urban views · New York street photography by Markus Hartel

Nice street scene, I can feel the breeze from passing cars and hear the noise. Great capture of the moment!

souvenir
noun

1. An item of sentimental value, to remember an event or location

Whoa that guy... he lacked proper clothing in outdoors, hee hee hee! just kidding!

I'm sorry, all I can focus on is his moob. I'll go look at something that I can appreciate more appropriately. ;)

I've enjoyed some of your work very much. Good eye.

I'm a public defender investigator as well as a licensed private investigator in San Francisco. I do a lot of digital photog. on the job, but my passion is street photog. Mostly film. Mostly Leicas. Mostly B&W. But I don't set too many limits. Like to try new things now and again.

I grew up in NYC. Manhattan to be precise. It is the motherlode for street photogs, no doubt about it. Any big city will do, but NYC is hard to beat for constantly changing scenery, faces, movement, architecture, cultural diversity and on and on. I miss that.But I am really enjoying the challenge and the watchfullness, the level of awareness and heightened sensitivity required to do street work in smaller towns. I'm working up in Humboldt County in rural N. Cal. and it is so different from shooting in NYC or even SF. I have to pay attention on a whole new level to make street pictures that sing.

I would encourage people just starting out in "street photog" to shoot anywhere. Everywhere. Any little town will do. Then, when you come to places like NYC or London or Mogadishu --- you'll be wondering if there's enough film in the world for all you see...for all the photos you'll want to make. For all the faces, stories, dramas, moments...