Welcome to Street Photography, Bryan

I shoot landscapes. Whether during sunrise, middle of the day, or middle of the night, my cameras and I have always found ourselves focused at infinity and stopped down, pointing at objects far away.

But with the radical shift in the gear I use and what that gear does really well, I wanted to give street photography a go. Talk about a change from landscapes: subjects most times just a few feet away, shallow depth of field, ever changing exposure, constantly adjusting focus, trying to blend in and get the shot quickly and discretely. Street photography forces you to really be a photographer and capture the moment, not just be someone who can perch a camera atop a tripod and carefully and methodically compose a shot and wait for the frame to be just right.

This is the first time that I’d ever shot street photography and the first time I’d taken out my new Leica M10. To say that I’m pleased with the results and with the camera is a massive understatement. This image of a boy hanging bags in the central

Capturing moments as they come and go while shooting on the street was way more enjoyable than I’d imagined. The image above, in particular, of a little girl glancing over as I pressed the shutter turned out to be such a wonderful and expressive pho

What I love so much about street food, especially in Mexico, is that it is all quite literally home cooking. People pack up their ingredients in plastic containers, bring the meat they’ve been marinating overnight at home and set up their comal and

And that, for me, was what I thought was going to be the toughest part of shooting street. Part of the reason I love landscape so much—especially astrophotography—is that it requires a great deal of planning, patience and execution to do it right. So when I’m forced to act and react quickly to the world around me always moving and changing I figured I was going to fail miserably, be frustrated and just not get what I was hoping for. And while I see so much room for improvement and learned some valuable lessons over the week I was trying street photography, I really am overwhelmingly pleased with the results.

What a thrill to be constantly reacting and predicting what subjects would do, when someone would move and reveal the subject you wanted to photograph but only for a fraction of a second before the next person would get in the way. Adjusting focus and aperture, dialing in the right shutter speed, everything was just so damn satisfying.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give major kudos to my camera, which excels at this type of photography. So intuitive, so easy to use, always ready and capturing some truly gorgeous photos. Big thanks to Josh at Leica of Miami for getting me all set up with a truly wonderful camera.

So I’d expect to see more of this photography from me as I found it surprisingly fun and was able to really get some great results. Leave a comment if you have any thoughts or suggestions on shooting street…

tripsBryan MillsJuly 15, 2019street photography, leica, mexico, M10, travelComment

The stories behind some of my favorite photos and trips...

Welcome to Street Photography, Bryan