From the Guardian

Amateur street photography: a beginner's guide

Camera Club member and photographer-about-town John Carvill explains how to capture great street scenes – and why they're worth it despite the perils of the pavement

Picture the scene: you're out on the sidewalk – maybe shopping, chatting or just daydreaming. Suddenly, you notice a shifty-looking bloke pointing a camera at you. What's your reaction? Discomfort, embarrassment – anger?

Before you lose your temper, spare a thought for the person behind the camera. As a practitioner of the increasingly popular art of amateur street photography, I can assure you there's every chance the photographer is feeling as embarrassed as you, and is just as uncomfortable with the idea of invading your privacy.

So why do we do it? Are we just voyeurs and stalkers out to spy and gawk? Well, no, but these assumptions mean we're often in a precarious position. Perhaps our most compelling excuse is the chance to make something out of nothing, to preserve or even celebrate a fleeting moment that barely existed and yet contained something special – a look, a feeling or just a random assembly of shadows and shapes.

We talk about "taking" a photograph, but the process is nowhere near as one-sided as the word implies. There's a crucial exchange between a photographer and the one-off moment they seek to capture. The moment was already happening and yet, at the same time, was also brought into existence by the photographer – it wasn't fully there until it was recorded. It's like taking a scalpel to the flow of the street and slicing off a fragment, which becomes something more than it was. There's a kind of drama to the act.

City streets are a great place to take photographs. Even mediocre shots can capture something of the energy and romance of communal life. It's no wonder that street photography is enjoying a renaissance. You may have noticed people pointing cameras at strangers in the street, or perhaps you're tempted to try your own hand – either way, Thames & Hudson's recent anthology Street Photography Now confirms its increasing popularity.

For those who yearn to make the leap from admiring other people's photographs to photographing other people, street photography is the obvious starting point. But it presents a challenge: you only get one chance to capture each moment before it's gone; there are no second takes. The advantage is that there are an infinite number of these moments.

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