Chris Jones is a photographer from York. He was in London for a day with his Nikon P7700 and went for a walk in the rain. He’s compiled the results into an ebook and shared some of his favourite photos below. I’ve asked Chris to tell us about his London photo walk and share what he learned.

Chris Jones has published an ebook of London Street Photos.

1. How did shooting street in London compare to your normal photography?

I like to think of myself as a fairly versatile photographer, with a pretty varied portfolio. I’m probably something of a photography magpie – jumping from one shiny new technique to another – including abstract, HDR, urban geometry, photoshop manipulation, pinhole cameras, street art, welding glass long exposures, the list goes on.

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Stopping random strangers and asking them if you can take their photo is a bit scary but it’s worth it because street photography is all about telling a story. I’ve put together a video on how to shoot street photography portraits including some street portrait tips.

The goal of a street portrait is to capture something that you couldn’t have seen by simply shooting a candid shot instead. A street portrait is a very special form of street photography and it takes a while to get confident enough with your equipment to take on the extra challenge of interacting with your subject.

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The 50 Faces Project is a shared photography challenge to encourage people to take more portraits and to have their portraits tell a real story. As well as the photography, each portrait includes three questions, one each about the subject’s past, present and future.

The Fifty Faces Project challenges you to shoot 50 portraits of your friends, family and community.

The challenge is to capture 50 portraits of people we see regularly ranging from our friends and family to our community and workplace. It seems easier than the 100 Strangers Project but it’ll be challenge for me to shoot people I wouldn’t normally ask to sit for a portrait.

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Abtin Eshraghi is a self taught photographer from London. He was born in Iran, raised in the UK and lived briefly in the US. I first noticed Abtin’s work through Google Plus, which has a great network of street photographers. His photos have a gritty energy that jumps off the screen.

Getting out on the street frequently increases your chances of capturing that spontaneous moment. (Photo by A. Eshraghi)

I enjoy Abtin’s photos because he’s using a GF3 to get spontaneous and slice-of-life photos from around London. He also shoots film and a DSLR but I’ve chosen a few of his micro-four-thirds photos because they showcase the extra freedom you get from a smaller camera. Continue reading →

Each month we’ll be profiling a local street photographer from around London. Not all of the photographers will be pure street photographers, but there is something about street photography that we can learn from all of them. This month we’re profiling Anthony Stonehouse, a Design Director who’s worked in Australia, Japan, the UAE and the UK.

Anthony and I met while we were both trying out the Panasonic GX1. He told me that “Most of my images are taken for their composition or light, rather than for a particular subject or candid moment.” I think this brings a bit more depth to his composition than many of my own run-and-gun candid street photos. I’ve picked five of Anthony’s photos that helped remind me to explore composition and light.

1. Do you prefer wide angle or zoom for street photography and why?
I prefer wide angle as I generally like to capture a scene, rather than just a crop of a particular subject. I quite like the challenge of shooting with a longer focal length though, and think it makes you look for subjects of interest rather than being as concerned with composition.

Conveying a message or sense of place and culture, even if only subtly gives your street photos depth. (Photo by A. Stonehouse)

2. Do you interact with your subjects?
Never, unless I know them. Continue reading →

Kai and the Digital Rev team have put together a series of street photography tips with some “Dos” and “Donts”.

Most of them are common sense, but it’s great to see the team out and about on the streets of Hong Kong. The team have made other videos about street photography and they’re always interesting.

Digital Rev are an online camera store and have been producing YouTube videos for a few years now as part of their marketing. They are amongst the world’s best because they’ve managed to put their personalities into the videos. You can learn alot from how they come across on camera while talking about a potentially dry subject.

And Kai’s street photos may be patchy, but some of them are damn good.

To become a better street photographers we need to learn from the masters. The conceptual artist Vuk Vidor has a great poster called Art History. It got me thinking about what different street photographers are known for. Sometimes it’s not always the thing they wish they were known for.

I’ve put together a poster of about who’s who in the world of street photography in 2011. There might be a few names you don’t know and a lot that you already do.

Download the PDF of Who Owns Street Photography

For clarity, I’m not asserting any copyright over the image, the names or the design. Other than that, if you re-use the design yourself, it can’t be for commercial purposes.

I’m planning to revise it for the end of 2011 and do another one in 2012. I’ll update the pdf as well, so do help out by commenting. Have I missed anyone out? Have I misrepresented anyone? What are people really known for and who moved you in 2011?

The Lumix 14mm prime lens has a wide enough f-stop to allow for a lot of light and to speed up the shutter speed so you can capture moving subjects. Like a rain drop.