Loitering In London - My Intro To Street Photography

If you've been following my Instagram page recently, you would've seen my attempts at street photography (if not, you're playing yourself - follow me @viransolankiphotography). I do get asked by friends and family about how I go about taking these photographs, so I thought I would try and break down my philosophies on how I go about taking these pictures.

Before I start, I'd just like to preface this by saying that I am in no means a high level genius type street photographer. I'd highly recommend checking out the work of Kevin Mullins, Henri Cartier Bresson, Jay Maisel or even searching street photography hashtags on Instagram to find photos a million times better than my own.

1. YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CAMERA ON YOU

I think we sometimes take for granted how accessible photography is nowadays. The ability to constantly have a camera in your smartphone, and take near enough an unlimited amount of photos is something relatively new and I think under utilised. You don't need a big DSLR or fancy compact camera to take cool images. Think of whatever camera you have, be it a DSLR, smartphone or even a Tesco Value disposable camera, in the same way as a painter has different types of brushes.

2. LOOK FOR COOL LIGHT 

To carry on the painting analogy, if a photographer's brush is their camera, you could say their paint is light (yes I know I sound like a total douche but bare with me). I'm always attracted to cool-looking light (#windowlight), be it the warm colours on a long summer's evening, or the cold and urban colours of a tube platform. Be aware of how light reflects of certain types of surfaces, from a puddle on the street, to a wall of a building. Harsh light on a clear day will give you opportunities to play with shadows within your compositions, whereas soft light on a cloudy day acts like a massive light diffuser and tends to make the light look very even. 

3. RIPS IN THE FABRIC

Jay Maisel said it best when he said that he is "looking for rips in the fabric" when he's out shooting. I'm always looking for something out of the ordinary. If you go out with no pre-conceived notions of what you want to photograph - ie. I need to take a photograph of a person with red hair looking at a red bus with a telephone box in the background - you'll be amazed at how often something will catch your eye and intrigue you. For me, its normally crazy cool colours or interesting gestures or positions that makes me want to pull the camera to my eye.

4. TAKE LOADS OF PHOTOS

I think this is the most overlooked aspect of photography, yet the simplest action to execute. I take a ridiculous amount of images. The only way I found that truly improves all aspects and genres of my photography is finding time to shoot as often as possible. Maybe that might mean getting off a tube stop earlier than normal and walking on the way back from work, or dedicating a weekend afternoon to go and explore a new place and shoot. This might seem like so much extra effort at first, but I guarantee once you do this two or three times, you'll start to get into it, and start noticing cool looking light and rips in the fabric even more. Your legs might ache after the end of the day shooting, but it'll definitely be worth it!

And that's pretty much it! That's all I think about when out shooting, but there is so much more that you can learn from photographers I mentioned previously and elsewhere online. It would be awesome to see your own street photos! Share them on Instagram using #todaysloitering 

Thanks for reading rudeboys, can't wait to see your images and let me know what you think about this kind of post!