My first steps in streetphotography

2020, February 5

1. My first real streetphoto. I visited an event in London. The tube is the perfect scene for streetphotography. For this photo I probably hesitated too long to take the shot from the guy I found very interesting. But the photo worked out well where he looks straight at me. It just shows how I felt, being a bit nervous ... shall I take the picture or not. And he probably thought, WTF. So just do it, I am very happy that I took the photo anyway.

2. I found this Surinamise shop in Amsterdam interesting with all those cans of sardines. Focused on the cans, but loved the queue of people and the trash bag on the floor.

3. A bit of a sneaky picture, taking a photo of both my children walking to school and trying to get the man in the background. Maybe a little confusing what to look at ((my) two kids – yes there are two walking, reflection of myself in the window, the man with the dog, an old fashioned milkchurn), but that made it now interesting for me.

4. What a time to start with street photography if you are not really allowed to go outside because of the corona virus lockdown. But sometimes the street just comes to you. I was already watching the window cleaners in our building. And when they got to our window I pulled up my camera. When you greet people nicely, they usually are okay I guess when you take a picture. I quickly made a print that I pasted on another window for him to have. I did see a very big smile.

5. Empty shelfs and mouth masks. A typical picture of these days (first lockdown in The Netherlands). This was the first time that I dared to get a little closer to take the photo. Maybe because I was so eager to get this in the frame.

6a. During my lunch break I cycled to the center. I actually wanted to take a photo of an Amsterdam abandoned dam square. And then I saw this lost man.

6b. He walked past me again. Still a tourist who desperately wants to go home? A deserted square and a lost man !nished the composition.

7. With the 1,5 metre distance society (because of the corona virus) I still tried to come as close as possible to this scene. When people are busy with themselves they don’t even notice you.

8. We were waiting for our order. I already had my camera in my hand. I only saw afterwards that the headphone cable from the hamburger on the wall went directly to his stomach. So shoot whatever you can, sometimes you have a lucky hit.

9. Today on King’s Day the dog was decorated with an orange sling around his neck to get in the mood.

My daughter already saw this dog earlier on the street behind the photo. The girl was unlocking her bicycle and then headed our way. We smiled at her and said how nice the dog is decorated. She smiled back and let the dog look our way. Dog owners are always proud to show their dog. And if you are approaching people in a friendly way works well too.

10a. In the Netherlands it is so easy to take pictures of people on their bikes. We walked around the block with the children. And I was trying this out. Pretend to take pictures of the kids and the street. But I don’t think this man bought that.

10b. Not sure if using zoom lenses or cropping too much should be the trick to get your subject correctly in the frame.

11. I pretend to play with my camera settings. But in the meantime I still just take the shot. In this photo I used the touchscreen of my FUJI XF10 as a shutter button.

12. Here I also pretend. It seems like I want to take a picture of the lawn, but in fact I’m waiting for the people to walk into the frame. When they are in the frame I shoot the photo. The shutter button is in silence mode so there is no suspicion of what I am doing.

13. I wanted to trigger myself. What if I just point the camera at this gentleman. I was curious if he would say something. I could always say that I just wanted to photograph Amsterdam Central Station in the background. But what happened is that he just turned away and looked at his bicycle. Maybe most people don’t care if they get on the photo. They may not necessarily want it, or maybe don’t want to “ruin” your photo in their feelings.

14. I walked around on the market, always a lot of things going on. The perfect scene for streetphotography. It looks like the gentleman is looking at the camera. I am happy you can see a part of the typical Amsterdam North architectural style in the background. Go out, in busy places you will definitely see something that catches your eye.

15. Because of the Corona virus there is 1.5 meters between the market stalls. Waiting for someone to pass by. It was exactly here that I heard for the first time someone saying “I don’t want to be in the picture”. I have not made eye contact or entered into a conversation, we both just continued walking in our own direction. I didn’t catch the man in the photo but would have removed it right away because he wouldn’t want it. Respect the people you shoot.

16. Billboards, too easy? I just waited for the right time when our parcel driver walked by this abri.