confidence and talent, always more of one than the other

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i did photos once years ago for a friend of my mum, was an actor portfolio, asked to see me work on photos, i spent a lot of time gave him loads of shots with retouch for free as it was mums friend

literally weeks later he had an account on flickr (was good then) after seeing mine, he copy pasted all my contacts/followers into his account, bought the same camera as me and was advertising himself as a photographer for work for actor portfolios

i said i had noticed he had done that, said how he needs to find his own style and influences that reflected who he was

he posted a few shots where he had photoshopped highlights in eyes that didnt match the actual lighting, blur tool to make background look seperated i asked him what he was charging he said 50 quid an hr plus expenses. saying he wanted to give people pretty much what i gave him

when i applied this to what i had done for him and quoted the price which included few days of shooting+editing time +prints, not even including expenses ha ha asked what % of his out of work acting friends could afford that then?

wasnt mums friend for long after that, he posted a set of shots he did of a woman in a park in middle of sunny afternoon with subject squinting into the sun, then nothing.

i wondered how much she was charged for the photos!

sounds petty, a town paper and local band, lucky if anyone reads the article never mind reads the credit on the photo, id keep the copy of the paper for a momento and move on

this is how i went from where you are to shooting candid at 10mm, i shot people i wasnt particularly interested in, i did this over and over so that when i did see someone or a group of people i wanted to capture i did it without hesitation.

you need to be fast and discreet, most of my subjects dont know ive photographed them, i have two cameras, one doesnt have a viewfinder, have to compose from back screen that doesnt flip so this is more difficult to be discreet with, at this point you brazen it out, but still being quick and decisive.

ive never had any issues and im 2ft in front of people, but if you do you can act dumb, tut and frown at your camera like a noob, continue to shoot as the subject moves so they think they arnt the subject, or smile and nod as you move on, i think on my feet and am really fast but i had this woman stood in front of me in a train station with lips pursed so tight! she wasnt happy i was taking photos, before she said anything i just started talking to her acting completely oblivious to the tight expression 'oh havnt been in here since it was all done up its amazing, (click) this was the first place i saw when i moved here as a child, thought id come in and have a look isnt it lovely? (click click)

its amazing how quick you go from being scared to take the shot of the person in front of you to actually herding them to the spot you want them to be by using very discreet body movements, think gary winogrand and the cut off technique.

the hardest shots to take are when its just you and another person, they see you and your camera from a distance, they are wondering if you are going to use it so you have to look disinterested till just before you take the shot and they hear the click as you pass, so build up to that intensity, try busy street lots going on, challenge yourself to pick six people out before you get to the next corner

even when im saying nope in my head, i still take the shot, its very addictive

after a ten year gap i challenged myself to do the thing i was always scared of, candid street, got a smaller camera, more discreet, but what got me out the door was a cheap ebay converted full spec camera and shooting in full infra red, big fluffy clouds against a black sky had me going wow at my shots, i went cloud chasing, not thinking of street, but my confidence grew at including people in compositions, then they became the subjet, took it to extreme where i got a 10mm lens and basically can now take your photo and light your cigarette im so close, i watched a guy use the lens i wanted in a vid and he took so many shots in 5 mins, i decided to use the 15 mins between trains i had every day going to work, had so much fun and so many shots i love im a year in and putting together a book. i found having the limited time each day added to the challenge, and there is only so far you can go in that time so calculating which route i would take, sitting on the train looking at the shots, having stuff to work on when i got home all very quickly became part of my routine, those 15 mins were long and boring if i didnt take the camera cos i forgot to charge batteries or was too rushed that day.

i found i was not being challenged enough by the thing i was scared to do a year ago and thats a great place to be, so now im doing long exposure street stuff as a new project while putting together the book, im learning book binding and want to complete the project all the way to a finished product i can keep.

i posted the 15 mins stuff online and had a few followers not many didnt really make an effort to get noticed was more a record for myself, but my new project ive for some reason kept offline, its quite freeing losing that feeling of looking for others approval, and im experimenting more, and i like the shots im producing, not as many not as often as the conditions need to be right for what im trying to achieve but im busy working through a year of shots at the same time so its just right.