Street photography often gets a lot of photographers nervous. They’re nervous because they immediately shift their mind to the worst. What if someone is angry and attacks you? What if you accidentally take a photo of a child? Indeed, our minds hyperinflate the worst parts of it. So if you’re nervous about street photography, then consider this tried and true method that we’ve used for many years.

“Like all street photography, I believe that the main purpose here is intent. If your intent is to take creepy photos of people for your own sick fetishes, then your intent is harmful. If you’re photographing a scene because you’re trying to satiate your artistic hunger, then that’s different. The way that you do it is all about what’s best for you. If you shoot from the hip though, you’re more likely to be called a pervert in public. If you shoot with the camera to your eye, you’re likely to just be yelled at by someone.”

From our article: On Shooting from the hip in street photography

Shooting From the Hip

The trick here if you’re nervous about street photography is to shoot photos from the hip. The trick is to never start out necessarily by putting the camera’s viewfinder or screen to your eye. This slows you down if you’re using a modern camera. But if you’re using a modern camera with a manual focus lens and you’re zone focusing, the whole act of shooting a frame is much faster.

So to start with, have the camera wrapped around your chest and extend the strap down to your hip. Then shoot the scenes in front of you from the hip. Yes, we know that you’re not looking through the viewfinder or the LCD screen. And that comes with the next exercise.

“I think that when I started out shooting on the street I tended to be a little self-conscious and definitely inexperienced. Going out to shoot was a bit of therapy for me at the time (and still somewhat is) and I wanted it to be a pleasant and relaxing activity but those self-conscious thoughts would get in the way from time to time. Through going out more and more often and changing my thoughts, my experiences became even more positive.”

Rinzi Ruiz in our article on how famous street photographers got over their fears.

Equipping Yourself

Ideally, when you’re doing street photography, we think that you should shoot with a prime lens and you should know your focal length. Shooting street photography with a 35mm lens? Well, at any point, you should be so familiar with your lens that you know how it’s going to see the world from any angle. Some of us see the world in 35mm. But if you don’t then reach for a 28mm, 50mm, or something else. Some folks prefer an 85mm lens just to be extra safe.

But here’s the point: if you know how your camera and lens will interpret the world with 35mm lenses, then you’ll be confident enough simply just pointing your camera at a scene and pressing the shutter.

Tips on Doing Street Photography From the Hip

Here are some essential tips on shooting street photography from the hip:

• Sometimes you need to get closer than you think.
• Zone focus your lens. Set it to manual focus, stop the lens down, raise your ISO up or set it to auto, set your camera to a fast shutter speed, and then just walk up to a subject and photograph it.
• Shoot a few frames and then stop shooting and take a look at what you’ve shot. Consider the photo you again against what you wish you’d captured. Then make adjustments accordingly.
• Zone focusing is far better than autofocusing most of the time.
• The more narrow your aperture, the easier of a time you’ll have getting the shot.

Stoke Fruit Farm, located on Hayling Island off England’s southern coast, has taken to social media to make an unconventional appeal to visitors: please abstain from posing naked for photos in their sunflower fields.

The owners of the farm, siblings Sam Wilson and Nette Petley, noticed an increasing trend of individuals shedding their clothes to capture photos among the sunflowers. In a recent Facebook post, the farm administration emphasized, “We are a family area, and please keep your clothes on in the sunflowers! We are having an increase of reports of naked photography taking place, and this must not happen during our public sessions, please!”

Covering an extensive 350-acre expanse, Stoke Fruit Farm, established by the siblings’ grandfather, cultivates a variety of crops, including wheat, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn, hay, and sunflowers.

Sam Wilson shared with CNN that there had been approximately six incidents of nude photography since the sunflower field was opened to visitors at the close of the previous month. In response to this behaviour, the farm decided to place signs around the premises to address the issue, especially after a few children were exposed to the incidents.

“We are a really free and happy farm, but we just can’t have nudity in public view,” Wilson emphasised. His sister, Nette Petley, added, “While it’s a really happy and fun place that gives you an empowering feeling, it’s important to consider the people around and show respect.”

The sunflowers were initially planted by Wilson and his then-fiancée near the church where they got married six years ago. Although the flowers didn’t bloom in time for their wedding, the couple decided to set up an honesty box for visitors to pick the flowers while they were away on their honeymoon.

The farm’s unexpected popularity led to the sunflower attraction expanding over time, now inviting paying visitors to explore an expansive area of around 50 acres, adorned with two million sunflowers, according to Wilson.

TOWNSEND, Tenn. (WVLT) – For a lot of us visiting the Smokies, we simply want to see the wildlife and take home a picture of that moment. But for Barry Spruce, a photographer who has taken photos of bears, deer, birds and all that’s in the Smokies for 17 years, the perfect picture comes with patience.

In his gallery in Townsend you can see his work and how he’s captured the moments of the animals, like one of the first pieces you’ll see of three bears hanging out in a tree.

“This is in Cades Cove,” he said to WVLT News as he pointed to the photograph. “This mom actually had four cubs, but one was higher in the tree and pretty much blocked by some of the leaf foliage. So I concentrated on the three.”

After retirement, Spruce took on a hobby he’d loved since childhood: photography.

He said bears are the most popular animals in the Great Smoky Mountains to take photographs of.

“They all have a certain range and then getting the idea of what they like to do when they like to do it. And then once you know the age of the bear, you tend to fall into knowing what they’re going to do year in and year out,” he said.

Because you’ll stay a good distance away from the animals, he suggests a long range lenses. There are great places all over the Smokies to see wildlife, but that picture perfect moment could take hours, if not days, to capture.

“Cades Cove gives you just about everything. Roaring Fork has some really good seasons. But cades cove has a little bit of everything because we do have fields and woods and berries and different things,” said Spruce

He said it takes time to learn the bears’ habits, like where and when they’ll feed and when they might just play around in the meadow.

“The best thing I can say once you find a bear is to stay your distance, but let it be natural. So when you let something be natural, that’s when you get the best photography,” he added.

Click here to see more of his work.

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