I think I’ve come to the realization that this is the easy part.
Taking photos is the easy part of the whole process. Clicking the shutter is the easiest and most fun part of the process for me. And I think it’s important to come to terms with that.
Take this as advice if you want. If you’re struggling to stay motivated to take photographs, I think there are three options you can take in your street photography journey.
Getting out and walking every day, taking photos, that’s the easy part. The hard part is what you do with the work afterward. That’s just how my brain works, but I think what I’m about to say will be useful to the street photographer who wants to feel more fulfilled with their journey.
Here’s three options.
Option A: Do what I did and just shoot every day until you figure it out on your own.
I basically shot photos every day for six years and had no clue why I was doing it. I almost quit numerous times. I knew there was something about it that I liked, but I just kept grinding and grinding. So you can do that. Just keep doing exactly what you’re doing. Stay with it. Do it the hard way. Be stubborn about it. Don’t listen to anybody. If people try to help you, ignore them and keep struggling.
That’s what I did.
Option B: Just quit.
Quit photography and go do something else that’s more useful with your time. Nobody says you have to do photography. Just because you quit something doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It just means photography wasn’t your thing. There are plenty of other ways to spend your time and find fulfillment.
Because like I said, this right here is the easy part. If you’re struggling just to walk outside and take photos, something is wrong with your photography brain. Something needs to be fixed.
Option C, and this is the path I would recommend:
Get off social media.
The only advice you take should come from people you absolutely trust, people whose work you see and think, “Yeah, that’s the kind of work I want to make.”
Get off Instagram. Stop chasing likes. Stop watching gear reviews. Stop buying new cameras.
Take whatever camera you have right now and go outside.
You don’t have to shoot a photo every seven seconds, but have a goal. Maybe it’s 500 photos a day. Just go take photos every day for the next six months and figure out what kind of photography you actually like to do.
When we’re influenced by social media, YouTube, trends, and all these expectations about what photography is supposed to look like, we stop paying attention to what we actually enjoy. We need to figure it out on our own.
Ultimately, the only way to keep photographing year after year is to do the kind of photography you genuinely enjoy.
Revolutionary concept, right?
To keep taking photos every day, you have to like the photos you’re taking.
And you’re never going to figure that out if you’re constantly listening to other people tell you what’s good. You have to figure it out for yourself.
The only way you’re going to discover what kind of photography you like is through trial and error. Hitting the sidewalk, the streets, the beach, wherever you live, and being obsessive about it.
So how do you figure out what you like?
Besides trial and error, there is one thing that’s actually useful.
It’s not Instagram.
What you do is find YouTube channels that show flip-throughs of magazines and photo books. Look at finished work. See what resonates with you.
Go to your local bookstore and look through photography books. It doesn’t even have to be street photography. It could be architecture, food photography, anything.
Take the little bits and pieces that connect with you and apply them to your own world.
But don’t copy anyone else’s work.
You want to make something that feels like your own. It’s impossible to completely copy someone anyway. You’re always going to bring your own biases, experiences, and way of seeing into the work.
And if all you’re doing is imitating someone else, it’s never going to feel like you. You won’t be able to keep it up long term.
Because that’s the game with street photography.
This isn’t a five-year project.
It’s a lifelong journey.
Street photography is more than just taking photos. It’s how you approach and view the world.
It’s seeing a church and a stained-glass window and getting excited about it. It’s challenging yourself to make a photo of it that you like.
It’s walking past the same light, the same building, the same canopy every day and wondering how you can make a better photograph of it.
To me, that’s street photography.
An obsessively curious way of looking at the world.
Being excited about what you’re going to see every day and feeling fortunate that you’re able to capture it.
It’s a completely different way of looking at life.
And street photography is about engaging with people and having a good time.
It’s not about doom and gloom.
It’s not about thinking, “I’m not taking enough photos. My photos suck.”
It’s about believing the next photo could be your best photo.
It’s believing that if you miss a moment, that’s okay. Because if you photograph every day, another moment is coming.
That’s the attitude.
The attitude is: create, don’t consume.
I’m creating, not consuming.
So yeah, I kind of rambled there.
You can figure it out on your own like I did. Eventually you’ll get there.
But it was a hard journey for me because I spent six years doing something without really knowing why I was doing it. I just knew there was something there.
You can take that route if you want.
But I’d recommend Option C.
Purge yourself of the outside influences.
Go out there. Hit the pavement. Be obsessive about shooting what interests you. Take inspiration from photo books and apply it to your own world.
The reason photo books matter is because they’re the endgame. They’re the finished work.
Until something better comes along, they remain the gold standard for presenting photography.
And when you finally make your own printed book or magazine and hold it in your hands, there’s something special about it. That tactile experience feels really good.
The magazine feels good.
So yeah, I’d definitely recommend Option C.