Photography: My first attempt of street photography

Masjid Jamek @Kuala Lumpur

I've started my hobby in photography since few years ago starting with my first DSLR Nikon D40, then upgraded to Nikon D90. Since then, I've always wanted to do street photography (or some people call candid photography) taking photos of random people in the street. Well, there are many opinions out there about street photography but I think a real or good street photography is not just a photo of a street view but with candid people in it. I think the photo will be more meaningful if you add some life into it which make you not only appreciate the beauty of the photo itself but life of ordinary people as well. 

I find street photography is another interesting challenge of a photographer where one has to take candid pictures of other people randomly in the street at the right time at the right place. It does sound easy, where you just go to a street of snaps whatever in your way. But believe me, it's actually harder than it sounds especially for a beginner like me. 

My first attempt was at Jalan TAR or Masjid Jamek area in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening. I chose this place because it's crowded, and pasar malam (night market) is held that night. With that said, I thought I might have many chances to take various interesting characters of people in a busy street, right? Well, not quite. Reality is not always the way we wanted to be.

*I tried to stick with 50mm lense in my street photography. 😁

Confidence

Before I left home, I was thinking to begin my first street photography on my way to Masjid Jamek LRT station from KL Sentral. I imagined myself taking good pictures of random people at the LRT stations or in the train. In reality, I didn't have that much confidence even to take out my Nikon D90, yet taking pictures of strangers until I arrived my destination. 😫 Perhaps, it is a good idea to bring a friend along.

This is one of the earliest picture I took right after I took out my DSLR.
I took this random picture just boost my confidence to snap more after that.

Walkway

Timing

When you saw an interesting scene in the street, by the time you raise your DSLR to take the picture, you miss it. I saw many interesting people doing interesting stuffs in the street, but not everything happen at time when you are ready to snap pictures. 

There was this talented guy in front of Sogo, doing art with spray paint and fire technique. (If you are familiar with this art, it's an art of painting pictures with spray paint only, no sketches, at some point they use fire on the painting.) During the fire technique, it was fun and cool to watch, perhaps it would be much more cool to take a photo of it. But, when I was ready with my DSLR, I don't know why he didn't do the fire thing. I waited for 5-10 minutes but still no fire. Eventually, I just left & went somewhere else.

Well, I waited for the fire technique but it never came. Frustrated. 😞

A busking nearby the artboy. 

 That man facing this way once I snapped this picture. Is this perfect timing? 😕

You just wish to be invisible

When doing street photography, I have this feeling of taking photos of people as candid as possible. Meaning, taking their photos without them to realise somebody else is taking their photos. That, in my opinion, is a portrait of real life in a motionless picture. However, I always felt so worried that the person will scold me, I ended up taking less human pictures.

At one time, I tried to take this photo of a homeless sitting, just doing his thing. I didn't want him to notice me snapping, so didn't raise my DLSR but aiming at him without looking in the viewfinder, then snapped few times. Well, I thought I got it but the result, you see it yourself.

At this end of this walkway, I saw the homeless.

I aimed for the homeless but failed. If you look closely on the top of this photo, you can see a very little image of the homeless's black trousers (I think). I should have aimed higher. 😓