An Ode to Street Photography ~ part I

And, it got me thinking about the decade plus years that I've spent out there, capturing moments, documenting life, watching the world go by through a lens. Back then I had absolutely no idea how much life me and my cameras would end up seeing, or just how completely it would change mine. So this is my love letter to street photography, to the strangers, the moments, and everything I've picked up along the way. This is part I, part II is coming soon

Oh, and I've really missed having a space to journal my days and little adventures, so here's to bringing my blog back too. 🖤

Street photography moves fast. Life on the streets is constantly shifting; people, traffic, light, timing and all of those things are happening at once, deciding in a split second whether a moment lives or disappears forever. There's no pausing it, no resetting. You just have to be there, be ready, and learn to see what's coming before everyone else does.

If there's one thing that sits at the heart of all of it for me, it's observation. Go out and observe. Then observe some more. Most people stand around waiting for something to happen, but the best street moments start before that. You have to learn to read the street before the moment even exists. The more time you spend just watching, the more you start to see and once you start really seeing, everything changes.

And through that observation, you start to notice the details and details are everything. The smallest thing is often the whole story. A texture, a pattern, someone's gesture, a flash of contrast, a person who just feels slightly out of place any one of those can completely transform what an image says. And a person alone in a frame? That'll do it every time. Look for the things other people walk straight past.

Some people just look like they belong in a film. Your job is to notice them before they vanish.

Distance creates scale. A small subject can carry an entire frame, don’t underestimate how powerful that can be.

That's part 1 done, I’ll share a part II soon, Lucy x