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Shooting people on the move you want to freeze an action that says the most about the moment - people, context, action, emotion, whatever that is.

For me, the time and place for the photographer to express his/her cleverness is at the point of shooting, not in the editing process.

But if you're about being an 'Artiste', you can do whatever the fuck you like. 'Art' is all about 'the cleverness of the photographer' (painter/sculptor/drawer/etc.). In SP the responsibilities are not to yourself, but to an external shared visual experience having a fairly direct correspondence to the world. (big caveat in this - the camera/film/sensor doesn't see things quite the way we do, so there's that to contend with)

Being conscious of, and able to control, pictorial elements as they recede in space is a completely basic aspect of any kind of image making. If you can't do that you're, well, completely fucked.

a bad photographer goes through his stuff looking for the great shots; a good photographer looks through his stuff trying to figure out what keeps it from being great. Just keep that in mind...

the best street photography should say more about the subject in the photograph than the person who took it.

i don't think the subject is more important than the photographer. both are people and therefore equally important. when i shoot i don't think in them vs me, i just take a picture of something and maybe think about taking a step to the left or something. i never leave the house with an aim because shooting photographs is part of my life. the majority of what i shoot is not an assignment, it is me noticing something wherever i happen to be and taking a picture of it.

i don't see why people that have no interest in the world around them/outside themselves would pick up a camera in the first place, but also i think that you yourself are the the thing that can make the photograph something more. if it has no meaning to you, personal or not, why would it have to others. i don't see why people that have no interest in producing a good photograph (both in aesthetics and in content) would share their photos with strangers. i get over ex-boyfriends, or bad things that happen, but myself, i don't plan on getting over.

The truth is I never really experience slumps. Some rolls of film are obviously more disappointing than others, but once a roll is shot scanned and processed, regardless of how bad it turned out, I am already on to the next roll, where hope springs eternal. Perhaps there is a downside to shooting digital. It can become an endless loop of futility. I would recommend using a small memory card and wiping it clean at the end of each outing. Mainly though, just keep in mind that your best picture may very well be on that next roll.

look at other work you like, talk with people about your process, read a good book, watch a movie, go for a long walk, etc etc. it also helps to change your medium every once in a while. maybe start writign something, make a collage or painting and you'll return to photography with fresher eyes. and it DOES help to leave your camera at home every once in a while. sure, you'll find yourself saying "i wish i had my camera on me" out loud at least a few times that day, but in between those moments it's quite good to take a break. plus really, how bad a photographer are you if you really miss that one shot? (that in reality probably wouldn't have turned out as great as you'll remember it anyway.)

"i was distracted by the person sticking out of the boys head" Really? I found th person sticking out of his head to act like a magnet, drawing my eye to his. Softly focused and at such a distance how does that distract? There are bad overlaps, and there are inconsequential over laps, and there are great overlaps. That one, for me is B and C.

That 'Stop' photo raises a really interesting point though, which may be of benefit to anyone who's putting a project together. When I first saw that image, like Shveckle's initial impressions, I thought it was a stand-alone. No way does it fit in, it doesn't belong anywhere. But having slept on it, I can see that it definitely will work for what I'm trying to do and what I'm trying to say. The key for me is the 'Stop'. What am I getting at? That, I think, if you are working on a project, give yourself enough space and flexibility to work with. I can appreciate that many photographers work well with really specific projects (.e.g. 'albino farmers in the Albanian highlands). But if you're working with a more generic brief, keep your mind open to the possibilities, try not to be too literal. It's really a bit of a mental challenge, you might be surprised at the connections you can make with seemingly disparate images if you give yourself the chance. Don't be literal and too obvious, that'd just be boring (you might as well be photographing street protests or something equally predictable, haha!)

Use a prime, open up around f8, and focus with the scale.

For fast-moving street photography, you'll probably want to use a lens that's well-suited to the task. For that, I like a fairly wide lens with a short throw. Wide, either 28 or 35, because they are very forgiving on focus. Short throw describes a lens that doesn't need to be twisted much to focus from a couple of meters to infinity. With those two things in place, focusing becomes intuitive and you can concentrate on your composition. You'll want a good viewfinder at this point.

don't underestimate the skill and talent that goes into writing a good and original pop song... but the quality of a song to me has very little to do with overpaid production value, and on a similar note the quality of a shot has very little to do with how 'clean' a shot is.

I'm think the comparison has been made a zillion times, but if HCB is the Beatles, Winogrand is jazz.

I generally tend to find a main subject matter and find a way of composing the shot around them in order to fill in the dead space. Most of the time I don't pay too much attention to what this is as long as it moves and/or adds an interesting balancing point to the frame. It's practically impossible to concentrate on multiple subject matter so filling the frame with enough foreground to background info in the comp also helps. Mostly I find these pictures are easier to get with strong sunlight as the light/shadow zones naturally create more dynamism to the image. I rarely bother with looking round the edges of the frame but I wouldn't dismiss that approach either.

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