Whilst watching a Sean Tucker video the other day I came across these two terms, Hunters and Fishermen. Two polarising approaches when it comes to street photography. Neither approach is better than the other or more widely accepted and instead, like everything when it comes to photography it's simply a personal choice.
Both approaches provide different aesthetics, suit different personality types and most certainly take differing lengths of time and patience [be prepared].
Hunter
A much more divisive style of shooting, hunters are defined by their energy, confidence and predatory nature when it comes to street photography. Unwilling to wait hours for the shot, they go hunting for it. Very often looking for interesting and unique characters, hunters’ style is much more spontaneous and instant than their counterpart the Fisherman. They have a reputation of being more aggressive shooters, very often shooting close and from the hip and slightly unfairly lacking moral and ethical values.
For me, this style of photography just begs for conflict something I'm not prepared for every time I go out shooting. This is not to say its something I’m never going to try and you should avoid. With this style of shooting you just have to be prepared for funny looks and people asking you what you're doing. Make sure your friendly, approachable and involve the subjects you're photographing in the process by explaining your intentions.
Fisherman
Defined by their patient approach to street photography, fishermen wait strategically to get the shot they want. They are prepared to wait to see what happens in a scene and get comfortable within their environment before finding a composition they like and waiting patiently for a subject to walk into the scene. They might repeat this process multiple times within the same scene to get a variety of different movements and silhouettes which can be useful when it comes to post-processing. However, very often, like fishing itself, your hard work and patience can be left unrewarded.
My style quite obviously fits this approach. I take a more reserved approach waiting a few minutes for people to enter the frame. However, I’m not the type to wait up to half an hour to get the shot, if nothing is happening in the scene I move on. I do always ensure that if I do like the composition or light in a scene I take a shot even without someone in the frame so I can return to the location at a later date.
If you are a more introverted photographer who is more reserved about shooting strangers in the street this is the approach for you, conflict is far less likely and you feel less conscious and aware of those around you.
Another tip that I like to do is listen to music whilst you're walking around and shooting, you become much more present in the moment and less conscious about those around you.
Hope you enjoyed this weeks post and learnt a thing or two. I would love to know what sort of street photographer you are. Are you a shy patient fisherman or a determined hunter, let me know.
Also please check out the first issue of my new E-Zine free to download here. I interview the extremely talented Albert Therkelsen, a 15-year-old street Photographer from Denmark with a big future. Its a must-read!
Happy Shooting!