Do you plant your feet and wait or do you swoop in like a raven and steal the photograph as if it were a field mouse (do ravens eat field mice? Can I get a fact check?)? Each of our styles differ and there are certainly pluses and minuses to each.
The Street Photography stake out is where a photographer will find an interesting background and sit and wait for “the perfect storm”, or a series of events or subjects to fall into place in the right sequence for the “perfect” shot. I’ve come across these photographers in New York, most recently one was staking out shadows next to the NYC Public Library. He picked a rather inconspicuous place next to a lamp-post, out-of-the-way of the people walking down the sidewalk.
I’ve also done my own fair share of staking out to capture what I thought would be cool shots. One of the more fun ones I did was in Sicily, I stood back from the road a little ways and panned with moped riders to get some cool motion shots on the Fujifilm X100S
Planting your feet and waiting for a good shot can have it’s advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that you can have time to really marinate over what you’d like to get out of the shot. You also have time to position yourself in a way that you are out of the line of sight of your subject as to not impact their natural disposition. One of the main disadvantages is if you stick around long enough you may start to look like a creeper. Also, the longer you stand in one place the more missed opportunities you may be missing right around the corner. Everything has its trade-offs.
Whether you plant your feet and stick around a while or are constantly on the move like a jungle cat, you’re bound to come across some really great photography. We’d love to see some of your success over on the Facebook page, feel free to upload images and let us know a little about them.
So what type of Street Photographer are you? Take the poll below.
