Street photography bags, sharpness, projects and motivation!

Grey skies, empty streets, and flat light can wreck a shooting day—unless you change the rules. I open with a simple pivot for winter: treat colour as a subject, lean into graphic shapes, and shift from pure observation to small documentary stories that ignore the weather. From there we get practical about the tool that shapes every outing: the camera bag. I weigh the charm and risks of a Billingham, the low‑key utility of Domke and Lowepro, and why the Wotancraft Pilot has quietly become my daily driver for comfort, capacity, weather resistance, and staying off a thief’s radar.

Listener questions push the conversation beyond gear. The most valuable non‑photo tool? A notebook—because ideas land at awkward times and projects need a place to grow. I also talk boundaries with an Apple Watch that tracks without nagging when the camera is in hand. Then I tackle the age‑old frustration of barren streets: projects over wandering. Define a theme and you’ll start noticing frames you used to walk past, even when the city feels asleep.

For a dose of joy, I cue up one of photography’s best sounds: the Pentax 67 shutter. Medium format’s weight comes with reward—tonality, presence, and negatives that sing. I share favourite lenses for the 67, a surprisingly good experience buying from Japan on eBay, and a reality check on airline scales. My weekly hand‑grenade lands on sharpness: useful, yes, but not the grail. Blur, grain, and near‑miss focus can bring breath and urgency when content leads. Finally, I flag what to see and read next: Martin Parr’s early Irish work at The Photographers’ Gallery, LensCulture Street Photography Award winners, Mark Cohen’s Tall Socks, plus a Soho pit stop at Bar Bruno for the best bacon butty and a front‑row seat to the street.

Enjoy the ride, steal the tactics, and tell me how you keep momentum on dull days. If this sparked ideas, subscribe, share with a friend who shoots, and leave a quick review so more street photographers can find us.

LINKS:

My street photography newsletter - sign up here: https://streetsnappers.com/street-photography-newsletter/

Wotancraft Bags: https://www.wotancraft.tw/en/

My workshops: https://streetsnappers.com

Transcript

Grey Days And Street Strategy

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome on board! Do you like bags? Well, if you're anything like me, then yes, of course you do. And in this episode, we'll be talking about them. I'll also take some of your questions, we'll look at camera sounds, yes, really, camera sounds, we'll have a quick rant about sharpness in street photography, and plenty more. But we won't be talking about weddings or landscapes. I don't know about you, but this time of year is so miserable, isn't it? It's grey, people are in their shells, subjects don't present themselves to us in such an obvious way, and I actually find my usual style of observational street photography quite difficult. And so my mind turns to a more documentary style, as stories often don't quite depend so much on the weather. Or maybe I'll adopt a style that doesn't involve people quite so much. I was running a workshop a week or so ago in the City of London, the Square Mile, the Financial District. Everyone was wearing dark clothes, their heads were down, hoods up, looking pretty miserable, everything was grey, and it was really quite tough shooting conditions. And this got me thinking, I think one solution may be to look for colour amid the greyness, which is fine, although I couldn't do it on this particular day as I was running a black and white workshop. But it's actually not a bad idea if you're faced with similar shooting conditions as we often are here in the UK. So try to pick out colour. Maybe something a little abstract. Think about more an aesthetic than a moment. Just a thought. Of course I am. Does the right bag exist? I don't know, you tell me. Anyway, let's look at some specifics, and we we couldn't really be having this conversation without talking about a billingham. So I've got a billingham, I've no idea what model it is, it's quite an old one, but it's lovely. It's beautifully made, it's stylish, that's on the plus side. On the downside, it's quite expensive. It's certainly not comfortable to wear. It it screams camera or it screams expensive camera gear. Weatherproofing, I'm not convinced that it's all that weatherproof. Doesn't really have much in the way of zippered pockets, so I don't use this much more. Now, I've got three Domkey bags, and the the one that I really like is I think it's called the 701 satchel. And I got I got this from those lovely people at Tiffin who are the distributors for these bags. Now, this has a really slim profile, just enough space, plenty of zippered compartments, and it doesn't screen expensive gear. So I quite like this. My other bag that gets quite a bit of use is an old-ish low pro sling bag. I think it's called a passport sling. And this is by far the most comfortable bag I've ever had. Now, the only negative for me is that there's no compartment for an iPad, which on some days, workshop days for example, it can be an issue for me. So what do I look for in a bag? And you know, bear in mind I do this as a professional, and it's my my day job, as it were. So a bag is really important to me. So what am I looking for? First of all, comfort. Bear in mind it's going to be around my neck for extended periods, so it has to be really comfy. And then the capacity, of course, has to be right, not too big, not too small, just enough for usually one camera, one lens, maybe a little video recorder like a DJI Osmo or something, and a microphone, and a few other bits and pieces. I need my bag to be reasonably waterproof. I like plenty of zippered pockets to keep the small bits secure, and I'm keen for it not to look too much like a camera bag, which is one of the reasons I tend to avoid billinghams. Now I've heard of a couple of stories recently from street snappers in London who have been targeted for their billingham bag. So it looks like thieves now know what these bags are and what's inside them. So, with all those requirements in mind, I'm starting to build a picture of the ideal bag. And I think my favourite bag for the last couple of years has been the Wotoncraft Pilot, which has been my regular go-to bag for the last couple of years, I think. And I think that this is as near perfect as I've got with a bag so far. Now, it's light, it's comfortable, it has lots of capacity, it's fairly weatherproof, and it's quite low profile. Now, if you don't know them, Wotan or Wotan Craft are a company based in Taiwan who are actually great to deal with. Don't be put off that they are based in Taiwan and you know, for many of us a long way away. They ship worldwide at reasonable cost, and you can check them out online, their website if you just search for Wotan Craft, W O T A N. Actually, I'll put a link in the show notes. Now I'm off to Venice in a few days, and I'll be taking this bag with me. I actually injured my neck playing tennis a few weeks ago, which is quite painful, and it has me listing to starboard. So this will be a good test of just how comfortable this bag is, and I'll report back to you. Right, that's enough about gear for one day. Well, almost enough. Let's go to our first question. Take it away, Sean.

Listener Q1: Non‑Photo Essentials

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Hi, Brian. This is Sean. I'm in Toronto, and my question for the podcast is what do you think is the most important piece of non-photographic gear? So no cameras, lenses, camera bags, accessories, anything not photography specific. Anyways, thank you. You can find me on Instagram, create Sean underscore street. C-R-E-A-T-S-E-A-N underscore street. Thanks for this. Looking forward to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Well, that's an interesting one, Sean. For me, it's a notebook without question. And and a pen, of course. I'm always writing stuff down, and I'm one of those people who just can't stop having ideas. Ideas for projects. Yeah, project that more than anything. Ideas about locations, ideas for YouTube videos, ideas for for this podcast. I might suddenly remember a film I need to watch or a piece of music I need to listen to or a book I need to buy. Thoughts and ideas come come at me at the most inconvenient times, and I just need to be able to write them down. Yeah, sometimes I do it on my phone, but I on my phone I use Microsoft OneNote, which is very good, and this syn synchronizes with my iPad and my laptop, so this is great, but it's a far nicer visceral experience writing something down. I just love writing something down. It's the the reason I like reading physical books rather than looking at them on a screen. My life is so chaotic that I can't remember stuff, and I need to write it down. So I use a leather-bound Paper Republic notebook. Really nice company. I just love this stuff, and I usually have a mechanical pencil. So this is an essential bit of kit for me, the notebook. And my next essential thinking about this is I I sort of hesitate to say this. It's my Apple Watch. I'd much rather have a proper old school watch. But this Apple Watch is I just like it because I'm a bit OCD about stuff like steps walked, miles, calories, and all this stuff. I I these these watches just do all kinds of amazing stuff, but what I do turn off the notifications when I'm out shooting because I find it hell of a distraction. So that's it, Sean. Maybe that's not what you what you wanted to hear. Maybe you're looking for a piece of magical, life-changing photographic gear, but no, it's my notebook. And my next question is from the great City of Sheffield. You'll notice that I said that phrase, the City of Sheffield, very slowly. It always makes me giggle because I once knew a guy with a boat called the City of Sheffield. And I always had one of those stupid mental blocks whenever I mentioned the name. No matter how hard I concentrated, I could only ever call this boat the Shitty of Seffield. Anyway, let's hear it from David.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Hi Brian, this is David from Derbyshire. I joined one of your workshops in Sheffield in early 2019 where I caught the bug for street photography. I go back there quite regularly, but on my recent trip on Saturday, the 3rd of January, everything seemed to be against me. There were hardly any people about. The temperature was below freezing. There was no dampness to cause any interesting reflections. So what should I have photographed? I'd be really interested to hear your views. Thank you.

Name That Camera Sound

Buying Lenses From Japan

Street Pit Stop: Bar Bruno

Rant: Sharpness Isn’t Everything

News: Exhibitions, Awards, Books

Festivals, Workshops, YouTube

What’s Next And Sign‑Off

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Oh, great question, David. And I'm sure that's one that that resonates with most of us, maybe all of us if we're being honest, from time to time. Welcome to my world. But seriously, it's a problem. I know it is. Let me preface this by explaining how I work. If I were to walk out into Sheffield, or anywhere for that matter, tomorrow, hoping to find some great, interesting scenes to shoot, as we do, I wouldn't be surprised if I went home disappointed. Okay? That's normal. In some ways I think street photography is actually getting more difficult. People seem to be more aware of people with cameras, and I think public levels of anxiety around all sorts of things are on the up. That's just how life's becoming, I'm afraid. However, I can stack the odds in my favour if I know what I'm looking for even before I leave home. And this means using projects. Now you you knew I was going to say that, didn't you? I couldn't work without them. So I I think the best way forward for David and anyone else in a similar position is to think of a couple of projects. Now I've made an extensive video on this, which you'll find on my YouTube channel, just search for Street Snappers, and there's a chapter about it in my street photography manifesto book, and I'll put a download uh sorry, a link to the to download the ebook in the show notes. But project is the way to go, and a project or two or three will give you the direction, the focus, the sense of purpose, and all the motivation you need to do something productive, something which leads to something, a body of work. Now I know in street photography there is always there's always a case for walking around randomly hoping to find stuff, and it can be quite nice, quite therapeutic, but it ain't very productive. And I think you'll find that those of us who shoot projects just tend to find more more material to shoot, even on a grey, horrible day in the city of Sheffield. If you have a question for the show, I'd love to hear it. All you need to do is grab your phone and record a short voice clip saying your name, where you're from, and the question, followed by your Instagram handle if you'd like a mention. Right, listen to this, and I hope my microphone does this justice. What's this sound? If you have one of these cameras, you'll probably recognise it instantly. And I think it's one of the most beautiful sounds from the world of photography. Well anyone? It's the Pentax 6.7. This is a truly beautiful camera, and don't you just love that noise? If you don't know the Pentax 67, do have a look at them. You can pick them up very reasonably on eBay. I have to say that this is probably one of my favourite cameras, and I've actually got a couple of them. I probably need to sell one actually. These are a real workhorses, they just go on forever. Now, I know they're not exactly cheap to run. The cost of buying and developing 120 film has got a bit expensive, and you only get 10 shots on a roll. So you don't want to be taking too many mistakes with this, but it's an absolute joy to use in the image quality from those huge six by seven negs is something else. In fact, at some point I'll do a slot in a future episode about 10 cameras you should buy before you die, and this will certainly be one of them. So, what am I saying here? I I guess I'm recommending this camera to you, especially if you fancy trying medium format film. And the only really the real downside to this camera, cut apart from the cost of film, is the bulk and weight. This is not a small or light camera. Now, my go-to lens for this camera is the 55mm f3.5, which equates to 28mm on a 35mm camera. So if I'm doing portraits, I've got a 105 f2.4, which is a stellar lens, and that equates to 52mm at f1.2 on a 35mm camera. But going back to this wide angle lens, this 28 equivalent, which I've got in my hand right now, I bought this only a few weeks ago from a Japanese seller on eBay. And I just want to make the point here. This is something I've never done before, and I've always been a bit cautious about buying from Japan on eBay. But this lens is, you know, they described it as mint, and it is absolutely mint, and it cost about half the price of what one would have cost in the UK. And okay, I had to pay a bit of duty on delivery, which scared me a bit. But it was actually very little, and I'd certainly recommend buying from some of these Japanese sellers on eBay. Just a great experience. Now I had thought about taking this kit to Venice with me next week, but if Ryanair, in their wisdom, decided to put my bag on the scales, I'd be well and truly done for. Okay, so what else have I got for you today? Oh yes, I wanted to mention Bruno's, or Bar Bruno to be more accurate, which I visited a few weeks ago. I will uh occasionally point you towards a great place for a pit stop when you're out and about on the streets. And a lot of these will be in London, but I will pick other places in the world. I know that lots of you shoot in Soho, and if you want the best bacon butty in the West End, you need to go to Bruno's, which is on the corner of Wardor Street and Peter Street, right in the middle of Soho. It's a proper old school Italian calf, which does, as I say, a great bacon butty, a very decent Italian coffee, and it's just a wonderful place. The service is nice, they've got a few tables outside, so if it's a nice day, you can sit outside and watch the world go by. But for breakfast it's great. Not that I'm indulging in any any of this stuff at the moment, of course, because I'm on a diet. Right, let's move on. The the hand grenade slot. In other words, my little cathartic rant. I've got in my hand an ex Army hand grenade with the pin intact, and I'm gonna lob it metaphorically into the issue of sharpness, and particularly the belief that sharpness is everything, the holy grail. Well, let me tell you it isn't. I meet so many people who are just so obsessive about sharpness, and makes me just a little bit sad. And when I think about this, Cartier Bresson comes to mind when he said sharpness is a bourgeois concept. I don't think he was saying here that sharpness doesn't matter. He was, I think, suggesting that obsessing over sharpness misses the point. Think about it. Bourgeois in this context means safe, comfortable, respectable. And when Henri Cartier Bresson said bourgeois, he meant a mindset that values polish or control or technical perfection over content. I hate that word, but it works here. I think that to him, sharpness was quite a status indicator. Look how good my lens is. It was a way that people would prove competence, but not vision. Sharpness is something you could buy rather than see. So putting it another way, sharpness was easy. Seeing isn't. And I really like this. But there's a wider point about sharpness. Life isn't sharp. Life is chaotic, street life is chaotic. It's moving, it's imperfect, so blur or a bit of grain or slightly missed focus. These aren't flaws. They give you a sense of being there. They give you a sense of intimacy, of being in the moment, and actually turning on this head. Sharpness can actually distance the viewer, making the image feel over controlled or clinical. Surely we want our images to feel alive, not embalmed. Now for some news from the world of street photography. First of all, an upcoming exhibition that you will probably want to be aware of, and this is by Martin Parr, and it's called or the late Martin Parr, and it's called A Fair Day. Now Martin was always a good friend of the Photographers' Gallery in London, and I'm very pleased to announce that the gallery will be showcasing Martin's early work that he shot in Ireland. The exhibition runs at the Photographers' Gallery, obviously in Soho in London, from the 9th of February to the 19th of April, and it's called A Fair Day: Photographs from the West of Ireland. And it presents Martin's black and white pictures that he made in rural Ireland in the I think the early 1980s. This was Martin's last major project in black and white, and in my view, it's probably his best. He felt this body of work hadn't really been showed, sorry, showed, shown as widely as some of his later projects. And it spoke to contemporary debates about community, social change, and the the collision of tradition and modern life. Totally unmissable. The Lens Culture Street Photography Awards 2025 winners and finalists have just been announced. There was work from 23 countries. It's worth checking this out, by the way. Have a look, you'll find it online. It's always a good indicator of where visual storytelling in street photography is heading and what the the trends are. As I say, it's worth a look, but I don't know, I'm not convinced by this stuff. I think a lot of the lens culture stuff we see is starting to look a little bit contrived. But hey-ho. In book news, I rather like the look of a recent book by Mark Cohen, who I really rate by the way. He doesn't get much airtime, but Mark Cohen is really one of the greats, and this new book, which is called Tall Socks, interesting title, features previously unseen 1970s New York street photography, which is in Cohen's gritty in-your-face style. He's similar but different to Bruce Gilden. Check it out. Tall Socks, Mark Cohen. Upcoming festivals. The one that comes to mind is in early May, Maybank holiday weekend, and it's the Dublin Street Photography Festival, with its usually great show of exhibitions, talks, competitions, workshops. There are some iconic names, as always. Merrill Martin. Meisler, Phil Penman, lots more. Oh, and by the way, if you fancy a street photography workshop in Dublin, I'm running a one-day and a two-day workshop in early October, and there are only a few places left. You can book on streetsnappers.com. The link will be in the show notes. Finally, some news about YouTube, and it's my news of course, in that I've just published a new video entitled Starting Street Photography. Now, this isn't for experienced street photography, it's for people who are just getting into it and need a bit of a leg up. And it's the first of a two-part guide for newbies. Just some solid basic info to get you started. So that's the news. I've now got some packing and planning to do. I'm off to Venice, as I said. I'll be producing episode four in a week or two, probably a couple of weeks now, and we'll be taking a look at the great William Klein and specifically what we can learn from him. We'll look at exactly what the Street Snappers Collective is because if you're not a member you possibly don't know, and I keep getting questions about it. I'll take more of your questions and I'll be metaphorically lobbing my hand grenade at a hot potato involving street photography workshops. And we'll look at why Prague is such a good location for street photography. And this isn't an advert for my workshop in June because that's all sold out. And there'll be more. So please make sure you subscribe to this and to my YouTube channel, and don't forget to email me with your hopefully recorded questions from the show. Bye for now.