Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.” – Robert Doisneau
How I Made this Shot: I photographed a section of a street in Brighton, Colorado using the unicorn* Epson RD-1 digital rangefinder camera. The lens (I think, no EXIF data on it) was a Voigtlander Ultron 28mm f/2.0 with an Av exposure of 1/270 sec at f/8 and ISO 200.
The subtitle of today’s post should really be “Why I’m not a Street Photographer” because it’s a genre I’m not typically comfortable shooting. Believe it or not, part of my difficulty—just ask my wife— is that I’m basically a shy person and don’t want my photography to impose on anybody’s privacy. (I don’t consider this image to be street photography for maybe obvious reasons.)
When attempting to shoot street photography in Colorado I’m concerned about the possibility of offending people, getting punched in the face or having a run-in with police. (See below.) I don’t like any of these options but I’m trying to overcome this reluctance and it’s going to be one of my 2026 New Year’s Resolutions to try to overcome my reluctance and really give street photography a try, especially when shooting film.
Giving Street Photography a Try
Sometimes, I think that photographers, both amateur and professional,and I’ll include myself in that statement, get so wrapped up in what they’ve been successfully doing for so long that they forget to explore the kind of new directions that attracted them to the art form in the first place.
As digital imagers, we can spend so much time being mesmerized by the pixels on our computer monitors that they often forget to make time to create something different from the last batch of images we captured. I think it’s a good idea to not only take the time to smell the roses but to photograph them as well. Make yourself a promise that this week you’ll go out and make some new images.
While studying photography at the Maryland Institute of Art, I was privileged to have Jack Wilgus as a teacher. One of my fondest memories of Jack was his occasionally facetious comments about how some of the best photographs were being made by my fellow students in the school’s break room. Not real photographs, mind you, but conversations between my erstwhile colleagues about the great photographs they were going to make… someday. While some of those images may have actually gotten made, I’ll bet that few of these people actually produced the photographs they talked about so excitedly with their friends. Jack’s comments echo with me today.
What are your rights…
Need some advice about photographing on the street? Bert P. Krages II, attorney at law, has developed a one-page flyer containing information on what your rights are when stopped and confronted by people with badges. As the author of Legal Handbook for Photographers, Mr. Krages is knowledgeable about photographer’s rights. I would like to thank him for producing a document that explains what our rights are, legal remedies if/when harassed, but most importantly how to handle these kinds of confrontations. Print a copy and keep it in your camera bag—just in case.
*Unicorn. The 6.1-megapixel Epson RD-1 digital rangefinder camera with Leica M-mount was manufactured by Cosina/Voigtlander for Epson from 2004 to 2007. The camera was never officially imported into the USA but back in the day, when Epson liked me, the company sent me one of these cameras to review for Professional Photographer magazine. I loved using this camera. You can pick up a used one on eBay with prices from $1800 to $2500. That price range is perilously close to what you could buy a 10-megapixel Leica M8 with its legendary CCD sensor.—something that’s on my camera bucket list.
My book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects is available from Amazon for $11.46 with, used copies starting around nine buck as I write this. That’s cheaper than a venti Starbucks latte, so get’em while you can.