Street Photo Tip: Work the Scene

In general street photography happens fast.

You see something that triggers a response, you raise your camera to your eye, (extremely) quickly compose, release the shutter and move on because that moment is gone forever.

The sequence is obviously slightly but inconsequentially different for hip shooters. With that in mind, let's think about what we would do if instead of seeing a moment unfold on the fly, we find an object that is drawing our attention. Something odd or at least noteworthy and it is stationary. You have more time to be careful in your composition.

Same with scenes where you have the frame precomposed but wait on various people (or animals) to walk into and complete the scene. If this is the case, one and done should not be your operating method.

Work the scene. Change angles. Walk around. Wait for various elements to change places and fill spaces. Create choices for yourself later when editing.

If you are not in a hurry and you walk off from something that caught your attention, wasn’t leaving anytime soon and didn’t care that you were photographing it without taking the time to try a few different things then you’ll be extra frustrated when editing and finding that a better image would have been made if you had only done.

A famous example is Jeff Mermelstein’s photo of burning shoe. If you don’t know it then it’s worth looking at and remembering what I just typed. You can also watch his segment in the documentary “Everybody Street”. Totally worth watching if you haven’t already (the whole thing, not just Jeff’s part).

Better than 95% of everything I photograph (street photography wise) is on the move and I get between 1-3 frames (more often than not it’s 1-2) and I'm on to the next moment. I have successfully photographed still objects in very few frames and unsuccessfully in many.

Given the choice, I still think it’s better to give yourself options than move on quickly if you don’t have to. Keep this in mind when you see that next object or scene that captures your attention.