Hi everyone, I’m Paul, and I’ve become addicted to street photography and buying photobooks.
I couldn’t tell you how long I’ve been interested in photography, but it was in January 2020 that I took the plunge and bought a camera for the first time, specifically for street photography.
Soon after, I bought plane tickets for a holiday to China later in the year. What could go wrong in 2020?
Apart from a few months of having to stay home, I’ve not stopped taking pictures since then.
I fit street photography around being a tour guide here in London, and in the last few years, I have spent maybe equal amounts of time out on the street, using the same skills to look for moments of serendipity and coincidence in London’s art galleries.
I was lucky enough in March 2024 to have a zine of my art gallery work published by Bump Books, which sold out in record time.
Fujifilm X-T3 – my camera of choice. It’s important to remember that a camera is a box with a hole in it.
I don’t mean that as a throwaway comment. It connects us to the history of photography and reminds us that although any camera is a marvel, what camera it is, isn’t really that important in the grand scheme of things.
That being said, there are practical reasons why I chose my camera four years ago. For street photography, it would help to be relatively small.
It was and still is my first proper camera, so I wanted to try different focal lengths. The image quality had to be pretty good, and I wanted to be able to take the camera out in bad weather.
Not using a camera that the average person thinks of as a professional camera also helps keep my work candid.
Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR – my lens of choice. Shooting in art galleries presents all sorts of problems. They can often be quite dark places, so it’s a balance between having the depth of field I want and the amount of light I need.
My lens gives me everything while being small enough to be unobtrusive. If Fuji made a smaller 23mm, I would be interested, but otherwise, I’m happy with what I have.
I bought my camera second-hand, and the strap is just a random one that came with it.
I do sometimes wonder whether I’m missing out on the latest and greatest new spangled gear, but it would cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds for potentially only marginal gains.
All anyone really needs for street photography outside is an f/8 setting at 1/500 of a second and the ability to point their camera at things that interest them.
That’s about it, apart from what interests you being the biggest question of all.
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