A beginner’s guide to street photography

Street photography can be an entirely different beast: it documents peoples in their daily environment, and it encompasses both living (humans) and non-living (places and objects) elements. Janique Goff Madison, a photography student and nature lover who studies at San Diego State University, offers a quick introduction to this type of photography.

Image source: PhotographyLife.com    

Digital Photography School compares street photography to “daydreaming with a camera.” Why? It’s a candid take on life and the various facets in and around it, from people to buses and trains to their everyday interactions. People don’t actually need to be present for an image to be deemed a street photography; the photo doesn’t even need to be shot in a city or a busy marketplace. It can be taken anywhere and can show any scene, which actually makes “street photography” a clunky term that a number of photographers dislike.

When it comes to camera equipment, less is definitely more. Being a street photographer is being invisible out on the streets, documenting life in its most raw and mundane forms. While you can do street photography with a DSLR, it’s best to stay low-key using a small camera, Janique Goff Madison added.

Image source: Pixabay.com   

Don’t forget the so-called “decisive moment,” coined by street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. It refers to that moment when everything comes together perfectly, ripe for clicking the shutter. But this doesn’t mean being confined to that one moment, because street photography is about taking a ton of shots and choosing what best represents the bunch and life’s various moments themselves.

Janique Goff Madison is a photography student, volunteer, nature lover, textile enthusiast, and dog lover who currently attends San Diego State University. Learn more about her works on this page.

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