Can I do street?

A question many of us ask ourselves. Can I shoot street? Are my street photographs great street pictures or are they just photographs of people with no story behind them?

It started some 3 years ago. The genre of street photography got my interest. I was walking the streets and noticed that there was not much interesting to capture on the SD card. Except for one thing.
The people walking on the street. Old and young, male or female. The expressions on the faces started to fascinate me. But I did not have enough courage to take the pictures of them.

A year later in 2011 I tripped over some shots of a street photographer many of us know.
I read is book Going Candid and learned a lot about how to approach the street.

The camera I had at that time was the Olympus E-PL2 and the 20mm Panasonic lens which I swapped for the Fuji X100.
People wrote things like: "The X100 is the street camera". But that´s not the only reason I bought it. This is a different story though.

Anyway, I had the camera in my hand and loved it. Shortly after we visited Stockholm.
Being in a town where nobody knows me I though I could try my street skills.








A year later after near enough no practice on the street I still had the X100 and my wife and I visited Zürich and then Istanbul.

Zürich is a wonderful city full of life and people. Some of them are tiered out by walking a lot. 


Some of them making sure the tourists have a great time in this great city.


Just a week later I was on a short trip to Istanbul with my wife. What a contrast to Zürich this was. The X100 was still at my side which is something for me. I´m a gear geek and just love new gear. But the X100 was and still is a great camera which I just loved to bits. Even though it had many flaws, glitches and what not all.

I read everything about it on the net and of course I tripped over people talking about the SAB. The so called sticky aperture blades. By this time I had taken around about 3000 shots with my Fuji X100 and was just waiting for it to happen.
And it did happen. It started while being in Istanbul. You can read all about it here.

Luckily I knew what had happened and managed to get some shots out of the X100.











In Istanbul I started to become more confident at pointing my camera at people and taking there picture.

It´s like a drug that gets you. I just wanted to click the button and take more pictures, more pictures and even more.
But the visit ended and my wife and I had to head back home again to our job to earn enough money for the upcoming trip to New York.

We worked and worked and worked and I had near enough no time to take any kind of picture.
August 2011 arrived and we got on the awesome Airbus A380 with destination New York City.

By that time I had a Fuji X-Pro1 in my hand. Boy that was a tuff decision to make. Should I take my beloved Fuji X100 with me or the brand new X-Pro1 with only the 35mm 1.4 lens. I opted for the later.

At the beginning it was hard to get used to the longer focal length of equivalent 53mm instead of the X100 35mm.
I got used to it and it was great.

New York rewarded me with some great pictures.



New York rewarded me with one of my best street shots I have taken so far. This girl was in a discussion with the guy and did not notice me at all. I love the picture as it is full of power and emotion.












I know that not all the pictures are 100% in focus but I don´t care. They all tell a story and that is what is important. I have come to mind that not every shot has to be 100% technically perfect if the story behind it tells us enough.

After a long time without hitting the street I had the chance to catch up this year. A 5 day visit with some friends and the brand new Fuji X100S should be just great to get some more practice.

Paris is a Mecca for street photography. The people, the architecture and of course... the people.













Most of the time I am not near enough to the people. I know about that. Most of the time my wife is by my side as I take the shots and I know that if I get closer I might would have to take a run. This I don´t want to risk as I don´t want to endanger my wife.

To get closer to the people there is only one possibility. I need to go out on the streets by myself or with someone even more passionate about candid portraits.

And that is just what I am going to do. I have the luck that Thomas Leuthard said yes to an inquiry of mine. So hopefully after I have hit the streets with him my skills will be much, much better than they are now and I hope that my street pictures will be a lot better than they are.

Thanks for reading this post.
Do drop a comment at the end of this post.

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