3
Find the action
Photographing local life means going where the people
are. In Mexico, where I took this shot, that often means
markets or a town’s central plaza. In other countries, it could be
morning prayers, the daily commute, or evening gatherings around
campfires. Walking a city’s backstreets is one of my favourite ways
to capture daily life. At big events, you’ve got to get in the thick
of the action, to give a sense of fireworks and firecrackers
exploding everywhere or the chaos of a street party.4
Be inconspicuous
A person with a camera can be a disruptive influence,
changing how people behave. Unless you’re working on
staged portraits of local people, photos work best if there’s a sense
of real life in a real place, which means people in pictures aren’t
posing, smiling at the camera, waving or giving a thumbs-up. It’s
good to try to be as ‘invisible’ as possible, blending into a scene,
rather than making people uncomfortable or feeling like they
have to do something for the camera.26 DIGITAL CAMERA^ OCTOBER 2019 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com