Ever since I wrote my last post about fear of candid photography of people and street photography I’ve been on the urge to try to do the best possible to over come such fear. Like I mentioned before, I’ve watched videos, read books and nothing ever gave me the courage that I needed. Thanks to comments like “just get out there and do it” from Adam Robert Young or “Just conquer your feeling with practice” to name a couple, I decided that is what I needed to do. The only difference is that I need to feel confortable, and practice things little by little. That is why I decided to approach my attempt of Street Photography using “Baby Steps”.
I know to most of you out there this may NOT be the right approach, but I know myself, and I also know that it’s the only way I can push myself to start this. So what did I do? I took my camera and my 70-200 lens and went to Downtown Orlando. I figure that in order for me to get more confortable with photographing people will be to do it from a distance. The first thing I did this time, completely different than before is that I didn’t just walk around all over the place looking for a person to photograph. I looked for a place that I can sit or stand an basically let people pass by me. I did this first because I can always pretend that I’m shooting the scenery and not their faces. This is how I captured this two photos below.
Now, of course that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stay in the same place the whole time; I also walked around and if I saw an interesting non-moving person, I will stop (from a distance) and take their picture.
His hat says relax, I think is more “bored”
I didn’t want to stop there though, I wanted to gain more confidence, so what I did is that slowly I started getting closer to people. I was no longer shooting at 200mm; I was now getting closer, I was shooting between 70 and 105mm. I first started shooting while they were not looking. That way I can practice the distance between the subject and me.
Whether was the wrong approach or not, I feel I gained more confidence and it will motivate me to keep working on it. The next time I go out, I will use my 24-70, to start closing the gap, to start gaining the courage and start taking those photos of people showing their individual expression. The true People and Street Photography, my true passion, the story of a person through the camera’s eye.
Thanks for reading
FlyByPhoto 
It’s so good to see you going for it! I look forward to seeing the next stage in your adventure. Keep going Danny, you are my inspiration.
Thanks much Lisa
Good on you. I have a similar fear and the only photos I’ve got so far have been of people’s backs. Reading about your experiences is encouraging. Keep at it. 🙂
I know exactly what you mean. My first post in here was called “People without Faces”, and it was just that; me taking photos of people’s back and/or not looking. I must admit, its not easy for me, but not because I don’t want to, is my constant fight with myself of “Should I just pull my camera and shoot” or “No, I think that person knows that I’m going to take a picture”. But I guess, little by little I’m gaining the courage to do it. As a matter of fact today, I was practicing shooting from the hip or belly area. I’ll be writing about it soon. Thanks for the comment.