Low Key Shooting on the Streets The following recommendations were made by Dave Beckerman. 1. If your girlfirend or any woman is willing -- let them act as a foil. You put them in front of you, and your intended subject is somewhere nearby, and pretend to take the picture of your girlfriend but you're really taking a picture of the little old man next to her. Walker Evans used this technique quite often. So did HCB. 2. Photograph in crowded situations. This is by far the easiest thing to do. Street fairs. Heavily trafficed streets. And after you take your shots, continue to hold the camera to your eye. Nobody really knows if you were shooting them, or the people behind them. 3. Photograph a portion of a landmark -- people can understand why you are photographing it, but devote 3/4 of the frame to people who are unexpectedly walking into the frame. Again, keep the camera to your eye so that the person isn't really sure if you've just shot them or the building or what. 4. Get a nice wide angle lens, like a 21mm, and use hyperfocal distance so that everything from say 3 feet to infinity is in focus (I know some consider this cheating but I don't) -- hang the camera from your neck and take as many pictures as you want. 5. Get a right-angle finder (if you can find one) for whatever camera so that you are actually looking down, not at the subject. Most people are totally at ease if you are not looking them straight in the eye. 6. Another easy thing -- simply go to a real touristy spot where everyone else has cameras. For me, this is outside the Metropolitan Museum. You can shoot there as if you had an invisible cloak. 7. (Added by , 1/9/02) Photograph when it's really cold out... say, under 35F. People are so busy trying to get somewhere warm, they could almost care less what you point at them. Above all else, remember that YOUR attitude conditions the responses of the people you're photographing. If you look scared, out of place and don't have a good response when someone asks you what the heck you're doing, then you're in trouble. I always smile, say thanks and go on my way. Almost 100% of the time, I get a smile in return. Even if people are confrontational, so what? It's all part of life, especially life with a camera: a smile, a frown, a conversation, an argument. Be socially aware enough to see what's coming and prepare for it. To be honest, some people have the knack. Others don't. It's just the way of the world. Want to read some of my other Technical Articles?