{"id":129670,"date":"2019-02-21T12:02:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=129670"},"modified":"2019-02-21T12:04:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:04:06","slug":"how-to-shoot-travel-street-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/21\/how-to-shoot-travel-street-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Shoot Travel Street Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Currently walking the streets of Mexico City, enjoying street photography both on my RICOH GR II x ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP<\/a>, as well as LUMIX G9 x HENRI Wrist Strap PRO<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1. Smile, walk, say hello to strangers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Generally speaking when you’re shooting street photography, best to walk around with a smile! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you’re out and about and shoot street photography with a smile, strangers are less suspicious of you. Furthermore you feel more confidence, because you know you’re not doing anything wrong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone catches you photographing them, just smile and tell them “thank you” (in the local language).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example here in Mexico City, whenever someone catches me photographing them, I just smile and say “gracias!” 99% of people smile back as a result! And this positive attitude will be a good stimulus to you shooting more! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Shoot in neighborhoods you actually like to hang out in! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Roma Norte, Mexico City 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For myself I like to hang out in hipster neighborhoods, with trendy coffee shops and restaurants. I dislike touristy areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus I’m far more productive in my street photography when I simply hang around in the neighborhood I like, and just bring the camera along!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Shoot street photography inside restaurants <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Don’t just shoot in the streets, when you’re eating out, shoot inside in the restaurants!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For myself when I’m traveling I like to eat at both fancy restaurants and street food. To me this is interesting, because you get a wider variety of social classes of people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For example in Mexico City, there are a lot of really rich people, but most of us traveling photographers only shoot the poor people on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is probably more “scary” to shoot people with higher social class, because we are afraid of getting yelled at. But I think we street photographers must photograph more upper class people, if we want to make more faithful and socially-accurate photos while traveling abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Close quarters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I encourage you to shoot inside crowded markets, crowded streets, where you can get very close to your subjects and photograph them. For example shoot in indoor markets with a 24mm<\/a> or 28mm<\/a> lens, and get very close (no zoom or telephoto). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

5. Don’t worry about ethics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I think a lot of us street photographers become paralyzed because we feel ethically “evil” or “bad” for photographing others who we perceive to be “less fortunate” than ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However I say this thinking is hypocritical, because who are we to even rank poorer people as “lesser” than us<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution: Photograph anyone and everyone equally<\/strong> (the poor, rich, middle class, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Allow yourself to shoot touristy photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There is a bias in street photography that we must only shoot “serious” photos. I say fuck that; shoot anything you want! Shoot selfies, photograph your food, or anything which is a visual stimulus to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just shoot a bunch of photos when traveling, and figure out what to do with the photos later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Enjoy yourself <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I first traveled I got suckered into over-expectations (thinking I’d make the most epic street photos while abroad).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say have no expectations of making good street photos when traveling abroad<\/strong>. Less pressure is good, because you will probably perform better in your photography when you don’t put any unnecessary pressure on yourself when traveling and shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion: Focus on your travel experience over photography <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>
\"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I say use your travel opportunity in order to think more, walk more, learn more about foreign cultures and people, and to have a richer experience. Photography is secondary<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ERIC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently walking the streets of Mexico City, enjoying street photography both on my RICOH GR II x ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP, as well as LUMIX G9 x HENRI Wrist Strap PRO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/eric-kim-street-photography-ricoh-gr-ii-mexico-city-2019-9.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129671,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129670\/revisions\/129671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}