RE: [Leica] Human Traffic

["Dan Honemann" <ddh@home.com>]

Thanks for this advice, Johnny--it's truly helpful.

My hunch is that it is easier to street shoot where there is a higher
density of human traffic; there's less attention to any one person,
including the one with the camera.  Baltimore traffic tends to be sparse,
save for certain times/occasions.  DC is a bit thicker.

I'll give your experiment a try.

Thanks again,
Dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Johnny
> Deadman
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 4:34 AM
> To: LUG
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Human Traffic
>
>
> on 26/4/00 1:58 AM, Dan Honemann at ddh@home.com wrote:
>
> >  I'm eager to find out how you (and the other
> > street shooters) go about getting such great photos.  Do you
> interact with
> > your subjects at all, or do you just anonymously step up and
> shoot photos?
> > Do you ask permission?
>
> Most of the time I'm shooting so fast that not only do I not ask
> permission
> but the subjects are completely unaware they were photographed, or perhaps
> more precisely, that they were the subject of a photograph (since I don't
> try to hide the fact that I'm carrying a camera and photograph
> openly). This
> is sometimes even true of people who are staring into the lens.
>
> What interaction there is is usually just a smile and a nod from
> me, usually
> acknowledged with humour from whoever it is.
>
> I am very, very rarely challenged or confronted by anyone. Maybe one shot
> in, literally, a thousand. Actually, I can work it out. Since xmas, for
> example, I have probably shot about 150-200 rolls on the street. That's at
> least 6000 frames, all of it in public and none of it with permission.
> During that time I've had the following incidents:
>
> A homeless guy who was being interviewed by a TV crew jumped up and
> threatened to headbutt me. This was completely my own fault and will not
> happen again, as I now have a rule which I recommend to anyone shooting on
> the street not to shoot ANY homeless (or mentally ill, or unpleasantly
> drunk) person without their permission. Ethics/pragma whatever,
> it's a good
> rule I think.
>
> A guy who was on a bus that I was photographing got off and had a
> go at me.
> He was non-violent but a bit threatening and had a big dog. He might have
> been in the picture but he wasn't the subject, which I explained.
> Anyway, I
> was relaxed and that's how he was eventually.
>
> A cyclist yelled at me.
>
> A homeless guy spotted me shooting some ten or eleven year olds in a bus
> stop. He challenged me -- quite fairly, actually -- about what I
> was doing.
> The only odd thing was that he pretended to be a plain-clothes police
> officer, which he very clearly was not. When I explained what I was doing
> ('I'm a street photographer... I shoot everyone.. you don't need
> a permit')
> he apologised, even though I told him I thought he had a perfect right to
> ask me, which he did.
>
> So that's 4 incidents in 6000 shots. Less than 1 in a 1000. And in every
> case being reasonable and friendly and willing to talk and NOT being
> intimidated defused the situation.
>
> Most of the time I will shoot for four or five hours and not speak to
> anyone. The key... the complete key... is confidence in what you
> are doing.
> There is no way to get this, unless you are born with it, except by going
> out there and shooting. I started HUMAN TRAFFIC last year knowing
> that I had
> to break down my shyness about street shooting, which was crippling my
> pictures. After about 50-60 rolls it started to go, and now I don't even
> think about it. It's just not a factor.
>
> I've said this before on the streetphoto list, where this stuff
> is discussed
> all the time (http://www.topica.com/lists/streetphoto), that if you really
> want to learn how to street shoot but feel shy or uncomfortable
> about it you
> should try the following exercise. I did, and it worked for me.
>
> Take four rolls of Tri-X rated at 400, one camera, one lens and one light
> meter. No bag. Go to a busy street. Take a light reading and set
> the camera
> as close to 1/125 @ f8 as you can and do not worry any more about
> the light
> unless it changes radically. Also, try holding the camera in your
> hand with
> the strap around your palm, rather than having it round your neck.
>
> Now tell yourself that just for this afternoon (or morning) you
> are going to
> pretend that you are not shy, and act accordingly. You are Garry
> Winogrand,
> or HCB, or Superman, or whoever, and you are going to take pictures of
> people openly. (I don't mean be stupid or arrogant or foolhardy,
> I just mean
> be open about it).
>
> Now shoot those four rolls NOT WORRYING ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE
> PICTURES. I
> am trying to reduce the areas of difficulty here. We are working
> on shyness,
> right? Smile at people when you make eye contact. Don't worry
> about looking
> foolish. You will. Imagine you have a clown nose on or something.
>
> One rule, however. You will raise the camera to your eye. You will compose
> and focus. (No zone focussing today. You can go back to that, and
> being shy,
> tomorrow).
>
> All you have to do is get through those four rolls, and this afternoon,
> pretending that you are not shy.
>
> Now go home and develop the Tri-X in Xtol 1:1 for 9 minutes. Do
> it that very
> day or you will distort the feedback loop. Look at the pictures. Ask
> yourself how you felt as you shot. Were you intimidated?
> Exhilerated? Was it
> as bad as you thought? Better? Worse?
>
> Like I say, an exercise worth trying if shyness on the street is
> an issue. I
> guarantee you will learn something interesting about yourself.
> You may even
> inadvertently take a good picture.
>
>
> --
> Johnny Deadman
>
> photos:      http://www.pinkheadedbug.com
> music:       http://www.jukebox.demon.co.uk
>