Know your Gear!

Street photographers live for ‘moments’ - and that means being quick on the draw. A millisecond of hesitation or the slightest fumble could mean that you miss the shot.

However, you can stack the odds in your favour by being completely familiar with your gear. Make the operation of your camera so familiar that you could do it with your eyes closed.

Develop muscle memory in your fingers; train them to move without thinking to make essential adjustments. I recommend shooting in aperture priority mode which means that once the aperture is set, the only adjustment you usually need to make is to exposure compensation. My right thumb is permanently connected to the exposure compensation dial so that I can make small (or big) adjustments intuitively and almost without thinking.

My mantra is ‘set it and forget it’. Once the camera is set up, all my attention is focused on what’s going on around me. My usual settings are:

• Aperture priority mode

• F/8 or F/11 if bright

• Auto ISO (with the range set to 200-6,400 and a minimum s/s of 1/250 sec)

• Zone focusing