Street-Photography on Art Imitates Life

The best camera is the one you have with you (but that's not the whole story)

Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The saying goes: the best camera is the one you have with you. Chase Jarvis popularised it, Apple built an entire marketing campaign around it, and in practice it’s hard to argue with. The phone in your pocket has made more genuinely good photographs than most dedicated cameras will ever see.

And yet. There is something that happens when I pick up a large camera — a smallish Fuji, a heavy Leica — that doesn’t happen when I reach for my phone. Something slows down. Not just the process, but me.

How to Stay in One Place

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Most street photography advice is about movement. Walk slowly. Change your route. Put yourself in interesting areas. Stay alert.

There’s another approach that points the opposite direction: stop moving, find something with potential, and wait for the photograph to build itself around you.

It’s slower, more uncomfortable, and — once you get used to it — significantly more productive.

Why most photographers move too much

When a photograph doesn’t happen immediately, the instinct is to go somewhere else. Different street, different neighbourhood, different light. Keep moving until something hits.

Millers Point

Sat, 02 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Redfern & Waterloo

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Chinatown

Sat, 27 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000