Patience and Persistence

The two most valuable things that Street Photography has taught me are Patience and Persistence. To be quite honest these are two qualities that I really need to work on in my day-to-day life.. In reality, I am not the most patient person, sometimes waiting 5 mins can feel like an hour and when faced with adversity, I am often inclined to feel like it is far too much effort.

So why in Photography, do I work on developing both patience and persistence, each time I go out to shoot at Street. In my experience a bit more patience at street can make a big difference to an image. Waiting for the perfect subject is often easier than the disappointment when I am looking through my images later to find they were not quite right.

Street Photography can be great when the planets align, when the light, the subject and the timing all come together. But when things are not falling into place, or get difficult, I need Persistence to go out and try again. Occasionally I miss the timing on one shot and then I seem to get into a funk. Some days are better than others, if I can work through this feeling I simply do a few test images to get my timing back then it feels better. If in doubt, I stop for a coffee or a cold beer depending on the time of day. Often there are great shots waiting inside or outside the next cafe or bar.

 This image was taken at the famous Two Windmills Cafe in Montmartre in Paris. The Café des 2 Moulins was featured in the wonderful French Film Amélie. This is such a busy cafe with people coming and going. It took a bit of patience to get all the subjects to work in this one image. I enjoy the many characters and subplots here.