Street photography - Interacting with people

Seek permission

Street photography can be a rewarding and exciting way to capture candid moments and unique perspectives of everyday life. However, as a street photographer, you may find yourself in situations where you need to interact with the people you are photographing. Whether you are seeking permission to take a photo or simply want to engage with someone in a friendly manner, it's important to approach these interactions with sensitivity and respect. Here are a few tips for interacting with people in street photography:

1. 
   Seek permission: If you want to take a photo of someone who is not engaged in a public activity, it's important to ask for their permission. This can be as simple as making eye contact and saying, "Can I take your photo?" or "Would you mind if I take a photo of you?" If the person seems uncomfortable or hesitant, respect their wishes and move on to another subject.

2. Be respectful and polite: Even if you have permission to take a photo, it's important to be mindful of the person's boundaries. Don't get too close or invade their personal space, and be mindful of your body language and facial expressions. If you are taking a photo of someone from a distance, try to do so discreetly so as not to draw attention to yourself.

3. Show your appreciation: If someone has agreed to have their photo taken, be sure to thank them and show your appreciation for their willingness to participate. You might also consider sharing the photo with them after you've taken it.

4. Be prepared for rejection: It's important to remember that not everyone will want to have their photo taken, and that's okay. Don't take it personally, and move on to another subject.

5. Build a rapport: If you are planning to take multiple photos of someone or engage in a longer conversation, try to build a rapport with them. This can be as simple as introducing yourself and engaging in small talk. By showing genuine interest in the person and their story, you can create a more positive and respectful interaction.

Build a rapport

By following these tips, you can approach your street photography interactions with sensitivity and respect, ensuring that you capture candid moments while also building positive relationships with the people you photograph.

People Photography

Taking pictures of random people on the street sometimes can turn out to be tricky and challenging. Not all people like their picture being taken.

As a photographer being discreet, making sure people notice one is around taking pictures, respecting if people refuse the picture, ... all about being respectful helps.

However, the best shots probably happen if they are taken quickly out of the moment. Usually this goes along with the subject noticing you as a photographer right after the shutter release. Depending on the culture it is good thing to show them the picture - something which became easy to do in the digital world - or have a short chat with people. In other cultures people just are not interested. And in some cultures people expect a tip for their picture being taken.

In order to get as natural as possible images it can be helpful to take pictures using a longer focal length lens. That way the subject is not perturbed in natural out of the moment behaviour, the photographer can keep some distance and is able to take some time for composing the picture and finding the right moment and exposure.

Depending on what you want to achieve as a photographer you want to make sure the subject to notice, or not to notice, that their picture is being taken.

Depending on what you want to achieve as a photographer you want to make sure the subject to notice, or not to notice, that their picture is being taken.

For example, the fish sales woman at a fish market in Barcelona, Spain (see above). She was in the middle of a conversation with a customer talking about the delicious fresh sea food at her booth. Hence, you want to keep that moment, you want to make the image speak. If she would be looking into the camera most of the content of that image would be lost.

Another example is the lady of this shop in Shanghai who was about to eat her noodle soup (see above, right). She was concentrated on her soup slurping the noodles surrounded by the products she is selling. Suddenly she looked up from her bowl directly into my camera, noticed that I was about to take a picture and gave me that look saying "leave me alone, I am eating".

Legendary Photographers - Bill Cunningham

Bill Cunningham who was one of the leaders turning fashion photography into its own branch of visual art died June 25th 2016 at age 87 in New York.

While fashion photography nowadays is a very composed and technical discipline Cunningham was focusing on how people stage fashion in the streets of New York in everyday life.

Read the article in memorandum of Bill Cunningham at: The New York Times http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/style/bill-cunningham-legendary-times-fashion-photographer-dies-at-87.html?_r=0&referer=http://m.facebook.com

The Underwater Project - Video slideshow and documentary

Underwater photography of scenes under breaking waves.

The Underwater Project from Mark Tipple on Vimeo.

Making of:

Shooting The Underwater Project from Mark Tipple on Vimeo.

People of West-Papua - People Photography

From my scuba diving trips to West-Papua in Indonesia I have a collection of portrait images of local people. - Visit my gallery at link.
These images have been shot when visiting villages along the West-Papua coast line on a boat trip to the very remote Triton Bay in 2009.

Unfortunately we never visited the mountain regions of the West-Papua main land.




Most of these people did not see any tourists for several years and hence were very curious to know how this works with all the cameras we were carrying along.

A special experience was the curiosity especially of the kids when starting to communicate.
Immediately we were invited to meet the chief of the village, to visit the local school - which apparently was missing a teacher at the time, or the medical center - which was missing a doctor.



Interesting was also to see the mixture of people living in these remote villages.
Some of them were clearly of Papuan origin while others seemed to be immigrants from either the Maluku Islands, Java, or Sulawesi.

Along the coast the immigration and influence from eastern Indonesia is clearly visible while original Papuas preserving their tribal traditions live more in the mountain regions.

Searching for "West-Papua" in the "people" category of 500px.com yields some very impressive portraits.

The Dani by Evi Arbay (500px)

Dani warrior by Mikael Thorvaldsson (500px.com)

Papua Kids #2 by Massimo Rembrante (500px.com)