OK, so I just finished editing our Morocco/Spain photos and “narrowed” it down to roughly 400 shots ore about 20%.  It’s probably the best percentage of keepers we’ve ever had.  We think the bright sunny skies had something to do with it.

When I was sorting through all the photos, I was surprised by how many were “blind shots – meaning we didn’t actually look through the viewfinder to line them up.  Photographing human subjects is a challenge, even in the best of circumstances.  Once someone notices a camera, their disposition quickly changes, and faster than you can press the trigger, the moment is gone. In Morocco, people are pretty camera shy, and even worse: if a kid sees you, they’ll often ask you for money.

The challenge is – you want to capture the environment without disturbing it too much.  It’s also a matter of respect – no one really wants to feel like they’re part of a human zoo.  So we’ve been working on shooting form the hip, and here are a few things we’ve learned along the way:

1. Put your camera on stealth mode.  The first thing we did was to silence the beep-beep noise when the camera told us something was in focus.  If shooting indoors or in dark places, we put the camera on the flash cancel setting (usually the lightning bolt with the line through it).  Most cameras will automatically adjust with a faster speed when you do that.

2. A wide-angle lens is a must.  In the cities, we’ve shot almost exclusively using a Tamron SP 10-24mm lens on a Nikon D5000.  The downside, is you get some distortion at the top and bottom of the frame, but the upside is you almost never miss your shots (remember, you can crop later).  You can simply point the camera in the general direction, and fire away.  Here’s a nice shot Jeff got shooting behind his back.

3. Practice the one-handed camera hold.  Wrap the strap tightly around your wrist and walk casually.  Fire away and see what you get.  Sure 90% of your shots are crap, but every once in a while you end up with a gem.  With enough practice, you should be able to take vertical and horizontal shots, and still looking natural. Here’s a shot that had potential, but the faces of the ladies are a little out of focus.  Hey you win some, you lose some.

4. Hold the camera low.  Too often, photos are taken from eye level around 5-6 feet above the ground.  Shooting form the hip gives you the freedom to take on an interesting perspective that you wouldn’t normally see through the viewfinder.  Try holding the camera low to the ground or against a wall.  In places like Morocco, this method allows you to shoot colorful handicrafts without the shop owners flooding you with, “Come look!  I give you good price!”  Here’s an example of a leather shoe seller in Morocco:

5. Set your ISO to 400 or above.  In the old days this meant you film was “faster.”  In the digital age, it usually allow you to walk and shoot without having to stop every time you want to fire off a shot, and you might get some cool blur shots as you stroll.