Some weeks ago, when I had a free day in Tokyo, I visited the Asakusa Temple and Sensoji shrine. On the pathway to the temple you pass a long gallery of small ships offering traditional food, clothing, chopsticks and many souvenirs.
The people visiting this very traditional and spiritual place are from all over the world. Many of them are dressed in the Japanese traditional traveling clothing. I did not take pictures of the historical buildings but enjoyed to image the people floating around me. Some days ago, when I posted some of the images on FaceBook some one contacted me and asked how I have been able to take pictures of so many people and some even posing for me.
Some people I kindly ask if I am allowed to take a picture, with many I just have a short moment of intensive eye-contact. With in this short moment while looking into the eyes of the people you know if they accept to be imaged or if they dislike it. Of course, if I interpret the eye-contact as a “no”, I respect their wish and I do not take an image. Luckily this is seldom and many people have no problem with being photographed. This also works well, while people wear a mask.
Using a viewfinder style camera like the Fujifilm X-PRO3 with a compact prime like the 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 APS-C is a plus as people do not feel uncomfortable like being imaged with a huge DSLR style paparazzi camera.
Here a small collection of the eye-contact with some people. Please tell me how you get in contact with people during your street photography sessions.
