I don't feel confident enough

Mssg

Hello everyone, I was always making tons of photos with my phone, that's why I was always choosing great cameraphones like Nokia Lumia 800, N8 and 808. During the Christmas I decided that its time to get DSLR and I bought Canon 600D.

The problem that I have now is that I am really shy to walk through the town and shoot some random photos... I feel that people are looking at me like on alien :P what if someone will think that I am making photos of him and get angry at me? with cameraphone it was easy because no one could tell if I am making photo or texting.

Did you guys have the same feeling at the beginning?

CSteven88

I know I sure did! Took me a little bit of time to get over the feeling of embarrassment. Try to make a conscious effort to take your camera with you when you leave the house and when you reach for the phone to take a pic just force yourself to take out the Canon! It's what I did. Hope you get over this soon.

hytrogen

Just remember this quote: "get the Canon" every time you leave the house! I do with mine..

Two other ways of getting over 'the fear': go out with a mate with a similar camera for a photo shoot for a day anywhere scenic like the beach or local park AND have a look at some pro websites for their work for inspiration. Otherwise there's always Instagram

gloobag

Everyone feels like this starting out, but you just gotta man up and go do it if you want some good shots.

When I first moved to Dublin a couple of years ago, I used to hit the streets of the city centre pretty much every day with my camera to shoot whatever random stuff I came across. This mostly consisted of me invading people's personal space to grab a shot of someone I thought was interesting at the time.

I'll be honest, a lot of people caught me (usually after I had the shot), but not one of them appeared to get angry or do anything about it. Most people just couldn't be arsed, or don't have the balls to willingly enter into an argument in public over something so trivial.

Just go out and walk around with confidence (chin up, shoulders back and a smile on your face). Have your camera on display at all times. Have it in your hands so everyone around you can see it, this way they will be expecting you to start taking photographs at some stage, and when you do it won't be all that much of a shock.

I used to have my earphones in with music blaring all the time. People tend not to bother you when you're listening to music. But even if someone did shout something after you, you probably wouldn't hear them, so it wouldn't have the chance to seep into your head and gnaw away at your confidence.

Having said that, these days on the extremely rare occasion I get to shoot on the streets, I don't listen to music at all as I want to be able to hear what's going on around me. You never know what you might hear that will lead you to look in a different direction than you would have otherwise.

Zack Arias gave a great tip on his blog a while back about shooting in Live View with the LCD screen. Basically you can fake being a clueless tourist by standing right in front of whoever you want to photograph. You take a "fake" shot of something nearby first (for example, look up and grab a boring shot of the top of some buildings), then bring the camera back down and act like you're checking out your boring shot on the screen while you actually frame and grab a shot of whoever is in front of you. Works a treat

The only other thing I can think of is to use a wide angle lens. 35mm or 24mm are perfect. It will force you to get up close to what you want to shoot. And if that happens to be a person, one little trick that I used to use was get right up in front of someone, but when composing, place them on the left or right hand side of the frame. A wide lens has such a large field of view, that from their perspective, it will look like the lens is pointing passed them/ over their shoulder, and most people will just assume that they're not your chosen subject.

poundhound

You could also by a telephoto lens and photograph your subject from a distance.

sheesh

you could go out in a group of photographers. it makes you feel a lot braver!

thebaz

if you don't feal comfortable photographing the street or town - just don't do it - photograph something you like , thers so much more in life - Nature , sport, horse racing, the sea , toxic waster - in fact the most banal things can be photographed , and be made interesting - that is the challenge , make the uninteresting look interesting - photography is about stamping your personality on what you see - anyway that would be my advice

omega42

Put on a Tarton Jumper, baseball cap and talk in an american accent, people will ignore you

Mssg

thebaz wrote: »

if you don't feal comfortable photographing the street or town - just don't do it

This argument isn't right... for example if young lad want to date a girl but he is to shy, you could also say "if you don't feel comfortable talking to girls, don't talk to them". I want to photograph streets and that's why I asked you guys.

Anyway thank you all for response, it really helped me. Good to know that I am not only one with that feeling I guess it will take some time just like driving for the first time

thebaz

Mssg wrote: »

This argument isn't right...

just giving my opinion , as someone who has photographed the street - I' don't enjoy it any more/ people are not as easy to photgraph the past couple of years, they don't like been photographed, possibly due to the prevalence of camera phones & social media - ther is anger out ther , society anger , you have to deal with it , if thats what you want to do ;
hiding behind a zoom lens, kind of defeats the purpose of street photography - as engaging with your subject is really what it is about

mayo.mick

Is there a camera club near you that you could join? That would help being in a group of photographers, they would probably go on photowalks as well. I felt the same as I'm sure everyone else did when first starting out, now its a case if I don't have the camera with me people are wondering whats up:D

Katunga

I'm the same way but I like taking night Photos when things are quite I find everything in urban areas looks better at night. I unfortunately don't have a dslr just a bridge camera a compact and my phone, my phone is used by far the most.

dinneenp

Some people recommend a good serious compact for street photography- small, inconspicuous and some have a viewfinder.
Just from a quick search http://121clicks.com/articlesreviews/10-high-end-compact-cameras-for-street-photography

Buy you have the dslr now.
Baby steps. Begin by shooting easy stuff, street performers, buskers (give them money first). If you see someone you want to shoot ask them. I've done it a few times and mostly people say 'no bother '

After a while you're confidence will be up and you might be more comfortable shooting strangers without conversation/interaction

claystevens

Yep. There is a peroid of that. And you need to go over it. cheekiness is one of the most important feature of a street photographer.

Jim

Best way to think about it is if you saw someone else out in the city taking photos, how would you feel about them? You probably wouldn't give them a second look. Pretty much everyone else thinks the same. No one cares about you or your camera! Shooting with a group first is also good advice to get you over your initial fear.

poundhound wrote: »

You could also by a telephoto lens and photograph your subject from a distance.

I personally would advise against that. If you're in a city centre with a telephoto lens taking shots you just come across as creepy and people are much more likely to notice and be put off by you. When I was in Dublin over Christmas I saw a guy in town taking pics of homeless people with a telephoto lens. I cringed pretty hard.

As someone mentioned compacts I 100% recommend the Ricoh GR. Have 5D MkII hasn't gotten a look in since I picked it up. It's amazing for a compact.

K_user

I find that a camera is a great pass that allows you to do things in public that you would never dream of doing at any other stage.

However I can understand the OP feeling a little nervous, and self-conscious, I do think it takes a while to build up that self belief.

Mssg, the important thing is not to do anything that you feel too uncomfortable doing. In other words, don’t go up to someone’s face and start snapping away. I would suggest that you start by walking around the town/city looking for something interesting. Just having the camera in your hand, in public, will give you a level of confidence. Then try a few photographs, a reflection of a building, or a tree at your local park, something harmless. You’ll find that 99% of people will ignore you.

After that its all about experience. Soon enough you’ll be lying down on your stomach, in the centre of town, and thinking nothing of it. Your focus changes, pun intended. You become so engrossed in getting “the shot”, that you block out all distractions. You stop worrying about what others think and start being annoyed that they are in your way.

Over all, most people will ignore you. Some will come over and chat, if you look to be doing something interesting.

Rarely will someone get aggressive over a camera. You will be fine as long as you are in a public area, that isn’t privately owned, you aren’t photographing some ones kids, or jamming the lens in a persons face.

Of course there are always crazy people who go mental over some small slight, but you could set one of them off by accidently bumping into them in a supermarket queue. Just do what you’d normally do and walk away.

Paddy@CIRL

Like someone else suggested, I find headphones great in situations like this. Always helps me to focus on what I'm seeing by removing a sense.