Getting Back on the Street Photography Horse

After my frightening encounter with a man who didn’t want to be photographed occurred, I was very hesitant to go back out to photograph on the street.  The day after the incident, I was still really shaken up about it.  I wasn’t sure if I ever was going to be willing to do street photography ever again.  But while eating lunch with my wife the next day, I decided to get over my fears and jump back into it.

We were having lunch in Pentagon City that day.  Afterward, Cheri was going to a hair appointment, so I knew I would have to kill some time.  It was then I decided to hop the Metro over to Chinatown for some street shots.

I had my Nikon N60 loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film and a Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens.

Once I arrived in Chinatown, I took a deep breath and immediately set off taking candid shots of people on the street.  It was an interesting day to be shooting.  The Dalai Llama was in town and because of that there were a lot of Buddhist Monks around.  There was even an impromptu Tibetan market set up on the sidewalk by the National Portrait Gallery.

I had walked around enough to fill up my roll of film and kill enough time to meet back up with Cheri in Pentagon City.  I only really got one photo that I liked, and that’s the shot at the top of this post.  Next time, I won’t try to be underexposing in order to push the film in development.  That screwed me up causing a lot of shots to not come out due to poor exposures.

I didn’t ask anyone permission for their photograph.  I wasn’t harassed or assaulted.  I actually got smiles from folks as I walked around.  What a refreshing experience.