to walk in the path of herd of angry bulls. SO what is street photography really like.

Some just shoot from the hip, others just grab shot while the sissies shoot far off on just about anything. But how do you know you stepped into something real. It's like this Bob. You forget yourself and become an equal to what you are shooting, Dialogue is one on one, you deal with the accusations of fear and anger and try not to dodge any bad karma. You become a friend, a worshiper, a matador and a Shaman. You feel their story because the snap shot you could have taken you let pass to get closer to the person.

When you are done. No one knows or understands the image because you stepped into their skin and wore their clothes and for that time you understood. No one calls you great after the shot and no one will do that shot you took because it's gone forever. No glory just a lot of misunderstood moments. After all what you did is beyond the group. You got face to face and kissed the S.O.B. and in return they gave you their knowledge. Gee Bob you might as well be in Never Never Land. No scholar can write a paper on it because they didn't take the risk and they missed out on the greatest thrill of it all. They missed the encounter. and the sense of life flying past them.

I'm going to create a website and invite 5 shooters a month to do a photostory plus four paragraphs of text.

I'll look forwards to that.

As soon as I'm free of legal proceedings (which should be in a month or so) I'll be out on the street with my 20mm.

Until then I just have to be patient. It's been a long 9 months. I could have had a baby while I've been waiting, although, it would have probably popped out wearing an anti stab vest and wielding a tazer ;^)

Thanks for your unique insight.
B

Nice post Wings. I admire your commitment to the encounter and the kind of zen acceptance of the possible consequences. I can see why that is a good emotionally honest approach. Just underlines why I'm not temperamentally cut out for street shooting ;-) Bruce Gilden I ain't. ( Also I live in a village, Street is for cities full of strangers . Oh yes it is. . . )

Is there a site for Sissy Street Shooters? ;-) Sign me up. . .

But seriously folks. . . I like the role of detached observer. People watching, but with a camera. Or what you could call 'composition watching', where the people are elements of the wider shot, where the framing is the crucial thing. A wide lens is good for that, for it's field of view. Tony Ray Jones had an eye for that, as well as being a genius anyway of course.

best,
Jon

Bob, if your not using your 20mm I could look after it for you. . .

You can count me in too... :-)

i sometimes used an old zorki 1, its like the old leica rangefinder. i hate rangefinder cameras, i always shoot with the lenscap on the lens....

i always use a slr with a b/w negative film. some people say slr are too big and too noisy to take street photos. if you use a 28mm lens you will have no chance to hide the camera anyway. shoting from the hips is pretty much useless... i dont see whats the fun about it?

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/VHTTQClYS1g-robert-capa-thom-yorke-from.aspx

lol. Sissy photography classes starts right here. JBA you are far from being a Sissy anything. Unless your Tea is weak.:))))) However if you tend to shoot the vegetable market, and find a certain pleasure, then you're a sissy shooter, If you go to the amusement park and and shoot the guy trying to squirt water into the clowns mouth for a teddy bear, and the the carny man scares you while you shoot, and makes you put your camera down. They you are probably a sissy shooter. If your camera is still clean and doesn't have any debris that suggest you got close to your subject then you are a sissy shooter. If you've looked you subject in the eye and seen their tears but have to fake it and tell someone to lower their head then you're a sissy shooter. If talk more than you shoot when out with friends then you are a sissy shooter. If you don't get up in the morning, or wake up in the night and look at your images, then maybe you are a sissy shooter. If you run in from the rain and have a Caramel Mocha with whip cream and chip images of the back of people then you are probably a sissy shooter. If you have the latest super lens and camera body the the depth of your photography has not surpassed your cannon 30 d then you are probably a sissy shooter. If you clean our camera like you clean your car and no dirt presents itself on the cloth then you are a sissy shooter. If your images seem to garnish light weight conversation then you are probably a sissy shooter. If these images get published, then you have found a home.

Well I do enjoy humor JBA ,and the sissy theme is one I'm rolling on the floor over. Thank you BOB and JBA hope to see a few soon in the UK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0V4Xv-20os

Lets all go out and milk the cow to make a little cheese with our cameras. Lets all do a day in the life in our city from our point of view and post it in this forum come Monday. We'll theme it the eye of a street photographer.
JBA do you have 5 to 7 images from your ww2 shoot is so please contact me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUWznm1ufU&feature=related

First of all, not all Leicas are that expensive. I bought mine at 433 euros, it's an M2, and it costs like a cheap reflex body. It's perfectly working, a mechanical jewel, I would define it. The lens costed me around 200 euros, and still the whole thing didn't reach the price of my first digital body (Pentax K20D). I had also to buy a film scanner, of course, and a lightmeter. 300 euros more together. Still I don't think the total money I spent, reaches the price of most people's reflex gear. Talking about those doing street photography with reflex systems.
When choosing the right gear to do street shooting, one have to reason on the kind of street photography (s)he likes to get. If you work with a medium format camera, like Diane Arbus did, you get a certain kind of shots (mostly portrait, eye-contact, posed or semi-posed, etc), if you work with a 35mm you're by far more likely to capture spontaneous/natural moments, having less influence (if any) on the scene. Reflex cameras are in between. Let's face it, they are a bit larger and heavier than a 35mm rangefinder (being it Leica, Bessa, Hexar, or whatever) and have a paparazzi-like appearance to most of people (mainly due to the size of their lenses). Whereas, rangefinders, and compact cameras in general (being it digital or analog) look more "innocuous" and tourist-like. And they are more silent. But anyway, the kind of shot you get it's not just a matter of gear, like whoever practiced street photography for a while knows, it also depends on chance and mostly on the way you move into the scene. And while on chance you don't have much power, on the right gear and on the right behavior you somewhat have.

To sum it up: not all Leicas are expensive and street photography is not about <<do you own a Leica or not?>>. They are good as they are discrete and so more suitable for what most of people call "street shooting", but that's all. This also applies to other brands of rangefinder systems, and to compact cameras in general. The fact of being discrete. But, then again, it depends mostly on the photographer rather than on the gear. The best camera is the one the photographer feels at ease with, and, consequently, the one that is more suitable for the kind of photography (s)he likes to practice.

Fabio what filmscanner did you get? I'm thinking about to buy one, cant stand em bloody chemicals anymore!

I'd be happy to lend it you anytime Jon.
I haven't touched my D3 in months since I got the GF1.
I can feel some whippety action coming on soon though.

B

I'll see what I've got and get back to you.
cheers,
Jon

Hi Remo, I got a Plustek OpticFilm 7400. It costed me around 200 euros on ebay less than a year ago. It gives more than good results for what I need. A friend of mine also got it ("street shooter" too), and he is literally enthusiast.

That's what landed me in the s**te last time ;^)

Noooooooooo! I'm a sissy shooter.

I better start roughing up my gear.
B

Next time, hand them a business card and tell them police officers are getting a 15% discount this month for friends and family. Get money from them rather than a cell :)

Ok, about 600 euro is not that much, but still to much for me. I´m trying the best i can with my Fuji S5... it´s really hard...it´s what everybody says: You look like a freakin´ paparazzi. Maybe i´m just a sissy shooter? I don´t know.. it´s hard to get beautiful street photo because of the laws (i´m not allowed to publish any photo, showing some faces or i have to get their agreement, to publish it)... very beautiful rule for someone, trying to get a good shot...

But talking about cameras: what camera would you suggest for me? I don´t care if it´s film or digital... i get used to everything ;)
And please don´t tell Leica ;)

Cheers

Hey Konstantin, 600 euro is still a significant chunk of money. I wouldn't sneeze at it.

What's your style? Are you a bit of Bruce Gilden or do you float like a Gary Winogrand? Nothing wrong with a FSU shooter. I know you've got a Zenit but if you're after a good usable rangefinder have you considered the Zorki 4 with a Jupiter 8 lens? A Leica it's definitely not but considering it's perfectly usable and less than 1/10 the cost of a Leica it's one of the best deals out there. Imagine how much film you could buy with all the money you've saved. I wouldn't worry too much about gear - just get out there, have fun and prove to yourself that you're no sissy!

Hey Song Yao, thanks a lot! I will look for this one maybe :) The thing is: i´m new in street photography, but i wanna learn. Maybe some other analog cameras you can suggest me? So i can look them up, maybe try 1-2 out and who knows... maybe i find the right one :)

Greets

Hey, what´s about Agfa Silette A??? Is it ok for a beginning? :)

Street photography, for me, sums up all of a series of photographic talents. In no other genre you compose a picture in your mind in a fraction of a second, but with no possibility of keeping it as it is, because things happen, people move around, what was there is no longer there, what happened was fast and gone. In no other genre you have absolutely no control over the subject of your photo. You are a spectator and an actor, you look and act, you see and react. What happens that catches your attention was in the light for just a moment, and then is in the shadow, and your action on the camera is different. What happens develops into something much faster and you have to adjust to the development. What happens stops happening and you have to decide it's no longer worth clicking. And time is always a crucial factor. Fast time. No time for thinking, framing, adjusting. A challenge each time. A surprise each time. Something/someone catches your attention. You shoot. Then you look at the picture and you discover something else was happening in the background. Someone you didn't even see becomes the key interest factor of your picture. You record a moment in time with your picture and you record life, and people with their activities and feelings, and fashion and art ... and your picture becomes a historic document.
isn't all this exciting?

So Konstantin... it's not the camera, or the lens. Go out and look, and see, and shoot. And when your pictures start telling stories, there you are: a street photographer. :-)

If digital, you really should give the GF1 (Panasonic) that Bob uses a chance Konstantin.

Don't worry K. I'll be receiving quite a nice donation from them in the not too distant future ;^)

B