All my photos on Flickr can be downloaded in original size for free. You just have to mention my name, when you use it somewhere. The copyright still exists. I'm still the owner of the photo, but you can use it as you want. Since I do that, I see my photos in different blogs around the globe. All these entries bring people back to my Flickr account to see more of my work.
Money doesn’t drive me
I don't want to earn money with my kind of work. I just want to have fun, travel around the world, meet a lot of people and share my knowledge. Maybe one day, people would pay a lot of money to participate in one of my workshops. At the moment they are still cheap and this is fine. I don't want to live from street photography as I don't want to have the pressure to produce good photos. Today I can just hang out somewhere with my camera and I don't care if I have one or ten good shots at the end of the day. If you want to earn your living with photography, it is much more difficult and the pressure is getting much higher. I also don't want to teach photography every day. This is not what I like. I like how my life is at the moment. I have a job in IT which is paid well, gives me the needed flexibility to follow my passion and let me travel to the big cities of the world.
Conclusion
At the end of the day you should be sure, if you either want to share your work or protect it from some bad guy copying it. If someone is copying it, you can see it as recognition of your work. It's too complicated to sue someone on this planet for a stolen photo. Therefore you should get used to the fact that photos get stolen and will be used for other purposes. Be sure you work hard on the photography part, not on the watermark part. Find other ways to earn money than by selling prints or get rid of the thought to get rich from street photography. It's all about sharing; Sharing knowledge, photos and information. Go to your Flickr account and change your photos from "All Rights Reserved" to "Attribution", if you like this concept. Find more information about
"Creative Commons" here.
Your own Style
How to find your own style
You have to have a plan, an idea, a way of working and you have to do your thing. There are too many influences and too many people telling you other things. Don't look to your left or right, just look forward and focus on what you want to achieve. I often see aimless photographers who shoot everything or who try to copy a style of someone. Sure you have to get inspired, but sooner than later you have to find your own style. People should recognize your work by your style not by the watermark on your photos.
Do not listen to others
There is a lot of critic about my candid portraits nearly everywhere. There are people saying that it is not street photography, that they are meaningless, shocking, against the law or against the right of the person. This might all be true in a certain way or point of view. But if I would care about this, I could not do these photos anymore. You cannot and you don't have to please everyone. As long as they discuss a photo and there is a controversy, you are in people’s mouth. And this is what it is all about. You have to polarize nowadays to make a difference in photography. With landscape and flowers you cannot get the attention of the people anymore. You need more; you need something new, something they have not seen before. It's difficult, but possible.
Do not follow the crowd
If you want to go mainstream, street photography may not be your best choice. Mainstream street photography is what we see every day. You just hold your camera out to the streets and make a shot. This will never make a difference and people would not even open it on Flickr Find a different way, a different angle, a different processing method, a different style and stick to it.
It might be hard at the beginning, but it takes time. There must be a constant flow of similar images in your photo stream that people realize your style and recognize you as a solid street photographer.
Same way of processing
It's important that you choose a way of processing, a format, a choice of color or B/W and stick to it for a long time. This makes people recognize you from your photos by looking at them. I often changed my style over the last 2 years.
I even struggle with B/W versus color today. This makes it difficult for me and also for the viewer and followers. I don't know how to get around it. But sometimes I just see new things or make a shot differently. I cannot just do candid portraits for the rest of my life. This would be too boring. So I do different things on the street, have different ideas and often try out new things.
This is not productive towards building up your own style or your personal handwriting. But I'm working on it.
Same gear, same look
Not changing your camera or your lens is very important for your own style. I have a Nikon with a 50mm and a Lumix with a 20mm. I do completely different photos with these cameras and you can really see that. Try to keep your interest to one camera and maybe also to one prime lens. It may sound boring, but it will help you getting a solid and continuous style, which people will recognize. This is really important for you to settle on a certain way of taking photos on the street. It's very tempting to try out different things, but you shouldn't. Maybe I should sell my Nikon D7000 and keep shooting my GF1 on-ly…
Stay on the f*cking bus
There is a good article called "The Helsinki Bus Station Theory". It's absolutely correct and I can only agree to that theory. It's the essential point in becoming a good and well known photographer. Sure you may do other photography things to relax, but one day you should invest your time on your No. 1 project only. If this is not street photography, you can stop reading this book. You can ride different buses all day long, having a lot of fun, but not getting anywhere.
But if you take the right bus, staying on it no matter what happens, you will get where you wanted to. That's all about it…
Diversification for recovery
I have a lot of time to shoot in my life. I get often fed up with street photography after long photo walks. I get some paid work sometimes which I see as recovery work. Just to relax and do other things in order to get back to the street. I would not be able to just shoot street forever. I would have to take longer breaks to survive. With some diversification it works better. Some days ago I was shooting fireworks for fun. It was challenging as I have never done that before. I learned once again that any kind of photography will help you getting better. It's all about practicing in different areas.
Don't publish it
I shoot flowers sometimes; I did fireworks some days ago. BUT, I do not publish this stuff anywhere else than Facebook. There I don't have a huge street photography community and these are friends who like to see any kind of photography from me. They don't follow me because of the street photography aspect. I would never publish a non-street photo on my Flickr profile.
This means you have to be consistent in your publishing to follow your style.
You may get another account for other work, but don't complain about miss-ing time. Focus on street photography, nothing else...
Conclusion
Don't get distracted by the tempting world of photography. There are so many areas, so much technology, so many things and ideas to try out. You should rather concentrate on your style than on technology. If you do not concentrate on something, you will not get among the average. And average photographers there are too many out there. You don't want to end up like them, do you?
“Work hard on your style, not on your watermarks...” - Thomas Leuthard
Some Excuses
Get some good answers
While taking photos on the street, there are sometimes situations when people ask you questions. Most of the questions are based on curiosity and you can answer them easily. Often a good answer or excuse will let you keep your shot. You have to decide on your own, if you want to be honest and tell the truth. You can try to convince the person with an excuse to keep the shot.
Choose the best excuse
"I just shot this building in the background and you walked into my photo…!"
>
"I'm a tourist and I document life in the city"
"I have this new camera I'm testing today…"
"Do you know Bruce Gilden? He is even worse…"
"You should see Eric Kim, he is a creepy Korean tourist with a Leica M9…"
"There is this contest on Flickr I'm participating in…"
"I'm a photo student. Our teacher wants us to shoot people…"
"I work on the 100 Strangers project…"
"I love your beautiful eyes…"
"You have an interesting face…"
"I love your style…"
"You are hot. Can I have your phone number…?"
"You look like my grandmother…"
"I'm a talent scout. Do you want to become famous…?"
"I'm a famous photographer looking for new models…"
"I thought you are a celebrity…"
"I thought you are a famous actor…"
"I took your photo, now you owe me 10 dollars…"
"I want to marry you…"
"Elvis is alive…"
"You look like Osama Bin Laden…"
"Is this your wife or just a cheap hooker…?"
"Don't look at me, it wasn't me…"
"My camera is stuck, it shoots by itself…"
"I have a really ugly wife at home and this is curing me…"
"Yes, I'm a pervert. Thanks for helping me getting some satisfaction…"
"I'm an investment banker. The recession made me do that…"
"I'm young and need the money…"
"I have an unhealthy addiction to ugly people…"
"Others use drugs; I do candid portraits of strangers…"
"You will be on television tomorrow…"
"We are making a movie, please stand back…"
"This is a crime scene investigation. I cannot answer your question…"
"Your wife wants me to observe you. Bring her some flowers tonight…"
"I will sell your portrait to a charity to teach disabled children photography"
"Give me your address, I will send you a print…"
"One day you will be proud that I took your photo…"
"No, I cannot delete the photo, it's on film…"
"…" Pretend that you are deaf-mute.
"…" Pretend you have the Asperger-Syndrom
Traveling
85mm and the City…
For the sake of street photography I could travel to a lot of different cities so far. For the last two years I was travelling only to places where I could also take photos in the street. I love exploring new cities and document life in such foreign places. Together with the local food it’s an experience I would never want to miss. I cannot understand why people prefer hanging out at the beach…
Where to go…?
I like the big cities where there are a lot of different people. Depending where you live this may be the capital of your country. I don’t think that there is a best city to shoot in. “The bigger the better…” is the message. We normally like places which look different than our home city. Photos of people from a different race, wearing different fashion or looking different in any way, interests us. That’s why I like the tourist places in the cities of my country. There you see other faces which are unusual to the normal inhabitants. Like that I can shoot some Indian looking people and I don’t have to travel to India. The same happens to the Chinese and Japanese tourists in Zurich and Luzern.
What to do…?
First of all you just explore the city yourself. The first few hours are the ones which really hit you in a new city. You should keep this experience for yourself and really enjoy it. After one day of exploring a new city you should also try to meet local photographers. I always try to hook up with street photographers through Flickr, Facebook and other platforms. For me this is part of the experience and I want get to know new people, get new views on street photography and can share some of my knowledge.
The Best Time
What is the best time to shoot…?
This depends quite a lot on what you want to express with your photos. In the rush hour at the railway station in Zurich you can capture stress and motion.
On a normal morning in the streets you can capture people preparing for the day. I like the time before the shops open. Then you see people cleaning windows, washing pavements, preparing their shops. These are all things we normally don't see every day. And everything we don't see every day seems interesting to us. We don't want to get bored with the daily stuff; we want to see new things.
Different times, different motives
Try to get out on different times and weekdays, as there is a huge difference.
You will see and feel the street in a different costume and heartbeat at different times of the day. You should experience these different flavors of the day a street provides. Sometimes it is quiet, sometimes it is busy, sometimes it is clear, sometimes it is crowded. This is the uniqueness of street photography.
If you have not explored the night yet, you should do that as well.
Same time, same people
I have experienced one thing while I was shooting during lunch breaks for several months last year. There are the same people at the same place at the same time. Zurich is not a small city and you still see the same people at the same time. This can be an advantage, if you miss a shot, but can get boring, when you really think about it. This might also happen, when you carry your camera to work. When you have normal working hours, you will see the same people in the bus or on the way to work. Therefore you should go to work at different times and different routes, if this is possible. This will give you a different view to your city and your way to work.
Make a series
It's always interesting to make a series of something. Like "early Sunday morning" or "Lunch time". There will be photos of runners, dog walkers and old people walking on a Sunday morning. While there will be people eating, shop-ping, running or doing other things at lunch time. I guess every hour of the day has a certain story to tell. You just have to go out to the right place to capture this story with your camera.
Conclusion
There is no right time to shoot. It's more your interest and motivation about capturing the right thing at the right time at the right place. You cannot expect certain things happening somewhere, when the time is not right. You should choose your themes and topics according to the time you are shooting. Then you go to the street and make the best out of the current time of the day. Be sure that you spend the available time wisely.
New Places
Somewhere you have never been
After talking about different times, there are also different places. Most street photographers walk up and down the main streets of a city to hunt for their motives. Why don’t you choose different and new places to make your street photos? There are so many opportunities where you have not been.
Supermarkets
Have you ever taken some shots in a supermarket? Why not? Go there and try it. Maybe you should not try this with your biggest DSLR. Just use a discrete point and shoot camera or something like my GF1. This works fine, I have tried it out already. There are interesting things happening in a supermarket.
Cafés
In restaurants and cafés you of-
ten see people doing interesting
things, apart from eating and
drinking. Maybe the light situa-
tion is a bit difficult there, but
you should give it a try. Use a sol-
id stand for your camera and you
will be fine.
Department Stores
Although it might not be allowed
to shoot in stores, you still can
observe interesting moments
there. Don’t ask, just go there
and take some shots. You can
still pretend you are a tourist and
that you don’t have an idea at
all…
Balancing
>
The right balance in street photography…
In real life there should be a balance between your working, sleeping and living behavior. In street photography it's about the same. There are roughly three areas you can differentiate: Shooting, Processing and Sharing Shooting
The time to shoot in the street is the most important one for me. It is the action which makes me as a street photographer worth living. It is the purpose of my being. If I don't shoot, the other two areas don’t even make sense. You may think that you should go out and shoot as often as you can and don't spend too much time in the other two areas. Not really a good idea…
Processing
When you shoot in RAW you have to process, but this does not mean that you are a Photoshop artist and should spend many hours in front of your computer. Keep the processing to a minimum and spend the time you free up with sharing and marketing. You can limit the processing time by creating your own style. This means you do the same type of processing which can be recorded as a pre-set or action. Then you can just apply this pre-set to your photos and save a lot of time.
Sharing
As already mentioned in the marketing chapter of this book, marketing is un-derestimated and often inexistent. You should probably spend an equal amount of time sharing your work and your thoughts with others, than you shoot in the streets. You can make a big difference in bringing your photos out to the world, when you really focus on this phase. Sharing and socializing is very important in order to get your work shown to a big audience around the globe. You may discuss and comment the work of other photographers regularly. You may also participate and organize photo walks to get in contact with other street photographers. Especially outside of your town you should get more known. With the Internet you can reach nearly everyone.
Going Candid... Page 6