Sydney Street Files #1: What’s my goal?
I don’t think anyone has documented Sydney’s Chinatown as extensively as I have.
I know, I know, it’s an odd boast, but anyone who wants to fight me on this claim can do so in the comments. I’m free game. I hope to find someone who’s spent more time and effort in this one location than me. It’s doubtful, but I believe in you Sydney. I believe.
Joke’s aside, I am making this blog to hopefully spark some interest among Sydney-siders to go out and explore your streets and capture what you see. Beaches are beautiful and everyone knows that. I love and appreciate landscape photography as much as the next guy, but no one can deny that the most interesting part of photography is realism, and no other genre of photography feels more *real” to me than street photography. Even the streets surrounding a beach can be filled with so much untapped life - just get out and run with it!
Street photography can be fun, exciting, random, political, artistic, boring as all hell! It can be whatever you want it to be and that’s why I love every aspect of it. The process of stepping out into new or unfamiliar territory, knowing that you’ll run into something or someone you’ve seen a hundred times before or never in your entire life, is challenging but rewarding.
It’s all about embracing the random…
Even posed photographs of complete strangers can feel candid at the moment because you’re exposing the random nature of human interactions. A man came up to me today in Haymarket, started singing something relating to Buddhist spirituality, and then proceeded to take off his shirt, pick up a National Geographic and pose on top of one of the Chinese guardian lions lining one of Dixon Street’s famous Paifangs (Chinese-style gates).
Did I ask him to? Of course not! My anxious brain was thinking “what the hell is happening?!”. But rather than pushing this eccentric guy away and asking him to chill the eff’ out, I ended up having one of my favourite photographic memories to date. It’s all about embracing the random and letting yourself just be in the moment, and that’s what is so bloody awesome about street photography.
What can street photography do for you as a photographer?
When I got my first camera in 2018, my photos were honestly really bad. I left New Zealand with one photo that I was sort of happy with. ONE. In one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. I hadn’t put the time or effort into knowing how to use my camera, make compositions, and edit. I was completely lost with way too much confidence in my own inexistent ability. Street photography changed quite a lot for me as a photographer and allowed me the confidence to eventually step into paid gigs and volunteer photography jobs.
Your first step is to learn that you will suck major ass when you first start your street photography journey. If anyone reading this is an experienced photographer then I am sure you can attest to that, regardless of what genre of photography you really enjoy.
Make sure you set small goals for yourself and don’t put too much pressure on yourself early on. You will learn a lot with time, so here are some of the things that really helped me improve:
Going out to the same location over and over again (Chinatown for me) and shooting the same photo over and over and over and over and over again. You will learn how to get the best possible compositions if you try this. The best example for me is Chinatown’s famous clown guy who I have shot 50 times over and now I get a new picture I love nearly every time I see him
Talk to people! If you see a busker, have a chat and get to know who they are. In a few short minutes you can learn a lot about someone and how they got to where they are. Once you see them again, you’ll take a different photo every time and their comfort around the camera will grow ten-fold because you have already established a relationship with the subject. Forming a relationship with your subject can offer some awesome opportunities to practice composition. Once you have a good understanding of composition and framing your subject, you’ll find yourself keeping more photos than you would of when you first started your photography journey.
Find your editing style by editing the same image in 5 different ways. This is a great exercise I wished I had started earlier because I wasn’t critical enough of my own work. Looking back I would keep way too many photos that were ruined by bad editing, and then share them on my Instagram account. Now I don’t post nearly enough because I am maybe too critical. I promise there are more great photos coming dudes, bare with me as I am on my own journey myself and poor editing is a big reason why I have not posted so many pictures!
Stick with it. I will admit that street photography is very mentally challenging but keep on going back to the same spots and trying because someday soon it will be worth it. You’ll get there, just know that mistakes are good and you will keep picking up new skills as you go along. As clichè as it sounds - never give up
I’m aiming for one blog post a week at this stage, but I’m really hoping this community can grow and that I get to meet some of you down the line. It’s 1:48am and this is my first ever blog, so I have zero ideas on how to end this. Maybe with a request…
PLEASE SHARE YOUR WORK
I WANT to see more street photos! GIMME ALL THE STREET PHOTOS!
If you stumble across this blog please drop your own work below. I’d love to see street photography from anywhere across the globe. I still have so much to see, do, and learn in my photographic journey, and I would love to create an inclusive community around this blog
I want this blog to be based on our communal passion, excitement, and curiosity about street photography. The main aim is to help people grow as street photographers and photographers in general (myself included!)
My only ask is that my followers are non-judgemental - we’re all on different parts of our journey and the #1 thing I hate is when professional photographers put you down or flex gear on you when you’re up and coming, so here are some rules:
1. Be kind in the comments
2. Be confident in your own ability
3. Never give up!
