This photography genre is one of the ones with the most fans among young photographers worldwide, especially with the social media boom, where everyday video and photo content carries a ton of weight when you're posting. Personally though? This style gives me the sweats, because I'm not at all comfortable shooting people who — who knows — might be having a good day or a bad day, whether they'll get annoyed that I'm taking their picture, etc. I mean street photography (not cityscape). And I don't want to start a whole debate here — everybody's free to do what's legally fine and to respect the unwritten ethical rules on the topic.
But even so, I've got a couple things stashed in the drawer….
R10, RF-S18-150 at 32 mm, ISO 3200, f4.5, 1/50 AF
I shot this one right in the middle of last year's holiday festivities. The subject: a roasted-chestnut stand, complete with its chestnut vendor. I liked the color vibe, even with the bad lighting and a lens that isn't great in low light. I think it's a respectful shot that shows a dying trade at work.
The next photo has a good story behind it — I'll tell that another time. But I stumbled on a pickup street softball game on a lot behind my city's hospital. The players were each in different uniforms, but they had style… I asked if I could grab a few shots, and this is one of my favorites — for the action moment and the batter's stance.
R10, RF-S18-150 at 150mm, ISO1250, f/7.1, 1/600 Tv mode (shutter speed) and H+ burst.
Photobones: yeah, but that background?.
Yeah, I know — it's pretty ugly and distracts a ton. I picked a bad spot to stand, and being far away at 150mm, the depth of field is pretty deep, but I wanted to show the shot as-is. Here I went with H+ burst shooting, or I wouldn't have gotten a single one. Still, in my opinion, street photography is about what it holds and its “story,” not the technical quality. In fact a lot of specialists in this art usually run pretty compact, mobile kits, and they edit in black and white, with grain, or with halo or “blur” effects — they intentionally stage the look to make them more dramatic. These are very documentary, which is more my style, and yeah, not super flashy.
But I want to show that a modest kit can do a killer job, and that this art depends more on the story.