Street photography for me is an instinctive urge and after nine or ten years of wandering the streets with my camera it still is to some extent about staying curious and inspired – and then looking for that decisive moment. I have to admit, I just love it!

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Although based in Swindon I try to go to fairly busy public places, wandering the streets just looking for things that move or inspire me in some way, hoping that if they move me they may move the viewer.  I’m always looking for characters and sometimes I’ve followed someone to get a better image, perhaps with a better background, just trying to tell a story in a single frame or trying to capture a decisive moment.

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I’m often shooting people that don’t know or maybe don’t want to be shot. This often means being discreet, maybe sneaky, often shooting from the hip or from some other angle.  Trying to blend in or be invisible so that I don’t stand out or get noticed, however a cheeky smile does come in handy every now and again. 

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Knowing my camera well helps. I’m often pre-focusing and sometimes I’ll opt for shooting on ‘continuous’ to get that shot!

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I try to travel light with a small casual backpack to hold my camera. I use a minimalistic wrist strap which gives me the flexibility to react quickly.  The majority (not all!) of the time I work in manual mode using ‘auto ISO’, where I can set the aperture to f/8 and the shutter speed to 1/200sec. The flexibility of the auto ISO helps with the differing lighting found on the streets.

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Street photography tends to be in black & white, however I prefer to work mainly in colour which I believe is harder as colour often ‘distracts’ in images.  My post-processing work is minimal, perhaps straightening, cropping and adjusting contrast, brightness and sharpness etc.