{"id":32719,"date":"2016-12-07T02:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=32719"},"modified":"2016-12-12T09:13:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T17:13:57","slug":"how-to-shoot-street-photography-while-traveling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/07\/how-to-shoot-street-photography-while-traveling\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Shoot Street Photography While Traveling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"eric
Mumbai, 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love to travel, experience new cultures, try new foods, meet new people, and of course\u00e2\u20ac\u201d taking photos while I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m traveling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d tends to be a very specific genre of photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and everyone has their own definition. For me, I see pretty much any form of photographs taken in public as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Yet there is another huge genre of photography often referred to as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153travel photography.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I learned from Cindy that travel photography tends to be less artistic\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and more about personal-documentation of your experiences while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re abroad.<\/p>\n

Yet, how can we bridge the two? Can you shoot traditional \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while in a foreign place\u00e2\u20ac\u201d without making it look \u00e2\u20ac\u0153National Geographic-y?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Shoot like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re home<\/h2>\n
\"Mumbai,
Mumbai, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the problems when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re traveling abroad and taking photos in a foreign country is that we get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suckered by the exotic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (as I learned from my teacher, Constantine Manos). We get inspired and awed by what is exotic, different, and novel.<\/p>\n

Yet what is exotic and novel isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always interesting photographically.<\/p>\n

We tend to fall victim to visual cliches when traveling. We want to get the Eiffel tower when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Paris. We want to photograph the colorful walls and men in turbans in India. We want to photograph the women in rice patty-hats in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\"Tuyen
Tuyen Quang, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do we make \u00e2\u20ac\u0153interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unique\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos while we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re traveling?<\/p>\n

My suggestion: photograph like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at home. Or if you were a local.<\/p>\n

We all know what cliches are in our own town. For example, when I shot a lot in Downtown LA, photographing the vendors with bubbles was a bit of a cliche. When I was in San Francisco, photographing photos of homeless people was an easy-target and cliche. In Vietnam, I try to avoid just random people riding in motorbikes.<\/p>\n

How do locals photograph their own city?<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before I travel somewhere, I try to see what kinds of images that local photographers make.<\/p>\n

For example, before coming to Hanoi, I searched: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hanoi Street Photography\u00e2\u20ac\u009d into Google\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and found the work of Chu Viet Ha<\/a> (who takes interesting, multi-layered, complex, and colorful images of Hanoi). Since then, we have become good friends\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I like to shoot with him. He teaches me how to photograph like a local, and I pay attention what he decides not<\/em> to photograph.<\/p>\n

I recommend the same advice the next time you plan on traveling to a foreign place. Figure out what kind of photos you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> want to make.<\/p>\n

Practice your street photography technique while abroad<\/h2>\n