The street season has finally started here in
Sweden, and with that I mean the season where you actually can shoot without
risking your fingers to frostbite. I haven’t done any real street sessions yet
this year, but the camera is always with me so there is always some moments to
get some training.
In this post I will talk about different focal lengths
for street photography. Many street shooters out there are sworn to the 35 or
50 mm focal length and could never see themselves shooting with a telephoto or
a wide angle lens. I also had this narrow minded approach to street photography
until recent. Just until one year ago I would not really care much for shooting
with a telephoto lens. I would be within the 24-50 mm focal length (35 mm
equivalent) for most of my street work. Today I would reach for anything
between 21 mm to 400 mm (or even longer for some purpose) for my street
photography. I don’t think the focal length defines the genre of street
photography, there are just different tools and perspectives and different
scenes demand different focal lengths. Although I would say most of my shots
are and most probably will be between 35-135 mm, I would not hesitate to use a
longer lens like a 300 mm for street portraiture.
It all comes down to what you want to say and
show with the photograph. Do you want to have a wide scene with all of the
information around the “subject” or do you want to isolate and get rid of
distractions. It is all up to you! Only you can decide what you want to express
with your photograph.
This year I have decided to experiment with
different focal lengths and I will continue with my candid street photo series
that I just started to investigate last year. I will try some different
approaches for this task, including my Pentax K-5 with the 70/2.4 Limited lens
which I really love, and it will for sure be interesting. I also have a secret
project for 2014, which I will reveal later on.
To be continued…
Here are some photos from the last weeks.
