How To Shoot Street Photography In Small Towns

Street photographers love big, busy cities. They're fun, and make our jobs a fair bit easier. I'm definitely guilty of thinking it's not possible to do my thing outside of a city but being stuck in NZ for a while has forced me to learn a thing or two about taking pictures of not much at all.
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00:00 We aren't in Kansas anymore
01:36 Lenses
03:07 What Time Should You Shoot?
04:06 Bonus Tip
05:31 The Most Important One
08:17 Outro
09:22 Hydration Advice

[@huntercreatesthings]

→ If you want to improve your photography, sign up to my free emails here: email.huntercreatesthings.com/ 💌

[@DavidGBlair]

The world has enough street photos of New York, London, and Tokyo. Trying somewhere else makes sense.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Exactly!

[@cameraman655]

Getting good, decent and or great street shots in the aforementioned cities is like ‘shooting fish in a barrel”, not that much of a challenge. Small towns, imo, will definitely challenge your creativity and can be more rewarding.

[@csb65536]

Your approach to small town street photography reminds me of a photography professor I had many many years ago in college. He always said. “There is always something interesting out there to photograph. It doesn’t matter where you are, or what time of the day, month, or year it is. The trick is, to learn to recognize them, and photograph them at interesting ways to make them stand out. Basically what you said in this video.

[@huntercreatesthings]

I love that!

[@Anon54387]

@@huntercreatesthings Bear with me, but I think people sometimes put big cities up on an undeserved pedestal. The world doesn't need yet another photo of the Eiffel Tower, London Eye, Golden Gate or Brooklyn Bridges. Those have all been photographed to the point where it is very difficult, probably impossible, to do so in a unique way. Moreover, in some big cities in the USA the residents very rarely get out of the city and for such a person a shot of a dairy farm is something unique to look at. I live in a small town in a rural-ish area and it isn't too hard to get out in a truly isolated rural environment. Taking pictures of dairies does sometime yield interesting results like when I saw a whole line of calves, and night photos of dairies are neat to look at, and once I was out in the countryside when they were harvesting alfalfa at night. Those are shots not seen every day, and it was just luck of the draw that I was traveling between two small towns when tat was going on. There's a guy named Jim Hill on Flickr from the Chicago area, but he also ventures out into the small farming towns of northern Illinois. He gets some great shots with real moods to him of those little towns.

[@Anon54387]

@@huntercreatesthings There are some specific small towns I definitely avoid especially at night as they do have an outsize problem with violence, but on the whole one is safer in small towns than Paris, London, NYC, Chicago, LA and SF whether a woman or a skinny guy.

[@juliecumming826]

Yes Hunter! Loved your cinematography, nice chilled out friendly vibe, and obvs brilliant tips as well. 11/10!

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you Julie!! Have to get creative when I've only got an old barn to film in hahaha

[@Poverello2001]

Some good advice in this video. I live in a small town and everything closes down by 7 pm, so evening/night photography choices are very limited. When shooting in a rural area you should also look for events like summer outdoor concerts, car meet ups, county fairs, etc. Also, look for things like public parks. They all provide good opportunities for photos.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Those are great ideas!! Are you based in Poland?

[@Timoleon87]

From my limited experience I can say that my 85 1.8 (on aps-c) is the best choice for street photography in small towns. Late evening/night is good but so is also mid day, kids and working age people isn't put but old non working people are and they tend to not care or even notice me (bad vision? 😅). They are walking their dogs, sitting in parks and what not. Great subjects 👌

[@huntercreatesthings]

Great points!

[@bwc1976]

Thanks for confirming that longer lenses can work in these situations!

[@huntercreatesthings]

No problem! Happy to help

[@Elifarnhill]

Great video Hunter, brilliant tips and insights! You've judt earned a subscriber!

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you!!! I'm filming this weekend so keep an eye out ;)

[@senyang2260]

Thank you so much for the honest sharing of overcome the challenge living in the small remote town for street photography. Similar to you, I am also going through the same stage of "Stagnation" with my own street photography. I used to enjoy shooting with the 28mm and 50mm and feeling quite comfortable to "get close" shooting on the busy streets of Beijing (as well as the other popular metro cities in Asia) for the past 3 years until moved to a small town in Northern Florida last summer. It is huge challenge for me to continue the same way I shoot on streets as there is an intensive sentiment of being offended taking photos of people on the streets without obtaining their permissions first...not even mentioning to take photos at night (Strange and Creepy for the local folks). I guess the COVID has largely changed how people interact with each in general sadly. On the other hand, I have no desire to take those "stranger portraits on streets" although some photographers have done the superb jobs in that style. Being a huge believer of capturing the Candid Moments is the most essential part for Street Photography, I decided to follow my all-time favorite Saul Leiter and encouraged myself to learn to observe the new environment through the focal lens of 90mm. This new perspective of much tighter and more compressed has not only brought me back with the enjoyment of out shooting but also motivated me to convey more 'street mystiques". After all we can only photograph what's in front of us. So let us make the best of what we got 👍👍Sen @AZYANGS

[@huntercreatesthings]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@Elements795]

Enjoyed this video Hunter….I like the delivery and content. Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a big city filled with neon lights and a 24 / hour buzz😂

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks! I definitely missed the bustle out there haha

[@michaelamiss1828]

I live in Toowoomba, QLD. Street photography requires mostly a longer lens, I use 18-200, cropped sensor. Streets pretty empty for a reasonable sized town.🇦🇺

[@overdrivegtah]

A fresh voice and perspective. Nice work. Keep it up Hunter👍

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks Andy, really appreciate that 😊

[@kennethbleyer1980]

I really appreciate your perspective. Thank you.

[@huntercreatesthings]

My pleasure!

[@0action847]

Great video, good info and funny. Thanks

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks!!

[@bruce-le-smith]

Cheers, I live in a small town and feel this. I lived in London for a year and never saw the same person twice, but if I got in someone's face in my town they would glare at me in the grocery store for the rest of our lives p.s. lol for the tip of being a stalker with a 135mm lens shooting in the dark at night. But as an old short man, who can neither confirm nor deny he likes to enjoy drinks in a pub, I wouldn't give any hoots about strange kids taking my portrait as long as they kept a respectful distance and seemed friendly. And good final tip too, any entrepreneur or small business owner would probably be looking for free advertising, so doing a detective/portrait kind of study of their work would probably be very well received

[@huntercreatesthings]

Great points!

[@MaxPhotoGraphic]

Thank you for the tipps I have lived for few months in a place where there were 5 days a week 24 hour a day only 5 colleagues. I understand that in my case i went few times in a short hike to take photos an few other times i was ising the different hours of the day to shoot arpind tje main biildong, was a lovely place but people where there 1 or 2 fays a week

[@huntercreatesthings]

You're very welcome

[@DocumentingLife-JJP]

Great video thanks for sharing

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you for watching!

[@henrywilliam8506]

Do you have a link to Alex So you mentioned in this vlog?

[@huntercreatesthings]

Of course :) www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/alec-soth/

[@clivebigsby3664]

Great video! Thanks

[@huntercreatesthings]

Glad you liked it!

[@StarrysLostandFound]

Interesting ideas and video.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you!

[@optical_ideas]

Going to try this, thanks. Btw. whats the song at the end please?

[@huntercreatesthings]

Nice! It's called Dizzy by Blue Steel and it has become my theme tune hahaha

[@optical_ideas]

@@huntercreatesthings ah great, thanks. Really nice tune 😎👍

[@roystansell7640]

Thank you

[@huntercreatesthings]

No Problem!

[@ActualCounterfactual]

Just a video I needed to watch... I have lived in Birmingham, London, Dublin and other bigger places around Europe and now I live in a tiny TINY insular community with 2000 inhabitants in the countryside in Scandinavia... I can only describe my current life in 2 words.... boring and uninspiring when it comes to photograpy !!! Maybe I have to buy a long tele-lens and start shooting wildlife instead LOL BTW thanks for sharing your pix at the end... enjoyed. Clicking the subscribe now ;)

[@huntercreatesthings]

Ah thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Get that 70-200 out and go shoot!

[@nell0uise]

Subscribed because of the Slough comment

[@huntercreatesthings]

Hahahaha nice one

[@robertmangan6501]

Brilliant Fantastic

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you!

[@BoBandits]

Make sure you change your video environment every minute or so to keep the audience engaged!

[@huntercreatesthings]

What if I changed the audience every minute or so, to keep the video environment engaged?

[@mkh78]

great tips

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks!

[@777ibrico777]

lol... Slough!!

[@marcdeckard7064]

Some decent suggestions.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks Marc!

[@runningawayvagabond5876]

What about this scenario, and I'm sure it's becoming an issue in MANY area's around the globe, is how do you do photography/street photography, especially anywhere near downtown/high street areas when those area's are just jam packed with homeless and drug addicts?

[@huntercreatesthings]

Great question! Here's what I'd do: 1. Go Stealthy. Use small cameras, back screen/waist level finder etc. Avoid conflict. 2. Use light and shadow. You can use the grungy textural atmosphere without taking generic homeless pics by obscuring parts of the image with light and shadow - fellow kiwi expat Josh Michael Windsor is great at exactly this (find him on Instagram) 3. Find the touristy/local bits. There will always be areas of town that are a bit more local and less crackheady.

[@SiriusG]

​@@huntercreatesthingsfigured out where that is for my town. It's almost 90 miles outside of it. My town happens to be right on the state border between Texas and Oklahoma and is frequently used by gangs and cartels as a trading hub. The towns so dangerous that there isn't anything touristic in it or near it to be accessible by anything worthwhile. And even that area is on the opposite side of a artillery base meaning the only way to and from the wildlife refuge and Oklahoma city bombing monument is a confusing freeway and back roads that split off onto farms and homesteads often. And google loves to try to say to use those roads too. The town is Lawton Oklahoma and the base is fort sill. Even fort sill, even though it's almost as old as the us, isn't of anything actually photo worthy, seeing as there's thieves, druggies, dealers, murderers, thieves, bad drivers, and so on everywhere. Then there's the fact that over 85% of the town is restaurants, gas stations, and abandoned homes in the process of being demolished. My town is the size of Puyallup Washington, but has the equivalent population of two Nimitz class aircraft carriers worth of people. The rest of the census that's used to calculate population in town is military personnel. Even they typically get shipped out quickly after arriving as the towns not sustainable under its own weight. Because the military is considering selling it too, people have been running as once it's gone the town will die off.

[@taranwilliamson1931]

@@huntercreatesthingscrackheady is my new favorite adjective

[@busymamatips1475]

Slough :’D

[@huntercreatesthings]

Had to do it to em

[@walkingmanvideo9455]

I am exactly in this position, I live in a boring town and I have shot the sh!t out of it and it’s still boring. I need to travel. If you want to photograph the mountains of South Island in New Zealand, you can’t substitute the local rolling flat hills. One has to travel the NZ the photograph the ginormous mountains and scenery. You can’t substitute Auckland or Christchurch for New York or London. It is what it is. You photograph a turd……….its a turd, no matter how much gold paint you put on it.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Travel helps - but you might just be the best person to document your boring town!

[@walkingmanvideo9455]

@@huntercreatesthings your channel was just recommended to me and I honestly can say it is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the KZbin influences who absolutely have zero knowledge in comparison to what you are delivering. Well done. I’m surprised your channel does not have tens of thousands of subscribers, cheers from across the water in Australia

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thanks mate!! Appreciate you

[@monkeymouse8030]

I'm sorry, Alex who? You mentioned him @ 5:39

[@huntercreatesthings]

Alec Soth! His photography is incredible and a big source of inspiration for me. I've added a link in the description to some of his work :)

[@ToyoteroMundial]

Subscribed.

[@huntercreatesthings]

Thank you ☺️

[@ToyoteroMundial]

Any updates?​@@huntercreatesthings

[@icc1412]

i saw the thing about autofocus and even tho i like your video i gave you a thumbs down to help with the algorythm. i just didnt want it this to show on my liked feed. hope you understand. thanks for your advice. have a good one ^^

[@huntercreatesthings]

Understandable have a nice day

[@etre06]

To much talk, not enough exemples with your photos.... Thanks in advance

[@huntercreatesthings]

If you'd like to see some examples of my photos, you can find them on my Instagram and my website which are linked in the video description ☺️