Gone fishing: 20,000 steps isn’t always the answer to street photography
Find the light and wait.
Street photographers often talk about ‘getting the steps in’. Tireless urban wanderers hunting for that decisive moment across 10 different postcodes, glancing at their FitBit as it creeps towards clocking 20,000 steps. The health benefits of this marathon approach are appealing, and the logic of increasing the probability of finding the shot by consistently moving does make sense.
However, the streets and the strangers on them are unpredictable, and staying put can result in just as many great moments as doing endless laps of Soho. This is where the technique of "fishing" provides a rewarding alternative. Instead of chasing moments, try letting the moments come to you.
“Street photography is like fishing, you never know what you’re going to get.”
Set up and wait
The fishing technique involves identifying a specific scene, such as a location with interesting light, a compelling background, or a unique architectural frame, and staying put. Instead of walking into the scene, you wait for the subjects to walk into your scene. You have time to identify good composition and opportunities for a compelling image as you wait for the right subject to enter and complete the composition.
Invisibility is a superpower
When you are constantly moving your presence is often more noticeable. You are an active element changing the dynamic of the scene. However, when you adopt the fishing technique, you allow the environment to settle around you.
If you give a location a minute or two, people tend to forget you are there. You become part of the furniture, a stationary object that the ebb and flow of the crowd eventually accepts as background noise. This unobtrusive presence is vital for capturing genuine, candid moments.
Catch and release
Set up and be ready for anything that comes along. How long you wait is completely up to you, I’ve spent anything from 5 minutes to an hour waiting in the same spot for something to happen. Just make sure you are ready to press the shutter when it does.
Set focus
By staying in one spot, you can pre-set your focus distance and aperture, ensuring you are ready the second a subject enters your frame.
Minimal movement
Hold the camera ready with the composition already set to avoid sudden movements prior to shooting.
Don’t mind me
If a subject looks your way, pretend you are checking or adjusting camera settings rather than looking at them.
Behind you
Look behind the subject or past them to make it appear as though you are interested in someone or something else rather than them.
Lights on
Use the static nature of your position to master the specific natural light of the scene, ensuring the moment is interestingly lit.
Patience
While the lure of the 20,000-step marathon remains, there is a creative reward in slowing down. Fishing teaches you to see the world with more consideration and purpose. It moves the focus from the quantity of the search to the quality of the observation.
