Maximising your chances.

How much time do we have to spend finding photos?

I live in a place away from street photo opportunities and I might get onto a street with my camera once a month. When I do, I like to maximise my chances of success. When I was in Kuala Lumpur last year, I came across this fellow selling bubble machines so I leaned against a post, did my best to blend in and waited to see what photos might come my way. I got a few shots (including this one). Unfortunately the composition is not very tight, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

The unwanted portrait.

How do you say, "No, thanks!"?

While trying to be an "unobtrusive and anonymous witness", as Jorge Torralba has put it, you sometimes get seen. No matter how small and "non-professional" your camera looks, that it is not shiny and new, that you only hold it to your eye at the last moment matters little. Sometimes someone sees you and decides to pose. I'm sure there is a genre here that could yield wonderful photos, but it is not what you want. As someone trying to engage in street photography, you want to say, "No, thanks!", but then you look again and take the shot. It is still a moment, it is just not the moment you wanted.

Tuk Tuk.

Fast.

Social conscience.

Ronald is no stranger to the streets of Bangkok, but he is rarely seen in back alleys. Stenciled graffiti, back alley, Bangkok.

Ink.

Tattoos for the feint hearted. A Harley Davidson tattoo in henna.

Cornrows.

New Years Day 2007 - the morning after Bangkok was rocked by a series of bomb blasts. Note - shops shut, no milling masses of people checking out Kao Sarn Road - just this guy having his hair braided.

Perfume seller.

"This perfume is so good I use it myself . . ."

I Love the King.

Fealty. The sticker on the cars rear window says "I Love the King" - and we're not talking about Elvis here. (Taken in Bangkok 2006)

Prowess.

A display of prowess in a public place.

Eye contact.

Anonymity is great, but sometimes a split second of eye contact can be electric.

Capturing a moment.

Street photography is about capturing a moment. Henri Cartier-Bresson talked about the Decisive Moment. He said a perfect photograph was the product of the eye, the mind and the heart intersecting. Oh! to take photos like that. Most of us are content to capture a moment.