A camera bag can become a collection of things we are afraid to leave at home. Another lens in case something happens further away. Another body in case the first fails. A flash, several filters, a charger and enough accessories to open a small shop.
Then we walk for an hour and begin looking for somewhere to sit down.
Street photography makes a fairly blunt demand of equipment: we must be willing to carry it, able to operate it and ready when something happens. Everything in the bag should justify its weight.
The above generated illustrations show three parts of the process: preparing a modest kit, working on the street and choosing pictures afterwards. They are illustrations, not documentary photographs.
The camera comes first, although the argument about which camera can occupy rather more time than the photography.
My everyday preference has been the Nikon D700. It is a substantial thing to carry, and I would never pretend otherwise. But I know its controls and understand what it gives me. That familiarity has practical value. When a person turns towards the light, I want to make the photograph without first negotiating a menu.
Someone else will work more comfortably with a small mirrorless body, a compact camera or a phone. Hands differ. Eyes differ. So do shoulders. A useful camera is one whose limitations you understand and whose operation you have practised.
An older camera still needs checking. Batteries deteriorate, controls wear and faults develop. Affection is no substitute for reliability.
The lens deserves thought because it helps determine where we stand.
A wider lens includes more of the surroundings and can bring the photographer close to the action. That makes backgrounds especially important. A face may be beautifully placed while the rest of the frame collapses into clutter.
A 50mm lens on full frame offers a working distance many photographers find comfortable. My own liking for the 85mm comes from the way I can frame people and select a portion of the street around them. It works for me. In a confined space, however, there may simply be nowhere far enough back to stand.
None of these focal lengths supplies a personal style. Each gives us particular opportunities and particular difficulties.
Nor must every prime lens be used at its widest aperture. An eye in focus and everything else dissolved into cream can make a pleasing portrait. Sometimes the stall, doorway or person behind the subject supplies the reason to take the picture. Depth of field is a decision about what the viewer needs to see.
A zoom earns its place when changing position is difficult or events move quickly. Its convenience can also encourage us to remain planted in one spot, adjusting the framing while ignoring how a few steps would change the relationship between foreground and background.
With either kind of lens, look before settling.
Then there are the small, uninteresting items that prevent a walk ending early.
A charged spare battery. A spare memory card in a protective case. A clean lens cloth, used after loose grit has been removed. A secure strap with its attachments checked. A simple means of keeping rain off the equipment. I usually keep a small plastic carrier bag to rap the camera in if it rains suddenly.
These rarely appear in romantic accounts of street photography. Neither does discovering that the camera was switched on inside the bag all morning.
The bag itself should be comfortable and easy to use. If retrieving the camera requires putting everything on the pavement, the arrangement needs attention. Carrying less can help, provided the essentials remain accessible.
And then we reach the shoes.
Comfortable footwear has a direct relationship with photographic patience. Sore feet make the route shorter and the decisions hurried. In the heat, water and somewhere to rest matter too. There is little value in carrying excellent equipment while becoming too exhausted to notice anything.
Attention takes effort. We need enough energy left to use it.
There are other tools that cannot be packed. Knowing when to approach someone. Being able to explain what we are doing. Accepting refusal without an argument. Recognising that a person’s distress does not automatically become our opportunity.
A smile can begin an encounter; it does not settle every question of permission. Nor does a longer lens remove responsibility for the picture or its eventual use.
Sometimes the soundest decision is to lower the camera. That decision belongs to the work.
Finally, there is the equipment waiting at home: a means of reviewing, editing and backing up the photographs. Printing has always been part of my process. A print gives me something I can sit with, put beside another picture and examine without continually enlarging it.
The edit tests decisions made on the street. Was the background helping? Did I release the shutter too late? Have I chosen the photograph because it works, or because I remember how difficult it was to make?
Keep those questions close. On the next walk, they may prove more useful than the extra lens.
Phone cameras deserve a proper place in the kit.
The phone is often the camera already in your hand when something happens. It is light, familiar and capable of making photographs worth keeping and printing. For some street photographers, it is their main working tool.
Its screen allows framing without lifting a camera to the eye, which can be useful when working from a lower position. But a screen can be difficult to judge in strong sunlight, and the smooth slab of glass is not always a comfortable thing to hold securely. Keep the lens clean: a fingerprint can do more damage to a picture than any supposed shortage of megapixels.
Learn its behaviour, too. Movement in poor light can defeat the processing that makes a stationary scene look impressive. Automatic sharpening, brightened shadows and aggressive noise reduction can alter the texture and atmosphere. Check the results rather than assuming the phone has understood what you saw.
And familiarity does not amount to permission. People may respond differently to a phone, but our responsibility towards them remains.
I would give the phone the same test as any camera: can I handle it confidently, and does the photograph hold up when I get home? It has earned its place in an article about the tools of the trade.
