Re: [Leica] unobtrusive techniques

[Francesco <fls@san.rr.com>]

YES!  These are the two techniques I find myself most 
sucessful with as well.  Act like the subject of interest is
in the same general direction as the subject, but slightly 
behind or to the side.  Of course, there are those people
(Hong Kong for example) that will purposely MOVE out of
your angle of view even if you point in their general direction.
Hong Kong, for me, was very difficult for close-ups of people
on the street.  By the time I got close enough to get a decent'
image with a 50mm lens, they noticed me moving in slowly
and kept an eye on me so I would not steal a shot.  By the 
time I tried to point in their direction, they would put the hand up
or step inside a doorway.  Sometimes, though, I would get good
ones where the people didn't see me working.  BUT, then
we are back to "sneak techniques" right?  And what about
using these images for books or commercial use?
Without a release, they're worthless, n'est-ce pas?

Francesco




At 01:50 AM 12/2/98 , Neil Frankish wrote:
>was [Leica] sneak thief photographers!
>
>I would like to hear some the the ways fellow luggers "make themselves
>invisible".  snip- --
>Michael Garmisa <elmar@nyct.net>
>
>
>I have two major techniques for being unobtrusive during street photography
>-they even work sometimes!
>
>1. Pretend to be a tourist, and point your camera at everything and pretend
>to take pictures of everything (use this to check exposure range etc). In a
>static environment, the people look your way at first and then thereafter
>ignore you.
>
>2. After studying the photos of HCB, I noticed that in a lot of his
>'environmental' portraits, the person is often beside a photographically
>interesting object. Take a photograph of an interesting 'thing' and you can
>say that the person is only there by accident, at the 'decisive moment'. By
>having the 'thing' in the centre of the frame, the person will likely be at
>"the rule of thirds", aiding composition.
>
>Neil Frankish
>