Wikipedia: Street Photography

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography' target='_blank'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Street photography generally refers to photographs made in public places — not only streets, but parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and myriad other settings — often but not always featuring people going about their everyday lives. In one sense it can be thought of as a branch of documentary photography, but unlike traditional documentary its chief aim — or at least its chief effect — is seldom to document a particular subject, but rather to create photographs which strongly demonstrate the photographer's vision of the world. Good street photography often ends up being good documentary photography without really trying, especially after the passage of a few years, but unlike documentary it seldom has an explicit social agenda or rhetorical intent. It tends to be more ironic and distanced from its subject matter."</i><br /><br />If you're interested in learning more about street photography, this is a great Wikipedia entry that covers the subject. I'm curious, are any among you street photographers? I have very little experience with the subject, likely because I'd be too afraid of embarrassment if someone in the shot confronted me about it. :oops:

[Darius Wey]

I tried it once in Sydney's busy streets, and never again. While the image was beautifully splashed with vibrance and colour, I just felt a little uncomfortable openly snapping away at the wider community. For now, I'll stick with nature photography.

[Neil Enns]

Michael over at Luminous Landscape has written a couple of good articles about street photography:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/street.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/china-street.shtml
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/locations/midway.shtml

Neil

[kiwi]

I suppose if you "looked the part" like a news photographer kinda like "Peter Parker" with a large lens on a SLR and camera bag/tripod you might just be ignored. :roll:

[Jonathon Watkins]

'Street' photography I'm not happy with. 'Festival' photography is another matter. At www.photoglow.co.uk I've got a large collection of Greenbelt Festival photos. I alternate between using the LED of my Pro1 as a waist level viewfinder. Great for stealthy shots. ;-)

[Leon]

I'm curious, are any among you street photographers? I have very little experience with the subject, likely because I'd be too afraid of embarrassment if someone in the shot confronted me about it.
I wouldn't call myself a street photographer but next to landscapes it's one of my main interests: http://www.pbase.com/lschell/people.

Never had any incidents with people getting angry or things like that. What I always do is taking pictures of people unaware of being aimed at. The best shots IMHO are those when the sixth sense of my subjects is starting to work. At the moment they feel someone is watching them and they turn around to look at me, I press the button. That way, they look straight into the lens and yet they are naturally looking (meaning they don't behave differently because of the camera). My favorite lens for this kind of photography is my 70-200 mm zoom.