Compact Cameras and Street Photography

[BryanC]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Now I know a lot of you are interested in street photography and I also know that a big heavy conspicuous DSLR is not necessarily the right tool for the job..

I was reading an article today by someone insisting that a Leica Rangefinder, something like an M series film camera is the only tool that's up to the job. They insisted that digital cameras, in whatever format, were just not the right tool.

This is something that's often preached, sounds great in theory, but I don't believe it's as important in real situations. I'll give you two extreme examples of my own real-life experiences:

In the middle of summer, I met up with a couple guys to walk around downtown, shoot some photos and have lunch. This very topic came up during conversation, so we decided to do a spur of the moment, unscientific experiment. While they moved away and watched, I stayed at about the middle of a bridge across the Chicago River. I put the sidewalk between myself and the rail, so that anyone walking by would have to walk in front of me as I was taking photos of the view down river. I didn't make any exaggerated movements, just the normal actions of taking photos. For the few minutes that I did this, the dozen or so people that walked by either held up so I could take a photo, or noticed too late and they did that crouch down and walk faster, saying "sorry" move. Next, one of the other guys set up the same way at the end of the bridge, looking back across it, right down the sidewalk. People coming up from behind him would notice and wait a second while he clicked before walking in front of him. People coming toward him had different reactions. Some tried to move to the side to get out of his way. There were some smiles and a wave or two. The catch to all of this was that it did not matter one bit what cameras we were using. Why? Because, we weren't using cameras. They held my camera and bag and I used my wallet as if it were a camera. The other guy used a small pocket notebook that, as a joke, had drawn a lens on the back cover. No one noticed. We put ourselves out there, being conspicuous, and people responded accordingly. "What camera" had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The other side of extreme example: I recently went with a local group for the Worldwide Photo Walk. I have been out with about half the group on other walks in the past. They know me. They knew I was there, with cameras. They know I like to take the occasional street candid when the opportunities arise. I have even taken ones of them in the past. And yet, I was still able to take these without them knowing until I posted them with the Flickr group:




Same situation, different photo walks:




I believe it isn't about what type or size of camera that you use, but the way you go about it. Technique and opportunity, I believe, are a couple of the main important factors. According to the Leica website, the dimensions of the M9 are:

(W x D x H) approx. 139 x 37 x 80 mm (51/2 x 11/2 x 3 1/6 in.).

According to the Sony site, the dimensions of the a200, (the digital slr that I use for street stuff) are:

(W x H x D) 5 3/16" x 3 7/8" x 2 13/16" (130.8 x 98.5 x 71.3 mm).

The M9 is a little wider, but the a200 is little more in height and twice as thick. I mostly use a 50mm when shooting on the street, so I don't really have a big attention getting lens on. I don't think that an inch or two of camera, more or less, would make 6'1, 200 lb. me any more or less conspicuous on it's own. There are bigger DSLR's, and yes, if you add a grip, even more so. But, how much does that really matter? I had people getting out of the way of my wallet. A wallet! And, I have been able to catch candids of photographers in those situations where the camera I was using had no bearing on getting those shots. Unless you are shooting from the hip or using live view in some stealthy way, you still have to bring that camera, whatever camera, up to your eye long enough to compose and click. It's how you go about it that's important, not what camera. A lot of past and even present street photographers have also used TLR's. These aren't exactly stealthy cameras, either. I mean, if you make yourself conspicuous, even using a wallet or notepad will give you away! A thought or theory that I have is that maybe a smaller or "stealthier" camera may make certain photographers act and feel more that way. I don't know, just a thought.

I am far from being any sort of expert on all of this. These are only my opinions and experiences. "Street Photography" is a pretty broad category with many styles and preferences. I believe any "Rules" are artificial, meaning, they have grown out of individual tastes and preferences. That's all good for things like Flickr groups and such, where a group of people might agree on common preferences, styles, equipment, etc...and that's cool, more power to them. I just don't believe that there's some kind of international standard that has to be followed as to what subjects, styles or specific equipment qualifies as "Street Photography" approved. Whatever gets the shot; whatever shot works.