The first four types of street photography that I have written about, that is, candid, portraiture, geometric and abstract street photography are appealing to me. I have taken all of those types of street photos. But intrusive street photography is practically beyond my comprehension. Or, at least it was until I started doing research for the blogs on intrusive street photography. I became acquainted with the work of three contemporary professional photographers. They helped me begin to appreciate the merit of intrusive street photography. They also have piqued my interest in giving it a try. Maybe. I could start with pigeons!

Photo by Irina Escoffery. Used with permission. This photo was highly commended in the Candid Flash Challenge of the Facebook group, Street Photography Challenge.

Spyros Papaspyropoulos

First, I looked at a vlog, Flash Street Photography for Street Hunt #6, by Spyros Papaspyropoulos . In April of 2014, Spyros recorded a 30 minute video of his second day to use a flash in street photography. He was shooting in a crowd during Carnival. Some of the pictures were quite compelling. It did not seem so intrusive because he was taking pictures 3 feet away or so from his subject. No one seemed to mind. After watching this video, for the first time, I could imagine myself having the courage to use a flash at crowded night time events. It is interesting to me that once Spyros tried intrusive photography, he never gave it up. His Flickr account has a number of recent examples of his use of flash photography to take intrusive street photos.

Adam Miller

Second, I read the blog in Phoblogger, “Adam Miller Shoots Street Photography With Flash in NYC’s Blizzards”. The pictures in that blog were very compelling. I started following him on Instagram and found that his intrusive photography posts almost always amuse me. I particularly like his “Man in a Fedora” signature shadow which you can see in his photo below. I get the impression from the blog that he uses a mix of chutzpah and charm to get his flash pictures. I have neither of those qualities so his techniques are not going to enable my entry point into intrusive street photography but perhaps they can work for you. Adam also specializes in taking cityscapes and landscapes. You can view them on his website at Adam Miller Fine Art Film Photography.

Irina Escoffery

My last bit of good luck was when the public Facebook group, Street Photography Challenge, chose candid flash, #candidflash, as a weekly challenge. I really got to see a wonderful collection of classic intrusive street photography. It also led me to Irina Escoffery, who posted this compelling photo as an entry.

Photo by Irena Escoffery. Used with permission.

Irina is an incredibly generous photographer. She has allowed me to use some helpful advice that she gave me about taking flash photographs in this blog and also gave me permission to use her street photography photographs. In addition to being a street photographer, Irina owns Barking Tales Dog Photography. She specializes in taking pictures of shelter dogs. You can see her street photography on her Flickr account.

Here are some of the suggestions on how to get started in flash street photography that Irina gave:

Use the widest lens (Irina most often uses a 24mm lens) because you want to show nice background.
Be bold and don't engage in arguments and conversations with people.
Go to the most crowded places because people are most distracted and don't pay too much attention to your flash in front of their noses.

I have given it a try with my iPhone at a night time music event. The subjects were a dog and his owner. The dog was looking at me. The owner was decidedly not looking at me. The picture had no redeeming value, but it was a start.

Exercise

Go ahead. Turn on that flash and take one picture in a nighttime crowd. You can start with a bird!

Dedicated to Street

How to Take Intrusive Street Photography