What is interesting? Stop taking pointless street photos! 

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I wonder how many of Eggleston's photographs back in the day would be deemed boring and void of any merit? The patina of time can sometimes take an ordinary scene and give it value. I guess also the real trick is to find what you as the photographer find interesting and not Instagram etc.

Taking pointless photographs can also be seen as a warming up excercise as you become more comfortable being among people and work yourself towards the meaningful photograph. It's not just about the image but the interaction and overall experience

Just to add to my previous comments...I am 79 yrs old and when I look back on my 'silly' b& W pics I took 60+ yrs ago I am so glad I took them for different reasons.... cheers 😀

“Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.” - Garry Winogrand

I've taken a bunch of useless photos and one day while looking through my photos, I randomly found one of the best photos I've ever taken. I have no recollection of taking it but it's now my background everywhere lol.

Best composition for me was near the end. The girl sitting outside the bar, bathed in lots of warm red light with reflections. Each to their own but i find anyone that seeks attention best avoided, that includes street performers

Well. Don’t take any of this personally. We are trying to make bigger points here. You must see the irony of the title and then you making a video and taking pointless photos. 😂 It’s because of RU-vidrs and others pushing this “street photography” nonsense. It is a meaningless term. Other than for workshops, books, and photo walks, the term Street Photography serves no purpose. 10:01 you’re spraying pictures one handed walking behind someone. But you started the video with the concept of “take less photos”. Why? Cowboy hat? You sprayed 200 shots and 0 were interesting. When I’m out there I’m taking photos of myself. - Bruce Gilden 11:40 you had the most beautiful girl in the world. Again 1 handed spraying shots. It looks like a passport picture. 12:02 took a photo of some guy looking at his phone. Take your own advice and shoot less pictures. Seems like you’re trapped in shooting for a style instead of shooting for what’s within yourself. Your sentiment is right. But the proof is in the pudding and all the photos here and the way you were shooting was just forgettable generic garbage. You can do so much better than this. It’s amateur hour. Leave the GoPro at home and go really take pictures seriously. The photo is the statement. So make one.

True but in the end, beginners need to take a lot of pictures. that way they can learn, evaluate and asses their work. pointless picture is not so pointless after all. they can be a great tools to develop many beginner's view in photography. Pick 1 theme before going out on the street kinda works for me but sometimes "no theme" is also a good way. you can't predict let alone control what's on the street anyway. Keep up the good work 👍🏻

I wish more people see this video. I'm so tired of all this "street photography" photos which are just a random snap in the city with a blue tint preset slapped on it. Interesting: 000000000

99% of YT street photographers take pointless, meaningless cliche images including myself but we all think we are the best. Watching some of the legends and some of the newer ones with vision like Mark Fearnley, Eduardo Ortiz, Alan Schaller and a very few more, they should to realized this field is not for them. When I got a book by Alex Webb's The Suffering of Light I realized I have to forget street photography and do something else. Good to see you back, anyway.

Interesting - I actually entirely disagree, and I'm not a professional by any means but have been shooting street photograhy for about a year, both digital and film. I'd be rather sad going out for 5 hours and taking 1 photo, I'd feel like my eyes weren't open. I'm not really fond of taking pictures of street performers etc, it looks studio. I prefer unique lighting spots, scenes that look movie esque and interesting places. I kind of have an idea in my head of what I want to shoot that day and I look for it and I enjoy it. My mind is digging like I'm looking for a pokemon and I love it, some of my favourite shots are ones I thought ''this might look boring'' and it ends up the opposite. I took a picture of a women with a rainbow umbrella infront of a Rainbow here in Scotland at the city centre. It wasn't until I got home I realised the womens jacket was red, the guy next to her had an orange jacket, the chair in the middle was yellow and the guy sitting on it had a blue jacket and green hat. This almost (it lacked 1 colour) was the exact colour of a Rainbow, that was most certainly a ''is this good?'' and it's one of my most liked images on social media haha.

Good to see you back Gareth, I do agree with you on most things but think if someone is taking boring, people on the phone but no obvious interesting point well at least they are taking photos, they may be new and nervous or scared of confrontation and this is giving them confidence and also helping them hone their skill, better focus etc. The biggest issue for me is when people, and I’ve been guilty of it myself in the past, try and make something out of every shot they take, if it’s out of focus, we’ll let’s turn it B&W etc. No one, and I mean no one, ever gets 100% bangers, not you, not Alex Webb, not Cartier-Bresson, and definitely not me, no matter what genre of photography you shoot. I do enjoy these educational type of videos, more so when accompanied with a P.O.V too, keep them coming.

I have been learning from those who love looking at my photos and make comments about how good of an eye I have, etc. However, it's always about what I like to see, not what other people like. If you're involved in photography just to produce photos to please other people, then photography is not a hobby you can enjoy. It's a job that can get boring.

“If it’s shyte, don’t make it black and white” 🤣🤣 When out it is so much fun to press the shutter, but at heart know is often pointless. Less is more?

Most street photographers are roaming the streets all the time. They are always moving. That is quite disadvantageous on several levels: 1. You have to be aware to move without disturbing others 2. You constantly have to assess different fore- and backgrounds 3. Things around you happen with double the velocity, since you add your movement momentum to the movement of your motifs All this uses processing power and time of your brain you can't use to concentrate on photography anymore. In a busy street or place, you can do street photography much easier and most likely with better results, when you just remain stationary. If you would care to count contacts, you would realize that you have nearly as much contacts to other people as you have when you continuously move. Also, you can pre-select the foreground and background and only have to deal with situations happening in the middle ground, again reducing the composing effort. This way, you usually will produce less pictures than when walking around, but most likely nearly of all of them will be of better technically better and artistically more interesting.

Hello there. Just saw the title of this video and wanted to see what you have to say to your followers, ready to eat everything that is said by their influencers. But what I found is some discrepancy in words and actions. To take 20 images of the same moment, which should be interesting or special, and finally to have something mediocre (in your words) to show us someone taking selfie, reading a book, or holding something that is difficultly understandable. Your exact words - "I need to take a photograph....I've got my camera in my hand, the light is gorgeous and I need to take a shot". And... street photography with F4 or F2 is a kinda technique hiding from the viewer some needed for the full story environment used by strangers, like the trumpet in your image, that is blurred as hell even the story of this photograph is all these - the face, the pose of his fingers, and of course the closeup to the trumpet. Sure there are no rules and everything is about the personal point of view of the Artist, but seems like you tried to teach your visitors how to shoot less and to stay interesting and storytelling. And, yes, interesting is very subjective.

Back half a century ago, I spent about 5 years shooting in the street. I've shown and published the work, and have the best of it online now. But I've always felt a little guilty that over that period of 5 years, I didn't shoot in great numbers of images; about 1k per year. No Winogrand- or Maier-esque prolific numbers. What you say makes be feel better about that now. Quality, not quantity. That's the thing.

I think when we go out with the camera and get home 90% of the shots are pointless!

So refreshing to hear somebody being totally honest and realistic. I've joined and left Instagram a couple of times because of the drudgery of wading through hundreds of 'landfill' photos. I often take my camera to my local high street (Guildford, Surrey) and take no photos at all. I always ask myself, regarding any person or scene, "What is the 'show' here", meaning what is going to hold a viewers interest or spark their curiosity, or entertain them, or move them or something. Or to put it another way, why would anybody want to look at a photo of this. Also, not having Instagram or some such, mean you don't have a machine to keep on feeding with content, so you can just take your time and cherry pick your shots. I just keep my photos on my phone and show friends or people that I meet who might show an interest because of my camera. I really like your attitude of being hard on your photography. Although really, I guess it's just being realistic about it.. Cheers!

The trick is to get shots of people NOT looking at or taking selfies with their phones....Now that is hard to find :)

I often ask myself, "Would I shoot this if I was using film?" I sometimes think I would take fewer and maybe better images if I was shooting film. On the other hand, I often "find" an image I took after I download the SD card to the computer and say, "Wow. Not bad!" And I think I would not have taken the shot with film. In the end, I have to trust my instincts and just shoot what looks interesting at the time. There have been too many times when I've passed up a chance to capture a shot and regretted it.

I respectfully disagree (though I'm pleased to hear a differing opinion). I think people should take as many pictures as possible - and then harshly criticise them later. The problem isn't people taking so many pictures, it's people sharing so many rubbish ones. On a separate point, although we find images of people on phones boring now - it's documenting 2022 life. In 50, 100, 200, 2,000 years' time, people may look back on them and find them interesting - snapshots of a bygone era when people didn't have their SIM cards implanted in their heads.

The richest photographers are selling pointless photographs for high money.

Great ideas and photos! My number one pick would be the lady sitting outside smiling and smoking in the red lighting.

I really enjoyed you going through the process and showing the “almosts” along with your “nailed it’s”. I finally got to London a few months ago and it was fun to know where you were along the river.

Thanks mate, found that interesting yes! I’m a total street photography beginner, tried it just twice. The selfie…. I love those. I find it really interesting seeing people take selfies, a rare insight into the real world behind whatever it is they’ll be sharing. Almost like you’re taking a pic that should never be taken, breaking the rules. Showing what’s not meant to be shown. Thanks again, enjoyed it

It was whilst I was doing a course set by Magnum Photographers and Martin Parr he said to keep taking those rubbish photos. His point was that if you take a lot of photos you will get some interesting ones but if you just look for the good ones you'll probably miss them. It's easy to delete photos in digital. A bit more difficult and expensive when using film 😁

Bad photography is bad photography. Street photographers are about the last genre to learn this. I think because if they smash the curve tool and decide it's 'edgy' (or worse, just browse some presets) then that becomes the substitute for good photography.

Good stuff 👍🏼 "The story behind it" is always a tricky concept. The poet sees a book the mathematician sees a lady checking the time... 😅

Bottom line, whatever images a person takes, whether you agree or not, makes a point to them.

Thought provoking. Agree about there being too many pointless street photos. I like images that tell a story or are artistic.

I think it's all about the atmosphere-of-the-moment why we first love a picture very much and after some time we actually don't like anymore or don't understand why we thought it was so special in the first place because I think we lose the feeling of that particular moment. It's like buying a souvenir on a trip and after a few years it finds its place in the attic 🙂 Either way...I am happy to see you are posting videos again. I kind of missed you 😃

Thanks Gareth , you have just taken more interesting Street photos in one video than I have in my whole life. I guess its time to buy that Macro lens.

I'd start with not taking pointless duplicates i think.

For me, a good photograph is one where a photographer isn't hunting for a good photograph and the best ones are the ones people take for themselves and not to sell or showcase.

Imo good street photos have to be either aesthetically beautiful, tell a story by capturing an interesting moment in time or ideally both of those things.

Good to see you back mate!

Great video! I am going to use that checklist from now on, thank you Gareth!

Many channels call themselves street photographer ,but I look at their photos it is just a pointless shooting without any interesting ideas.😅

Great video Gareth, nice to see you put into words, where I felt, I was going wrong. 'BUSY LIVING LIFE' for me! 😊

Great to see you again Gareth. I think your channel has always had a strong element of educational material. You may not realise how much people have learnt watching your videos. I certainly have. Much appreciated Gareth. 👍

I’ve learned to practice taking mental pictures to warm up. I use my eye and make a clicking sound and often times I click at the “wrong” moment. After I warm up then I lift my camera up to my eyes

At least the process helps to train muscle memory to get familiar with one's camera like the back of their hand. Otherwise, once every blue moon will require fumbling around to figure out where the shutter button is. Another use can be served as a source to train one's art of seeing, by cropping some of the pointless photos later, for example. By hook or by crook, we can still level up without getting out of the chair. 🙂 Although the message of photography outings doesn't need to be pressured to come up with good photos is a valid one. However, challenges between beginner, expert and master levels are different and indeed it is getting lonely at the top. Maybe it is the reason why Fan Ho retired at the age of 30.

I loved that low angle of the break dancers where the guys foot is high. And the one of the girl in red at the end.

Good street photography is about seeing what other people fail to see either in composition, lighting or human actions/emotion. to often we see photos showing none of those qualities mostly reproduced in B&W. May ruffle some feathers but I feel the biggest culprits here are Leica users.

For me, street scenes are completely ruined by crowds of people. Empty streets take on a landscape effect.

Take pictures of whatever you want

I think the best way to shoot on the street is with film. I often limit myself to one roll for the whole day and it stops you taking pointless shots. You said not to take too many shots but you shoot continuous frames to get one subject so end up still taking loads of wasted photos. Surely the skill is to get the desired photo in one shot. All the great street photographers used film and fully manual cameras and had one chance.

the best advice I got, which I always try to remember, is "what are you trying to show? what is the story behind this pic? most importantly what am I looking at" these points should come across rather easily. I am a beginner among beginners lol. Every bit of good tips help. Just bought my first Fuji XT5. Cant wait to go out and take interesting pics.

Solid advice for all genres of photographer!

Great video. Thanks. We certainly have to slow down to take authentic street photographs.

Love the dancers, but I did pick up interesting tips with the angle of the camera

You are the real deal. Thanks for sharing your precious points with us. Look forward to see more content from you

RU-vidrs......'Stop taking pointless photos'.....proceeds to take pointless photos. The sentiment is there but it's too subjective to try and teach. I look at some of those deemed great and find their work boring and uninteresting and as a photographer of almost 30 years I have my fair share of work that people in the same room have found both amazing and dull. Honestly you will always end up with egg on your face with videos like this as your images will always look dull and uninteresting to someone.

Great idea taking pictures of people sucked into their phones. I do that from time to time. Sad that people have no idea what is out there. Seeing this makes me hate cellphones more and more each day. It's ruined people's lives. If you can, get a file camera like a Pentax, Canon or Nikon, put in a 20-shot roll of film and that is all you get. Let's see what you get and how much better those photos are than when using modern digital cameras.

Can we see some pointless photos.😊 Thanks Gareth For the video. .

This is definitely true, all photographers can take bad images no matter if you’re pro or beginner. The biggest thing is removing the images that have no meaning. For me I have 3 steps when I go to edit images, images I like and want to share, images I like but am going to keep to myself, and images I don’t ever edit because they are in my opinion the worst of my images.

Isn't pointless in the eye of the beholder? Some of my best photos were taken without looking through the viewfinder

Brilliant to see you back Gareth, great content, thank you.

You always give me great things to consider. I am forever guilty of coming home with too many files of things shot on a whim. I always find your shots unique.

Loved the street dancers. Going low was the right decision.

very insightful ❤

I think every photographer should start out on film. I just bought my first digital camera yesterday and when taking some initial shots I felt the urge to be less patient and I got no images I actually cared about. With film I had to wait and wait and it took me sometimes a few weeks to go through a roll (granted, I'm not a professional photographer I'm just a hobbyist). But every picture I took, I took time to compose it, get the right lighting, get the right colors, get the subject in the right place, and most of all get a picture of something I genuinely felt the overwhelming urge to capture. If you have a bunch of half baked ideas on your camera and find yourself spinning your wheels, get a roll of film and a cheapo point and shoot camera and give it a try. Limit yourself to only take pictures you feel passionate about

I think any subject can become boring if you dont look for the interesting light, subject etc

indeed nowadays many of the street photographs, especially by branded retro cameras are just very ordinary shots - most hardly deliver any excitement, humor, emotions or drama. Images of everyday life are available in an abundance nowadays by smartphone cameras. Now what sets some apart is the way they are composed or if they involve a precious moment that could still tickle us or be savored for time to come, irregardless what cameras were used in the process.

I love your color grading on color really.

Nice video, really enjoyed your thoughts on this topic 😊

Photography is sooooo subjective. Do what you do.

THANK YOU! I enjoy going to social media to see others' street photos since I live in a small town in a cold climate, and don't get a lot of photo ops myself. But, lately I've been getting turned off by the immense amount of pointless images on IG.

Great, stimulating “discussion video”, many thanks for stirring my grey cells! The shot of the girl taking a selfie…yes its a cliche etc. But in the past people used to take holiday shots of views and places, e.g st Pauls…now folk are obsessed with taking pictures of themselves at interesting places.. sort of “look where I have been!” So your pic is a document of our tomes and could be part of a project say “selfie takers” in the 1970’s I made 8mm films, some country views etc(landscapes) they all look crap now in quality…the views are just the same.. but film I shot in the centre of Birmingham is fascinating! The quality doesn’t matter, as it shows how much has changed…some spects of street photography have great documentary potential perhaps?

Really good video! Do you use electronic shutter? i couldnt hear any shutter sounds.

Totally disagree, shoot, shoot , shoot. Cull them later in post for the best. All the greats took million of photos.

Not fully into doing street photography. Somehow I am still here. I am practicing taking photos and can’t get where I want to take photos. Maybe street.

I personally think the heyday of great street photography images are behind us. All the best street photos were taken 30, 40 or more years ago. Of course, it's subjective, but nowadays we are bombarded with, at best, mediocre images because so many people are 'having a go'. Years ago not everyone had camera's and even fewer took them to the streets, and now we all have cameras (phones) and social media to share the pictures. For me, Bruce Gilden, Gary Winogrand, Jill Freedman, Alex Webb, Meyerowitz, i could name dozens, and they are all from back in the day. Not wanting to sound harsh, it's just my opinion.

I loved one of the last one night girl sitting at café outside smiling. And the pants busy living life. And man you speak fast

Nice to see you back on the platform. Once again informative. Like the scoring system. 📷

Interesting how your intro contradicts your next idea which is 'the more you shoot the more you know what to shoot'.

Love your videos. And totally agree. And love your advice to aim for one top photo in a street shoot. There are some bad street photographers out there doing youtube videos etc. It's bizarre. They have tons of followers, but their photos are no better than ones I take ... and I'm 1) still getting better 2) so amateur that I don't even have an Instagram etc yet (but I'm about to - I've been storing-up my favorite pics). What annoys me about the bad ones is they're lowering expectations for others, and also being intrusive for almost no reason. The person they're shooting may be a random uninteresting person (sorry!) walking in front of a WH Smith in boring light, or such like, and if I were that person I'd be mystified about why a camera was pointed at me. At least with good photography and scene choices it's easier to justify it - not only to yourself, but to anyone questioning why your camera was pointed at them. I also weary a bit at black & white photos. Often I look at them and think 'if that were in colour, it'd be so boring'. I'm not saying B&W is lazy, as it works almost like a different medium, but ultimately I feel like colour pictures set the bar higher for most street stuff.

Nice to see you back and with an interesting video. I get what you’re saying about certain shots being boring but in years to come, it’ll be an insight to how things were and everyone will be raving about how great they are!!!!

Good to see you back Gareth , love street photography.

Yeah I can't do this in my country! I was taking pictures of the park the other day and this guy came very aggressively asking me to show him the photos cause he wanted to make sure I didn't photograph him! So this guy wanted me to delete a whole park picture if he was in it even from afar as a silhouette! He didn't find anything of the sort in my camera so walked away looking over his shoulder! You have no idea how lucky you are to be in the country you are where people are so open and nice!

Best title ever!

Good to see you back, Gareth! Loved the lady smoking at the end.

Beginners are easily misled to learning hyper-focal, wide angle lens, get “closer” but out of fear, just shoot from hip when someone comes toward them. These techniques are essential but not the no-brainers. Don’t just get lost in the fun from using new gears and new skills, combine them to find the unfound funny sights and visual attractions before you learned those tricks.

Enjoying the video..I'm a Chicago photojournalist and it helps to have your picture-taking skills developed by learning how to see the workd around you! I love my 24-70mm zoom and a 18-35mm wideangle zoom lenses...KEEP LEARNING EVERY DAY! :)

Nice to see you back Gareth, that fire juggler street guy has been doing that in London for absolutely years, I used to see him every day on my way to work, he’s older and ruder now ! Interesting grading system, it’s difficult sometimes to work out why a shot you think is good, is or isn’t good, so I will give it a try!

Great video mate

You do hade a point sir, but with respect I kind of disagree…in order to train both your camera skills (settings etc) and your photographic eye, you need to take pictures … a lot. That does not mean that all those pics are great - rather the opposite. But in order to be a good football player, you need to kick the ball, not only when you think you can score…. But as often you can, same goes with photography. So from My point of view at least, to hone your skills, take a sh(#*tload of pics when on a photowalk. Consider that as a training session and your eye for What is interesting comes by it self and by reviewing them afterwards and even better, let someone else look at the, giving you feedback. Sure you might delete all those pics by the end of the day…. But … keep… shooting… pointless pictures . Ps. Also. One very important aspect of this activity is to have fun. To walk around all day not taking one single picture because you are afraid they are not good enough is no fun at all… and you can end up dropping this hobby of yours. Don’t be scared of shooting crap pics. It’s fun to just taking pics! Zooming in and focus on the task, therapy for some even. Quality will come eventually. And by taking a Lot of pics, you will hopefully find your style, your favourite focal length…

I like,your deliberately composed fine art photos a lot. This one's that concentrate on angles and including a person in just the right spot framed by something in the scene- to me that says "intent, design and Interest" more that spontaneous shots hoping to get a good composition.

Great to see you back Gareth its been too long, a great informative video and every word made sense,thanks for all those tips 😀

Enjoyed the whole video, great work! My favourite at 13:19 brilliant composition.

For some reason your reminding me of Ricky Gervais in the office 🤣📷🤘🏻

Some would call it practise, and getting to know your camera's lenses maybe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13:20 this is my favorite 👏

Hi Gareth, just found your channel. Fifty xears ago in my mid-twenties I liked to walk around in many cities not with the aim to do streetphotography but to absorb situations, getting closer to people sometimes with nice vonverdations AFTER the click. Today streetphotography isn't the same i think. Boring shots of pedestrians far away like ants, bloodless with no emotional impact. Ok times have changed and it's more complicated to make photographs from strangers and children. But there are pics possible with hidden faces, it takes more time and much better anticipation. At the end it's the inner sense, humor - and God Shoes* insider tip from a famous photographer. Cheers Bernd

Selfies may be seen as interesting later

Nice comeback Gareth. I like the scoring system.

very good concept.. I did take photos just because I could but now it has to look right before I take it.. nice one Gareth.

Looking forward to the Istanbul street videos. I’m going in February to do some street photography and tick a bucket list location off my list.