©2010 James Maher Photography

Today we have another guest tip from the world of street photography. James Maher is a New York based professional street photographer. Take it away James.

I have a single favorite street photography tip that goes back to one of the founders of the ‘street photography’ genre, Henri Cartier-Bresson. Yet it is a practice that you don’t often see written about, or practiced very frequently, and it can make all the difference in the world with your street photography.

The Street Photograph vs. The Street Portrait:

Before we delve into this tip, I want to quickly explain my own definition between the term street photograph and street portrait.
A street photograph is one in which the people in the scene are unaware that they are being photographed. Most of the time I strive to take photos like this. I want to catch a person as they are in real life, and the moment they notice a camera in their face then that goes out the window. But it can often be a very tough thing to pull off.
On the other hand, a street portrait is one in which the person is aware that they are being photographed. It is like every other portrait where a person notices the camera. The person poses, or at least there is some difference in how they look versus before they noticed the camera. There is always a time and place for this type of photograph.

Left: A Street Photograph  Right: A Street Portrait

The difference above? The man on the left didn’t notice the camera at all, while the man on the right was posing for me. This matters a lot in the final subject matter. The photograph of the man on the left shows how he is in his every day life. There’s no acting, no self-consciousness, it’s just him. The portrait of the man on the right shows him in a visionary pose, one that he chose for himself and slipped into quite comfortably when asked to be photographed. In reality, he was a slightly crazy man with a quick tongue in a garbage bag rain coat, but that was not his vision for himself. He called himself PeaceMaker. In this case, it was probably a better photograph with him posing, but you can see the difference between the two.

Get to the tip already!

Above: The Super Tourist.  So hyper-aware of his surroundings that he is completely oblivious to the photographer kneeling 5 feet in front of him. 

So how do you take a photo of an interesting person with a fairly obtrusive SLR, close to them and in good lighting conditions, without that person noticing? Besides just being fast and sneaky, there is one practice that I do quite often. Let the subject come to you.
Go to an area where there is a good stream of interesting people and good lighting, and pick an unobtrusive spot to hunker down. Patience is key. Choose your background ahead of time. Set your camera on manual, pick the correct exposure settings, and then wait.
Look far down the street so that you will notice way in advance when the right person is about to walk into your scene and then move slowly to exactly the right place that you want to intersect them. Try not to look directly at them. Then just pretend that you are taking a photograph of the background, stay low so that they don’t notice you, look through the viewfinder so that you don’t make accidental eye contact, and don’t make any sudden movements to catch their attention

The person will sometimes see you, but since you will just look like an every day tourist that is photographing something random, they won’t think twice or get self conscious.  Then snap!

James Maher can be found online at.

Web : James Maher Photography
Facebook : Maher Photography
Twitter : @jamesmaherphoto

Thanks James.

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