Welcome to my first Photo blog entry. I will be adding new articles on a monthly basis. I would like to touch on a style of Photography that is near and dear to my heart commonly called Street Photography.

First I feel it is important to talk about what street photography is and that is no small task. Photographers have been trying to define it for a hundred plus years and I doubt I will be able to do it here. In essence street photography (also known as documentary photography) is a very broad term used to describe candid photographs taken in public. Street photography can occur at an event or in a small town cafe for example and may be a close up photo of a single person or a distant photo of an entire group of people. This too does not really describe all types of street photography as a street photograph may be of a dog standing outside a store or awaiting it's owner for example. So let's just go back to the very broad description of a candid photo taken in public to make our lives easier for now.

Game for Two? The goal of many street photographers goes well beyond the generic response floating about the internet which is to capture and preserve a single moment in time. Most street photographers really want to convey a powerful emotion, a unique point in time or a certain culture. Simply put they want to share life in a sense. Nothing is more exciting or gratifying for a street photographer than capturing that perfect moment when light, time, opportunity and inspiration all come together and are captured in the lens of their trusty camera.

Speaking of camera we come to the topic of gear. The camera is also oddly enough a touchy topic street photographers. There is great debate on what type of camera should be used and how to be a street photographer. Let's take a look at a few styles. The traditional Street photographer uses a wide angle lens around 20-35mm and often shoots photo's from the hip never bringing the camera up to their eye. This type of Photographer is generally against the use of larger DSLR's or any camera that you bring up to your eye to shoot. Traditionalists of the craft prefer camera's that are small with wide angle lenses as are very fast f2.0 or less. The traditional approach is a more in your face style of photographing subjects. Some people prefer to shoot from afar with zoom lenses using SLR and DSLR camera's. Many traditional purists of the art find the use of zoom lenses as very controversial. To the purist street photographer if you use a zoom lens you are an observer and not a participant which they view as important. Though I wonder if most can tell the difference. Another controversial style is the spy camera cleverly hidden in pens or buttons or used by remote. In the end any camera may be used even a cell phone but some may not consider it a true street photo depending on your choice of gear while most are fairly flexible and only judge on your results.

Friendship It is my own personal opinion that it is not the tools that you use that make you a great street photographer but rather it is what you capture via a lens that matters. Color, monochrome, wide angle, or zoom the capturing of an image that speaks to you and hopefully speaks to others as well is the true goal of any street photographer. I would love to hear your thoughts about this topic. Do you feel that street photography should be held to it's traditions by those who pioneered the art? Should street photography be more broad and progressive allowing for new tool's and techniques? Please feel free to comment on this blog or ask questions.

Three Plus One

Next Entry - Street photography part II, ethics and morality