The Simplest Way to Transform Your Street Photography
Lessons from a sunset walk along a Chennai beach
For many photographers, the idea of getting better at photography involves a new camera or lens. Especially if you’re early in your journey, this feels like the quickest way to significantly improve your work. And this shouldn’t be a surprise. We’re constantly bombarded with aspirational visuals from multi-billion dollar camera brands and persuasive influencers on how the latest camera will change our work.
But what if I told you there was a simple—and completely free—way to significantly transform your photography? The answer: get closer.
Why Getting Close Matters
If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough. These words were shared by the famed war photographer Robert Capa and have been a source of inspiration for photographers of all kinds. It’s also something that has been instrumental in evolving my work. Now before I talk about how to effectively get closer to your subject, let me talk about why getting closer matters so much.
Remove the Distractions
When you make an effort to close the gap with your subject, you’re also cutting out a lot of pieces that may not be important to the story. Whether it’s objects, branding, or empty space, getting closer to your subject is editing out the unimportant bits in real-time.
The further you are from your subject, the more consideration you’re gonna need to have for random, unnecessary elements in your frame. And this can be tricky in a fast-paced environment. By closing the gap, you mitigate the unwanted elements ahead of time.
Simplify the Composition
As you move closer to the subject, it occupies more of the frame and as a result, the overall composition begins to get simpler. There is less conflict. The viewer’s eyes have an easier time sinking into the image; they’re not immediately darting around at the conflicting objects.
By closing the gap, you have a higher likelihood of landing on a simpler composition that is easy to look at. It doesn’t mean that the image is simple. It just has a bit more elegance to it.
Strengthen the Bond
By getting closer to your subject, your viewer gets closer to. As a result, there’s a chance for more intimacy with the story that’s being shared. Maybe it’s a feeling of compassion. Or perhaps, more voyeuristic in nature, where the viewer feels like they’re seeing something they shouldn’t. Whatever it may be, when you get closer to your subject, you have a higher chance of bringing your viewer deeper into your story. And when that happens, the connection between the viewer and image strengthens.
How To Close The Gap
Alright, now that I’ve given you the key reasons **why** you should be getting closer to your subject, let me outline how you actually get it done.
Stay Curious
There’s an innate fear in many photographers that prevents them from getting close. We’re told at a young age to not interact with strangers and this may develop into this fear of people we don’t know. The easiest way to combat this is with curiosity.
When I see something interesting, I get curious. I want to know more. And so I get close. In the back of my mind, sure, I’m thinking about the potential risks involved but here’s the thing, a lot of these risks are imagined. So I focus my mind on the curiosity: What’s going on? Who are they? What are they doing? Why is that happening?
By focusing on the curiosity, I’m arming my body to get close. I’m suppressing the fears and anxieties, and underscoring the opportunity for a new story to told.
Move Your Feet
There’s no other way to say it, you gotta move your damn feet. I share this with my students all the time. Just. Move. Your. Feet. And don’t cheat with a zoom lens; actually more your feet. Humans are smart creatures and we can identify real danger, real quick. So keep your ears up and get closer.
A magical thing starts to happen when you get closer to your subjects. You start to realize that it wasn’t all that hard or all that scary. In fact, you may be welcomed into the space of your subject in a warm manner. So stop making excuses. Move your feet.
Fill In The Frame
Now that you’re much closer, fill up your frame with the important bits. Look to exclude anything that may be a distraction and focus on elements that strengthen the story. This will take some practice but now that you’re already closer to your subject, the task has become significantly easier.
Pick Off Some Details
If time is on your side, try to hone in on details that may otherwise go unnoticed. Not every shot needs to be a striking portrait or a clever juxtaposition. Many times, there is so much beauty in the details just waiting to be captured.
Lose the Dead Weight
Scrutinize the frames you’re capturing and look to eliminate as many unnecessary elements as possible. More importantly, review your images afterwards and ask yourself what could’ve been eliminated. Again, this is another practice that takes time, so make sure to give it the respect it deserves.
Whether it’s in the moment or much later, when you challenge yourself to keep removing the unnecessary bits of an image, you’ll find yourself getting closer and closer to the essence of your photograph.
Getting Figuratively Closer
The sun had started to set. I had just got scammed by a local band that failed to deliver for a beach photoshoot. And I had packed up my gear for this long walk back to the main road. As I got closer to my destination, I saw a group of women sitting in a circle with their backs to each other. In all my trips to India, I’ve never seen this arrangement before.
It looked like they were playing cards or something, so I send my producer (a local woman) to check if they are indeed playing a game. Sure, this feels like a hell of a cheat but I’ll tell you right now, if my producer wasn’t with me, I’d had done this myself just as I’ve done many times in previous trips.
My producer looks at me and nods: yep, they’re playing a game. I dart over with my gear, start observing, and start asking questions. These women were ruthless. They were playing this game where you had to collect two matching sets of 10 beads and all the while, they’re just hurling insults at each other.
I ask if they don’t mind me taking photos, they said go ahead but good luck trying to fit the fat one in the frame (I told you, they were ruthless). And so began one of the most memorable evenings I’ve ever had in Chennai.
I spent the better part of an hour just watching these women gamble and laugh. I felt extremely privileged to invited in this space. It was an environment that, again, I’ve never been in before and had this strong, feminist energy to it. I kept picking off various frames while also making time to just let the moment sink in. It was great.
Now, none of this would’ve happened if I didn’t get closer. If I’m being honest, there may be one or two shots that I’m actually proud of but that’s beside the point. For me, this is an exercise in developing my craft. I had seen something interesting, I followed my curiosity, and spent an intentional amount of time developing a story. The end result is enough material to paint a picture of what it was like to be there.
If you’re reading between the lines, you may have caught onto a tangential benefit of getting closer to your subject. You start to get emotionally closer to the story. After spending time with these women, I felt closer to them. Sure, we still are worlds apart. But this moment made me **feel** closer to them and that’s a powerful thing.
I could speak on this much longer but in the interest of your time, let me just say this: getting closer to your subject in photography isn't just about improving your images—it's about connecting with your world, experiencing the moment, and inviting your audience to do the same.
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September Contest Winner
Congratulations to the winner of last month’s contest:
Ethan Z.
You’ll receive an email directly from me on receiving your prize. Enjoy!
New October Contest!
Each month, I’ll be giving away a $200 gift card to the Moment Shop where the winner can save big on their next camera, lens, bag, or courses. Moment has so many creative products to choose from and $200 can absolutely make for a better deal.
How am I picking the winner? All you have to do is be a free member of this community and leave a comment on this post. As with every contest, I’ll be randomly picking one person, confirming they meet the requirements and contacting them directly before announcing the winner publicly.
Once again, this contest is void where prohibited by law. Good luck!
My thanks to the team at Moment! Not only for this contest but for being the longest supporter of my work online. They’re a lean team of passionate creators that truly believe in supporting other creatives on their journey. Whether it’s a new camera, lens, workshop, or just some great articles, visit ShopMoment.com today.
What’s Next?
I’m back home after a gruelling, three-week stint across India and Sri Lanka. It was the adventure of a lifetime but also the hardest series of projects I had put myself through. My team and I spent half the time filming an upcoming documentary and the other half on a campaign for a brand. It was exhausting. But also incredibly rewarding.
Things didn’t go as planned. Like I mentioned earlier, I got scammed by some local fixers and while frustrating, it’s all part of the journey. What I’m most thankful for is having this incredible team by my side that put everything into bringing my visions to life.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some stories that were largely inspired by my conversations with them and I think you’ll really enjoy them. Anyway, that’s enough for this week. See ya next time!
GB
Thank you for the prespective
Hey Gajan, do you have any plans on making a small book or Zine?
I feel like seeing your work printed in person would be really nice