Man on the Street: May I?

Here is a series that i shot on the streets of Japan. A good mentor of mine suggested i do this. He sent me a link to a gentleman that would walk the streets and shoot portraits of the Japanese locals. The whole idea I got from him was to be comfortable enough to convince a random stranger to stand in front of the lens for one photo.

All that i did was set up a tripod for my camera, an SB900 camera left and a SB800 on a tripod directly behind the subject. All in all it took 5 minutes to set up, and an hour to shoot. So far I am happy with the results.


I will tell you however, that you should be careful setting up lighting like this in a public area. You always run the risk of equipment getting damaged, or lost.

Here are the photos i shot so far:

Technical aspects are as follows:
Nikon D300 on a SLIK 400 DX-LE
ISO 200/50mm 1.4 f/1.4 at 250th
SB900 against a 45" Calumet Umbrella
SB800 on a SLIK 400 DX-LE Behind Subject

It really took some convincing sometimes to get the people to pose for me. Once I was able to show them a semi-result on the digital back, they were more open minded about standing there.


When I said you need to be careful, you really do. I was actually asked to leave the area by Japanese police. Granted we had shot plenty of photos already though.. Just be careful!

Very happy with the results. Next step is to get a whole series done. Maybe a whole group of people at a time? hmmm....

What did you do UNCOMFORTABLE today?