I have always been a scenery kind of girl. One of my dream dates would be to hop in a car and drive around the city. Why? You might ask. It is simply for the views and good conversation of course. I guess it is the simplicity in me. However, when I started photography, I had absolutely no interest in street photography. Rather, I simply just wanted to focus on portrait photography. I felt that street photography would be boring. I mean what’s fun about capturing buildings and birds? Not to mention looking like a creep or a paparazza while snapping photos. But soon, I was mistaken. 

 Getting Started 

Let’s be honest here. When you’re just starting out photography and is solely focused on portrait photography, muse traffic can be really slow. Which can lead to you not getting the time needed for practice. I have had conversations with multiple photographers that has been in the game for years about tips and tricks on how to improve my photography. Every last one of them has stated “Get out there and SHOOT!”. So, I did.

One day, I decided to bring my camera to work.  There is a pier located near my job and often times, during my lunch break, if the weather is nice, I will walk there. So you guessed it! I decided to bring my camera to the pier and SHOOT. Here’s what I came up with.

New Obsession! 

Since that day, I have added street photography to my list of favorite genres. What’s changed? Well, I still feel like a paparazza or a creep with a camera, LOL! But only sometimes and the few times I do feel that way I move past those feelings quickly. You see with shooting street photography; you just never know what to expect because you really have no control over subjects or things like you would in portrait photography. The motivating factor is the UNKNOWN. You don’t know what moment, person, place or thing you will run into. For example, you may be shooting a building and a bicyclist will ride by.

Or you might run into a well known photographer such as Louis Mendes from the 70s!

Also, street photography is just fun from beginning to end. The fun doesn’t end the moment you take the photo. It continues in the editing process which grants you the creative control you have with portrait photography to create some awesome pics. Street photography allows you to really capture some raw authentic moments. Although photography is what you DEFINE it to be,  is that not what photography should be about? Am I giving up portrait photography? Absolutely not! Portrait photography is my first love. It is what lead me to photography in the first place. However, it’s through street photography that my confidence and skills has grown as a photographer. For that, street photography has my heart. Always.