So, in addition to photographing on foot, I decided to cover more ground in the short time given to produce pictures by using a Bogen magic arm to mount a camera from my car facing the street. I had tinted windows in my car, but still draped the camera with a dark cloth. I connected a Pocket Wizard to the shutter and triggered it while driving from the front seat. In essence, it was Google Street View, but in the hands of a professional photographer. (You may remember that a photographer curated images from Google's cameras into a photo essay a few years ago.)

I know this strikes some as voyeuristic, but this approach is well-established in street photography, as it has been used by many prominent photographers of the craft. Moreover, Mother Jones has an interesting photo essay of Monterrey residents who were photographed without their knowledge. Readers of this blog will know that I'm also someone who has mounted cameras everywhere, from car fenders to my forehead.

As I said above, capturing candid moments can require walking and waiting for hours. Driving around and pulling over won't do. Moreover, if you're in a neighborhood known for its homicide rate, it is not uncommon to be mistaken for an investigator or law enforcement. Journalists are not typically welcomed by those involved in crime or those who witness it either.

The approach was not without technical problems. Reflections of light in the window was one of them. Another was caused by the tinted window acting a neutral density filter. I had to keep bumping up the ISO to keep up shifting light. Also, I needed as much depth of field as possible since I was not able to focus. Sidewalks would vary from their distance to the street, so often pictures would be out of focus. I had to bump up the shutter speed as well, because I was beginning to notice how some people would turn and stare when I slowed down next to the curb. I'm sure they were gauging the possibility that the figure in the car was wanting to shoot more than just images. Hence, most of the images were on the grainy side, and not always tack.

After that, some of the same issues of making photography apply. You have to predict moments before they happen, gauge human behavior, and make a clean image as much as possible. There was, I discovered, even an art to that process as well that reflected the photographer (far) behind the lens.

I became so used to the process that I forgot the impact the images would have on people seeing them for the first time. There was an incredulous, "What were you doing in the street, how did you take this?" reaction. They mostly said this out of concern, believing that I was taking pictures from the street and exposing myself to traffic.

Because most readers of this blog are limited to photojournalists, journalists, or students looking to understand how pictures are made, I wanted to be transparent about how the images were made. I certainly want students to be aware of challenges of taking pictures in public, especially in areas where a camera is not welcome.

I'll be posting other pictures from assignments from Austin in the near future, but for the moment, I wanted to post the results of a different approach to photography on the street.