"Unbreakable Rules of Street Photography"

<p>They are on flickr here:</p>

<p><a

href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/discuss/72157594185425298/"

target="_blank">The Unbreakable Rules of Street Photography</a></p>

I'll second the rule about street people. A good photographer captures dignity not degradation.

The best parts were the Leica comments. As if having an expensive camera will make you a better photographer. Having said that, I've been trying to do street photgraphy with the 8 pound Pentax 67, now that's a challenge. A camera that looks like it came out of a comic book, and a shutter that sounds like a canon going off!

I guess I break em all the time, I sux.

I have not put anything online for a while:

 

http://kenshukan.net/john/archives/2005/10/10/6-x-7-in-shinjuku/

 

but I shoot with a Pentax 67 quite a bit. I also have a friend who shoots "Street Photography" hand holding an 8x10 camera. He does this by resting it against his chest. I agree, anything can be used.

there's rules in Street Photography?

did you guys actually read that ?

Interesting personal rules, and they're his, not everyone's. I agree with some and disagree

with some, and that's why street photography is personal. There really aren't any rules,

only your personal views of it, reflected in your work. A lot of his strikes me as more

"traditional" rules where photographers used rangefinders with 2-3 lenses, all shorter than

60mm. That works for some, but so do other "rules" for others.

 

For example, I use 4 lenses, a 35mm, 45mm, 85mm and 135mm. The last is for the vary

reason he criticizes, distance. I'm not a "in your face" photographer, and it allows me to

photograph people keeping some distance or in crowds where I can't get close. I've only

had one person get upset but that was his personality, and just didn't want to be

photographed in any way, so getting close would have been worse.

 

As for transients, I generally agree, due to their life choices or circumstances you should

give them some latitude, besides some can become aggitated or angered rather quickly,

and you should respect their dignity as human beings. But I'm not against photographing

them in a public place as an image of the diversity of people. Is a sleeping transient any

different than someone napping in a park? Yet, the latter is ok but the former not?

 

I ask that because that's what many do in Seattle, go to the City parks to sleep since they

know the police can't arrest them for loitering, and they can sleep in peace to wander at

night after the parks close. And as long as they don't distrub other people or panhandle,

the police leave them alone (Seattle and Tacoma have a good anti-panhandling laws).

 

Anyway, the only one I can agree to consistently is the photo vest. Don't look like a

photographer. The camera does enough, don't dress the part too, but then my Domke F-3

bag is a giveaway. Sometimes you just can't win being discrete.

I like the humourous way he presented these rules some of which I agree with.

 

I'm not sure what Pentax 67 you guys are using but I rented a 67II for a day and found it fairly easy to manage. At least it was lighter then my RZ. I seriously considered purchasing one due to the ttl meter which I thought would give me better results with my exposures. However I decided to stick with the rz when I learned to fine tune my development process to get better negs.

The only two rules that I've found which always apply:

 

1) Make sure there's film/memory in the camera.

 

2) Take off the lens cap.

geez, thanks Mike, I wondered why i was missing so many shots.

Funny suff actually, but in truth, all the "do this, don't do that stuff"? Just walk around and take the pictures you see, all the rest sorts itself out pretty quickly.

I hate when self-righteous people think they're doing us service by publishing some sort of "unbreakable" rules. If they had a clue, they'd know there are no rules.

But if a mime is getting beat up, and you photograph it from across the street, from the hip, with B&W film, is it a good shot or not? I'm confused!

Now that I actually read them I see it was meant as a joke, kinda lame though.

Good advice here: "Though they're quite rare, consider buying a lens with a negative focal

length. That way you can be in the photo as well."

Also, I find it funny when people feel it necessary to comment on something that they've not

even bothered to read.

was that a poke ? ;-)

 

I read the first few paragraphs and then gave up. What a waste of time.

 

I'd much rather waste it commenting here.

<I>"What a waste of time"</I>

<P>

Oh come Rene, you didn't even smile when you read this?

<P>

<I>"Even people who despise Garry Winogrand's photos are impressed by how many rolls he left undeveloped.</I>

yes I did :-)

My favourite was the jab at people who take photos juxtaposing someone against a huge poster of someone's face. That's done to death. Sometimes there are interesting arrangements but more often, there's no useful creative input from the photographer.

 

My real pet peeve, though, are people who post street photos that are basically shots of people walking on the street. If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, things like composition and timing come in to play and that's where the majority of the stuff I see falls flat on its face. And that's what makes street photography so difficult.

 

 

larsbc

I really liked one guy's phrase "You can't polish a turd"

 

Did you see how many people took that article seriously? Incredible

Hey people, it was a joke and a way of starting a discussion, relax.<br>

I didn't know photo.net was so full of pretentious people. I'm starting to understand why a lot of the pics posted here suck.

 

<p>"If they had a clue, they'd know there are no rules." ... this is so profound man...</p>

This was pretty funny, maybe more so because there is some truth in a few of the do not's. I can't believe people think it is a serious article though!?

Raoul: it's actually worse than that. Most forums just argue over which equipment is better, etc.

 

Yeah I was too quick to post, but there really are no rules, for me at least.