I recently made a video about mindfulness and street photography tips. You can find it embedded here, or straight to YouTube to watch online.
Street photography tips offer a creative and artistic process. The mind becomes absorbed by what it is confronted with.
A street photographer can photograph whatever they believe will make a worthy subject. There is an art to it. And like all arts, mastering street photography tips takes practise and patience.
When I take photos on the street, I immediately become engaged in what I am doing. My mind becomes wordless. My thoughts are only viusual, and I test and adjust constantly as I look through the viewfinder.
I prefer to use the viewfinder on my Canon 5D. It helps me to focus more accurately, and to cut myself off from the rest of the world.
I’ll also take my Canon 750D – or Canon Rebel; it’s neat and light.






I have no specific preference for “only photographing people”, or that street photography must be this or that; it can be anything that is found in a city, or urban space. It is entirely up to you to define what your angle is on looking at a city street.
As we develop our abilities as street photographers we encounter our own passion about what we see. to see something on the street, an object like a building as backdrop, people milling about below it, a ray of sunshine and the shadows that it creates, we become involved in an encounter with a phenomenon.
It’s a combination of mind and nature all mixed up with human made objects like cars and buildings. There’s little point in trying to figure out why we find this encounter so enthralling. Much better to learn more about how to view it through the frame of the camera.
The things we see are more important than how many megapixels you have, or whether the lens you use is 35mm or 85mm – both are useful in street photography, but what you do with them and how you use them to take your own position in juxtaposition with what you are looking at, is what counts.
You might think that this is all a bit deep. street photography is either a deep study of how we see the world around us, or you might find, without it, that you constantly battle with asking why your shots are not so good. You want to take great shots and make the next ones even better; then we must be thinkers who allow the passion for photography to drive us a little deeper into the how and when to take a shot.
Practising street photography and applying a few tips when you do, will help you improve immensely. Don’t try and be great in one day. That always leads to frustration.
Concentrate on one thing only. Do something like working on your framing – don’t forget, that means get close to the subject, then frame it: You’ll find that it makes everything sweeter.
You can also choose to work with colour only, or monochrome. All of these are worth practising regularly as a way of understanding more about tones and how to control the intensity of tones in either colour or black and white.
Another practise is to sit down and wait. choose a place that is busy enough for something to happen. It could be a crossroads, or close to a bridge. Train stations are a place where people are coming and going, parks are places where people are sauntering along, and having an easy day of it.
Whatever you do, keep practising. Always be intentional about what you want to achieve – intent in photography is the number one skill to develop. Find out what you want to photograph and why it creates such a passion in you. That way you’ll always have a goal and your intentions will lead the way.