2 More Philosophies to for Better Street Photos

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In my last post I wrote about two philosophies that have really had a huge impact on my photography process and you can check that article out here if you missed it. In this article I’m going to share two more philosophies that have also helped me get better at street photography and will hopefully help you improve yours too.

1. Find Your Why

When I posted one of my early YouTube videos, it did pretty well, some nice feedback and I feel like it’s a helpful, honest video. But then I had a couple of trolls comment on it. I was new to putting myself out there on YouTube and the comments got under my skin. But rather than let it get me down it got me thinking instead about my photography and the journey I’ve been on developing my work over the years and I ended up asking myself the difficult question of, ‘Why is it that I do street photography?’ 

Do I pursue it for a wider creative goal, or is it just for the pure fun and enjoyment of the process? There are many reasons why I do street photography and you can find out more about that here. It’s taken me quite a long time to work out the why behind what I do, but once I figured out the real reasons why I do street photography then something really clicked. It gave me excitement and direction and a path to follow. 

The renowned German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche said, ‘He who has a why can endure any how.’ Knowing your why can really help you focus on figuring out the how and keep motivated without just feeling like you’re directionless and then thinking to yourself, what’s the point.

What is it that you believe in? What is it that excites you? What kind of work do you want to make to share with the world?

Why do you do photography?

These questions can be difficult to ask ourselves, but if we do and then really think about it, once we’ve found our why, we know what to focus on and the journey gets even more exciting. But once we know our why, then we need to focus on the how, so that’s where the next philosophy comes in.

2. The 1% Method

I know this is a photography article but bear with me here. When I first wanted to start running, I was so excited by it I wanted to do everything all at once. I wanted to make sure I had the best running gear, the best running form, I wanted to get quicker and fitter right away and I spent hours looking at running stuff online. Before I’d even gone for a short jog I was overwhelmed and confused and on the verge of giving up without even giving it time or practice. The same goes for photography. 

When we first start it can be overwhelming, what gear to use, what settings to have, what style to pursue, how to edit, how to share our work. There seems to be so much to it, we forget that it’s supposed to be fun and all we need to do is take it one step at a time. So that’s where the 1% method comes in. 

If you focus on improving one aspect of your photography by 1% each time you go out then over time that experience quickly builds until you see real progress. Having a focus of what aspect of your photography to improve each time you go out will save you hours of being confused and overwhelmed especially when you first start.

So for example, let’s say you’e going out on a photography walk and you say to yourself, today I’m going to mainly focus on improving my composition. Then you don’t need to worry about all the other aspects to photography, just the process of improving one thing by 1%. Then let’s say you go out the next day and do the same thing, just work on composition and aim for another 1% improvement. You cut out all the noise and over time you very quickly build up your experience and skills.

When you feel like you’re getting somewhere with composition and seeing improvement, or just want to change it up, then focus on another aspect of photography, like colour. Next time you go out look for complimentary colours and aim to improve that by 1%. 

Trying this approach has really helped me to go from average street photos to work that I’m really proud of. You can apply this philosophy to pretty much anything. In the photography world it could be editing, style, colour, technical ability, light. Any aspect of photography that you try to improve by a small fraction each time you practice, will compound over time increasing your ability with less chance for stress and overwhelm.

If you put these philosophies into practice you’ll definitely start to see improvement in your work but sometimes, without realising it, we make mistakes that can hold our work back, so check out this article next which addresses some common mistakes most street photographers make so you can steer well clear of them.