Street Portraits

One of the challenges many photographers face, myself included, is asking a stranger to pose for a portrait.  Recently, while on out doing some street photography in Dowtown Oakland, I was able to do just that. 

 The funny thing is, that in both cases the subjects were willing to pose before I had a chance to ask them.  The guy shown on the left, for example, just walked up and started talking to me.  While he was talking I asked if I could take his picture.  He obliged, and I shot away as he explained his philosophy on "gettin' B#@ches" as he so eloquently put it.  I only took about four shots and we continued walking.

The other portraits (right and below) that I took was of a young man who was walking with his mom and uncle.  He spotted me and immediately began to pose without me asking.  I took a few shots of him, and a few of his mother.  The uncle didn't want to be photographed and silently played the background. 

Overall, I had an excellent outing that day.  I finally had a little free time to take some shots, and I took advantage of it.  Taking portraits of strangers is a bit less daunting for me now.  Having the D300s with battery grip helps in this case by making me look like a "professional".  This will cause anyone who loves getting their picture taking to immediately ham it up.  That's fine by me because it helped me get some of my best street shots to date!

You can see more street shots from that day here.