11/3 - Getting Caught

Olympus XA, Ilford HP5+

It happens in street photography.  You're not invisible, and people will see you taking pictures of them.  Usually though, my subjects are away from the center of the frame, and it isn't always apparent that I am taking a photo of them, even if they see the camera pointed in their direction.

Some people say pictures of people looking at the camera "take them out of it."  I find it interesting if there's any emotion at all, whether apprehension or curiosity.  It's when people have that indifferent look that makes a boring picture.  That's usually when their eyes have glanced over you but haven't really registered what it is you're doing.

Here's what I do:

1. Decide that I want to take a picture, and look at something in the background as I bring the camera to my eye.
2. Once I'm looking through the viewfinder, I'm free to look at the subject and wait for a decisive moment.  Even if he were to look at me, all he would see is the camera.  It's kind of a weird one-way eye contact.
3. Take the picture.
4. Look back at that thing in the background before taking the camera away from my eye.
5. Move on.

From their point of view, I saw something (not them) that I wanted to take a picture of, took a picture of it, and kept looking at it.  As long as you're not making eye contact with them as you take the camera away from your eye, everything is fine.

In the picture above, I even brought the camera back to my eye and pretended to take another picture, and he looked overboard to see what the hell it was I was taking pictures of.