The Street Factor | Earth Scriptures

Street Photography
Street Portraits, Using Zoom Lens, and a Feature.

Street Portraiture, I believe, can be a great companion piece to Street Photography.

There, I've said it.
What usually ensues right after I've made the above statement is either a short and simple, "Yeah sure, Khuram.", or a nice, long, and intellectually saturated lecture
that I'm too obtuse to grasp, and a lot of big words in between that I'm too lazy
to look up in the dictionary.
 
Many discussions (some more passionate than others - I know, I was involved in one, and it was anything but romantic) are based on the fact that Street Photography is all about interactions between the subject and the environment.
At this point I'm left wondering, 'what part of Street Portraiture being, a great companion piece to Street Photography, do they not understand?'


Then there's that issue with your subjects posing:

In Street Portraiture too, you cannot just walk up to someone and ask for their photograph. That's Portrait Photography!
Alright, suppose if you do let them know that you're going to take their photo, I bet that seven out of ten times,
you're either going to end up with your subject making awkward poses, or peace signs, or even worse; facebook pouts!
 
I know you've heard this many times before, that Street Photography is also about photographing people in candid, unposed situations - yeah, but so is Street Portraiture.
The real fun in Street Portraiture is getting as close to your subjects as possible without them knowing.
No, not the 100mm, 400mm telephoto zoom type of close, that's just way too easy.
And besides, you're not taking photos of wild life here - it's a concrete jungle out there, I agree, but we as humans have evolved - well, most of us have anyway.
Of course, not everyone (except for the experts) would really be able to tell that you've used a zoom lens if you hide the exif data and disable the download option....ahem.


Lens Woes in Street Photography:

Imagine you're out with your family and/or friends, when you suddenly 'see' a split second, 'blink and you'll miss' moment developing before your very eyes,
and you have a zoom lens (or any Non-Street lens attached to your camera body) on you.
What will you do?
If you have the shot, take it!
Take it, and pray that it's a damn brilliant one if it's to be accepted as legit Street.
That's why Street Groups sometimes accept shots taken with a telephoto lens because the photographer was able to successfully capture the moment, the Wow factor that in the end, simply blew the admins away, forcing them to hit the YES button.

Always remember that Street Photography is not about capturing a moment,
it's about capturing The Moment.
And if you've captured such a moment on the street scene,
give yourself a pat on the back, for you have indeed captured a Street Shot!



I would like to end with a quote by `StamatisGR from his excellent article,

PE: Street Photography for dummies:

"Very often, the line between Street Photography, Photojournalism, or Portrait Photography is very THIN and responsible for endless arguments.
Many times there are subtle differences between these three genres and images may belong to 2 or even all 3 of them.
I have a simple rule in my mind which usually helps me differentiate them.  
If an image has the potential to be published in a newspaper as "news", it's Photojournalism.
If the subject(s) is out of context, it's a portrait.
In the end though, it really doesn't matter which category an image falls in.
If it's a GOOD image, that's all that it counts." ~ Stamatis



And now, feast your eyes on some brilliant examples of Street,
and Street Portraiture, by these outstanding photographers:






    Window Seat  by *eric-taylor






   U2 X  by ~iDie






   Silent Screamer  by ~Draken413o






   GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH  by *JaredWingate






   In the tram  by *sandas04






   Red lips  by *FotografajoSindikato






   Offspring BW  by *tlfunk






   Ignore them  by *mangawhio






   Hard Life  by *AlexandruCrisan






   Good guy Bad guy  by ~Petach123






   Coffee And A Newspaper  by $xraystyle






   A Kid at heart  by ~aaroffy






   Glass doors are fun  by ~BallrogBoogie






   Paris  by *JakezDaniel