Being Spontaneous About Street Photography

It used to be that I could go out and do street photography spontaneously whenever I felt like it. Now that I’m older, I have more responsibilities, which limits my options for doing this.

However, I also have anxiety that holds me back from doing street photography sessions spontaneously. This is something under my control that I can work on.

I think it’s best for me to set aside time and plan on having days for doing street photography. It’s just the better option for me because then I’m less worried about addressing responsibilities. On the other hand, though, I don’t even want to be at the point in life where I don’t give myself any room for spontaneity. That sounds boring and unfulfilling.

Planned Street Photography Sessions vs. Spontaneous Ones

So in my mind, there are two options when it comes to going out and doing street photography.

You can go out whenever inspiration strikes or just whenever you think about street photography and you feel like doing it.

Then, there’s planning it out. Such as marking your calendar (maybe just in your head), and then going out on that day.

I really feel at this point that planning out my street photography sessions is the better way to go for the most part. When I do this, it frees my mind to set aside all of the responsibilities that I need to take care of while I’m doing street photography. It’s freeing in that way.

When I go out for a spontaneous street photography session, I’m more likely to feel a nagging in the back of my mind that I need to pay this or that bill, or that I should be working on something that would make me money. This partly stems from our god-forsaken economic system that keeps everyone poor and stressed out about money. But that’s out of my control.

I’m also less inclined to actually go out and do street photography if the spontaneous thought of doing it crosses my mind - and if I don’t go out and do it, no street photos get made.

I Would Go Out for Spontaneous Street Photography When I Had the Time

When I was younger, I had more time on my hands. That’s just life. As you get older, you often have more responsibilities that take up your time.

When I was in college, for instance, I remember getting my first camera that was appropriate for street photography, the Fujifilm x100s, and I would go out and take street photos whenever I felt like it. I didn’t need to mark it down on my calendar.

These days, though, I have more stuff on my plate.

I also just know myself better. I know that my mind is clearer when I take the time to think beforehand about when and where I want to do street photography. If I can think clearly and more calmly, I think I’ll come away with better photos.

Building a Life that Allows for Spontaneous Street Photography

I want to build a life that removes barriers to doing street photography spontaneously. In terms of what that looks like in practice, a major one is deciding on where you live. For me, as an American, that means living in a walkable downtown area.

Not everyone has access to living in a downtown area. There are many barriers to doing this. For one, there are few cities in the country where this works well. For walkable cities, there’s New York City and Chicago. That’s about it.

Of course, there are exceptions, but for other cities, they’re often much smaller, and the walkable parts are limited. Where I’m living now, for example, in Philadelphia, there are pockets of walkable areas, but it’s not like that all over the city, like in New York City.

Also, people have to take other things into account, like school districts and a myriad of other issues. In many U.S. cities, the public education system is a joke in the inner cities. So a lot of parents either send their kids to private schools or move out to the suburbs. I grew up just outside the suburbs of Kansas City. I had a great childhood growing up, and a lot to do, but being in the suburbs can be a bit depressing to me. It’s also not a very inspiring place to be for photography, at least not for me. If I had to make a 30+ minute drive from the suburbs to downtown in order to do street photography, I can see that being a significant barrier.

Ultimately, I don’t want to give up spontaneous street photography altogether. So I’d really prefer to live in a big city like New York City, but it’s exorbitantly expensive to live there now, so I don’t know what will end up happening. I do know that I will continue to do street photography, whether it’s spontaneously or planned out.