A vast majority of people become nervous when they think about doing street photography. Many misconceptions about the legality and ethics of photographing other people exist. The bottom line is that street photography is not about the other people, the scene, or the "right or wrong" of it. Street photography is about your relationship to the environment around you. A photographer on the street that feels like he is being voyeuristic will be perceived as a voyeur. A photographer on the street that feels like he is being sneaky or "stealing" something will be perceived as a sneaky thief. So the trick is to just relax and react to your surroundings. Let go of the "looking glass effect." Don't get caught up in what others are thinking. If somebody isn't comfortable with you taking there picture, don't. You will know when you shouldn't release the shutter. If you are uneasy and nervous, you will be projecting that feeling. Ask yourself why, let it go, and than simply enjoy the moment and begin shooting.
UPDATE: At the request of a viewer (my Mom) I will begin to discuss more of the particulars of what was going on in my thoughts during the capturing of these photographs. The day I took this picture I had been exploring two ideas. I had been looking for ways to use motion blurring technique without washing out the entire frame. I was also looking for strong graphic lines for my compositions. I walked passed this stairwell in the center of a campus building. At first glance I thought the shadows were too deep and the subject was unappealing. However, something about the graphic lines forced me to take a second look. I liked how the stairs receded into the frame and then took a hard right at the top of the frame. The empty space below the stairs could keep the eye from leaving the frame. The graphic lines of the stairs and rails, balanced by the empty space at the lower right created a nice balance. However, the overall subject was still boring and the stairwell was in deep shadow. Then I realized I could use a motion blur technique to capture somebody walking the stairs. The blur technique would also create a long enough exposure to open up the shadows some. So I tripod mounted my camera and 28mm lens about 10 feet in front of the stairs. An exposure of 1.6 seconds created a perfect blur as this gentleman came down the steps. The final compostion works well and the subject certainly becomes Contrast. There is the contrast of sharpness/blur, motion/stillness, line/space, and figure/ground. For the technical viewers, I didn't take a meter reading at all. I just kept the shutter open long enough to allow the man to walk a few steps. I used a small aperture of f/18 to ensure the stairs in the background would remain relatively sharp enough to contrast with the motion blur. By the way, the gentleman in the photo is Michael Long.
