Principles and Guidelines for the Modern Photowalker

Photowalking. A passion? An obsession? A disease? Maybe a combination of all of the above. I think of it more as a lifestyle, but when it gets into your blood it runs strong. Like an ex-cigarette smoker 5 days into their quitting, I get anxious and worry when I don't have my camera with me. Is she ok? Is she feeling well? Has somebody stolen her? (Like Macs, by the way, cameras are always girls). My 5D stays with me always. I avoid places that don't allow cameras. As much as I love contemporary art, I haven't set foot in the MOMA here in San Francisco for about four years due to their anti photography policy.

(Updated thoughts on the SF MOMA as well as Renegade Photography here)

I've heard a lot of people say that they don't like taking their camera with them or being the designated "photo person" because they don't get to enjoy themselves wherever they are going. I'm the opposite. I enjoy myself far, far, more with my camera than I ever could without her. I see more of the world when I have my camera with me. I notice things that I wouldn't otherwise. People's expressions, architecture, the sky. You do more than stop and smell the roses, you take a little bit of the rose's soul with you in your little box of metal that captures all that light.

When I am out walking my eyes are open. I see the world in color. In all its splendor and beauty. People are more real, more alive. The world is a far, far, more beautiful place.

I've been photowalking for a few years now and thought I'd type out some general principles and guidelines. Bear in mind that these are *my* principles and guidelines. These won't work for everyone, especially all you anti-photography nut jobs out there -- and you know who you are.

1. The camera goes with you everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It lives with you 24/7. Never, ever, leave her at home. Not just to pop out and go to the store. Not at home because, well, there's nothing interesting at work anyways, etc. There might be something interesting *on the way* to work. A comet might come crashing into the Safeway just before you get there and you can shoot it. Etc. etc. Always bring your camera with you wherever you go.

2. Shoot every day. You eat every day. You drink water every day. You breath every day don't you? So shoot every day too.

3. Share your work and join a community. It doesn't matter where you share it. Share it on Flickr. Share it Zooomr. Share it on Smugmug. Share it on Pownce. Share it on your blog. Share it on Facebook, or heck, even share it on Digg now! You will get amazing feedback on your work. And more than this you will get encouragement when people comment and fave and view your work. Encouragement to the Modern Photowalker is like fuel. It motivates you. It keeps you going.

4. Give and you shall get. When you share your work, appreciate the work of others. A good general rule is that you should try and fave one shot for every shot of yours that's faved. You should try to comment on one photo, for every photo of yours that gets commented on. It's the yin and yang. It's karma. There is so much amazing photography online today. Share your photos and share the love. Remember the last line of the last album the Beatles ever made. "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Love the photography of others. Buy photography books, especially from photographers themselves. Go to their shows and openings. Buy their prints. It all comes around.

5. Never hesitate. Once I saw this shot of these gas meters in my head as I was driving by them. The street was a one way street and I didn't slow down fast enough to get the shot. I had my kids with me and was late getting somewhere and I kept driving even though I knew in my heart that I needed to get that shot. About a mile down the road I turned back around and went and got the shot. Here's that shot. In the end I love this shot. It means far more to me than whatever I was late for that I don't even remember anymore. An editor at San Francisco Magazine called me up and asked if they could publish it.

There will always be reasons to skip a shot. Most of the reasons are because you are lazy. You don't want to take your camera out of your bag. You don't want to stop driving. You don't want to inconvenience someone who is with you. You are worried about someone objecting to the shot. Whatever. Get over it and get the shot. You will kick yourself afterwards if you do not. I have never regretted taking a single shot in my life. I have regretted many, missed shots. Fortunately today there are fewer and fewer of those.

6. Shoot in RAW and don't be afraid to process.

Those photo purists who tell you Photoshop is wicked? Don't listen to them. Be a photo whore. If it looks better in blue, make it blue. If it looks better in green, make it green. If it looks better with vignetting, add it in. Bump up the saturation and contrast if you want. If HDR or tilt shift or whatever is your thing. Do your thing.

7. Know your rights. Know where you can shoot and where you cannot. Know that in general you can shoot anything from a public street. And that in general you can shoot things like subways, etc. When you are challenged about your shooting and you know you're on good legal ground always object. Be polite. Be gentle. But be firm and object. Don't accept this behavior from security guards or other people.

And fight back if you have to. Enshrined in just-war theory is the doctrine of proportionality. Meaning that a response to aggression should be commensurate with the act. If someone is polite with me and asks me not to shoot in public I'll be polite back but insist on my rights. If someone on the other hand comes at me with middle fingers a blazzin, or tries to get physical, well then that's what blogs, and things like Boing Boing and digg were made for.

8. Your purpose in creating art is a higher purpose than their misguided reasons for disallowing you to create art -- which in general almost always derives from some poorly thought out argument for their economic benefit and whose policies were more often than not created by lawyers.

What does this mean? Well. If you are not allowed to take photos in the lobby of the Gap's headquarters, take them anyways. If you are not allowed to shoot in Starbuck's because of some lame anti-photography policy, shoot anyways. Your purpose in creating art and making the world a more beautiful place, trumps their economic interests. Call me a communist if you want. But in the same way that Banksy paints *his* murals on *their* property, you are making the world a more beautiful place by making your photographs and what you are doing doesn't hurt anyone.

When you do need to get a shot in a place that you know you are not allowed. Prepare for it. This means have your camera settings perfectly set before you whip it out. Throw some headphones on so you can act like you don't hear the security guard who will object. If you are careful and fast enough you can easily get maybe 50 shots off of a building interior by the time the security guard actually taps you on the shoulder. If you didn't get all your shots, easy, just go back another day.

If you want to put some fun in it, when the security guard finally gets your attention act like you don't speak English. Just say something really loudly. Like, HI! I from Hungary! And then point your camera at him. I take you picture?

See that no trespassing sign? Ignore it or you can't get shots like this. See how the door to the Crown Room at the top of the Fairmont Hotel is locked? Guess what? The service elevator still gets you up there and you get to sit on top of the world alone by yourself and get shots like this.

9. Money spent on gear is almost always worth it. Yes, one downside to photography as a lifestyle is that it is ****ing expensive. And the more it begins to live inside you the more you begin to physically NEED that new 14mm ultrawide lens or that Hasselblad that you know you can't afford but that you know would just look fabulous on you, etc. etc.

Spend the money. You're making making art. Art is more important than money.

10. Back up your photographs. Be anal about this. Hard drives will fail. It will devastate you when your photos die. They deserve to stay alive even years after you are gone. So back them up. Personally I use a drobo for all of my files which allows replication of data. I also keep copies of my full high res finished JPGs online on Zooomr. I use Zooomr, well because I'm CEO of the company and love the community, but, I also use Zooomr because it doesn't restrict the size of the photos that you upload, so I can get high res copies of my finished JPGs online at a minimum in case my house burns down or something.

11. Learn how to shoot with the manual mode on your digital SLR. Even if you shoot in program mode or automatic a lot, learn how to make the adjustments when your camera's automatic settings don't see the shot as it is meant to be seen.

12. There is safety in numbers. Going to go shoot someplace especially dangerous? West Oakland at night, abandoned places in Richmond? Consider getting a group of people to go shoot together.

13. Learn to love the macro. A lot of people have told me that I'm lucky because San Francisco is my canvas. Actually though I can shoot for hours literally anyplace on earth. Just give me a macro lens and whatever space is 10 feet in any direction from where you are sitting right now becomes fertile new territory for photo exploration.

There are lots more tips and guidelines but 12 is probably enough for today. Keep up your amazing shooting and remember that the best photographs in the world have yet to be taken.

Other photowalking resources:

Trevor Carpenter's photowalking.org page.

Photowalking on wikipedia.

Photowalking on ScobleShow.

Photowalking tag on Zooomr ranked by awesomeness.

Angelo Rizutto on wikipedia.