Street Smart Photography: Staying Safe
I've been in precarious conditions when I take over-the-top chances.
You probably are keenly aware of the feeling.
An out-of-body experience while shooting on the street or while driving.
I don’t know about you, but watching where I’m going needs my utmost attention.
Or else…
It can be tragic.
My adrenaline sometimes gets the best of me.
The I-gotta-get-this-shot can come over a person as fast as lightning.
Spotting color while photo hunting has caused my breaks to squeak and exit abruptly off the highway. Not good.
Stay calm. You can always make a U-turn at the next traffic light if you’re going too fast.
Say you see a fantastic building behind a fence. I’m not a tall person. I’ve climbed fences off highways to capture sellable images because I couldn’t reach up far enough to capture a structure in the camera’s viewfinder.
The photo above is proof. Heck! It’s classic abandonment—mid-century modern style.
Thing remained a steady-Eddie. I made that U-turn and got to the shot just fine, even though I had to hold the camera with one hand and climb the fence with the other and my two feet.
Whatever you have to do, it’s sure to be a good time if you love the craft…and the chase.
Street photography is a craft of its own, independent of other photography. It takes a bit of assertiveness, friendliness, and, most of all, astuteness. You won’t want to stop once you start shooting photography on the street.
Street Photography on the Interstate
Busy Interstate 10 in the Inland Empire of California is a photo-op paradise.
Filled with characters, yes, but don’t shoot while driving.
To be sure, I’ve done it.
Car swerving off some isolated highway and being driven while holding up a camera can spell disaster.
Take it from a careless pro; photograph only when you’re the passenger!
My Dreamstime photo published in National Geographic Kids was taken when I was a passenger in a vehicle. The shot came out sharp because the vehicle was moving at the same speed as the camera car.
I earned a whopping .42 cents several times for this one.
I’m rich!
Even on the Interstate, wordless conversations can be had with a smile and a wink.
Upping the Risk
If you aren’t going to communicate with your subjects…
Well then, shoot away…
Discretely and safely…
After all, people and scenes on the street are generally permitted worldwide.
That is only…
If you stay away, that has nothing to do with that country's military.
The most significant barrier to street photography is not that someone will punch you in the face.
Instead, it’s road hazards and protests.
In China, I wasn’t watching where I was going and I killed my thin-skinned legs between my chicken-like ankles and knees when I tripped over while running into a thick cable attempting to photo I don’t remember what.
I ended up sitting in a restaurant with the employees at my beckoning call, who were giving me first aid.
Egypt Revolution 2012 Throwback tells you more.
I wanted to photograph a protest in Egypt. I pointed my camera at scary men in masks and ended up getting shot at, only to run into a fast food restaurant after a Molotov cocktail was thrown in the entrance.
I’m alive today because my partner pulled me out after falling, then stepped on my glasses as the camera around my neck slammed to the ground.
They tell you when you go to iffy areas of town to be vigilant and aware of your surroundings. This advice applies tenfold to street photographers. You have to be looking everywhere, creating imaginative juxtapositions of all kinds of characters among their surroundings.
Curious Characters Telling Stories
Call the people in my street photographs characters because they are the essence of a story I want to tell through my lens, any story — poignant, annoying, exciting, and/or depressing. A street photograph can be all of these at once.
The juxtaposition is constantly changing, so a photograph taken in one moment can change during the next.
Finally, the number one rule about street photography is always to be a sleuth peering up and down and all around, ready to catch dramatic close-ups of distorted wide-angle views of subjects and objects near and far.
There’s nothing more satisfying than a good street photograph, one with the look of a Levitt, Evans, or Siskind street photography style, whether it be an abstract piece or one that was a perfect coincidence that you caught in the right place at the right time.
Sponge Bob is one character worth snapping, especially in the style of Helen Levitt’s children’s chalk art drawings.