How I turned a grey day into a project, photography degrees and why Venice keeps pulling me back

A grey, damp morning in Liverpool turned into a turning point. Over a coffee, we opened an old Lightroom archive and spotted a pattern hiding in plain sight—enough images from Ropewalks to seed a real project. That small reframing changed the day, the week, and the way we hunt for ideas. Instead of waiting for inspiration, we named what we already had and set a plan to grow it. If you’ve ever felt stuck, this is your blueprint for moving again.

From there we get practical. After losing film archives in a flood, storage became a lingering blind spot, until a six‑bay NAS arrived and forced action. We talk through why centralised, redundant backups matter for photographers, how to approach setup without fear, and the peace of mind that follows. We also field a listener’s gear dilemma with straight answers: the Fujifilm X100VI for elegant simplicity, the XE5 for flexibility with small primes, and the Ricoh GR series for pocketable stealth and snap focus. The theme is the same across choices—choose the tool that disappears in your hand so you can see more and fiddle less.

Mid‑career study comes up too: is a photography degree worth it at 44? We unpack motives, costs, and outcomes, and outline when a conceptual programme at places like Falmouth or UAL can deepen your voice—and when targeted mentorship, rigorous self‑projects, and strong editing might be smarter. Then we head to Venice, our favourite proving ground for street work. Fog, rain, and winter light make the city a shape‑shifter, perfect for observational, documentary, and lyrical approaches. We share fresh stories from Carnival, a new 52‑page zine capturing the absurd beauty of masks and alleys, and why winter dates are gold for quieter frames.

Finally, a quick grenade lobbed at “multi‑award winning” posturing and a warm invite into the Street Snappers Collective and Community for critique, learning, and meetups.

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Got a question? Record it on your phone and email it to brian@streetsnappers.com. If this resonated, follow, rate, and share with a friend who needs a nudge back into their archive—what hidden project is waiting for a name?

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The Street Photography Collective on facebook (workshop attendees only)

The Street Photography Community on facebook (open to all!)

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My YouTube channel

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Forthcoming workshops in Venice

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My latest zine is available here

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Transcript

Opening And What’s Ahead

unknown 0:00

Welcome on board.

Finding A Project In Ropewalks

Archive Mindset And Hidden Work

FedEx Surprise And NAS Chaos

Why Storage And Backup Matter

Listener Q&A: Best Street Camera

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, have I got a packed edition for you today? I'll explain to you how I got over a creative blog just a week or so ago. We will take some of your questions, including one about where ideas for projects come from, and a question about photography degrees. Really interesting one, this, particularly degrees taken later in life and not straight from school. I'll be throwing my metaphorical hand grenade, a hot topic, basically having a rant, and we'll look at why Venice is such a great location for street photography, and much more. What a cracking episode. But before all that, I just wanted to thank everyone who's so far subscribed or downloaded or whatever it is you do. I really appreciate it. I'm planning future episodes now, and I'll be doing more on the street vox pops with other street photographers, and also some in-depth interviews, and I've hopefully got one of those lined up for you for the next episode. Now you'll be aware that this is still only episode four, and I'm very much finding my feet, and I'm still new to all this, but I'm hoping the show will just get bigger and better, with your help, of course. Well, good morning, and I'm gonna start today's show by giving you a little insight into how I go about my own work. And I'm hoping this will be a helpful example of just one of the ways in which a street photography project is born. And it I think it spells out some of the common frustrations we all feel from time to time as street photographers. I spend quite a lot of time shooting in the the streets in the fine city of Liverpool, and I've been doing this for years. And I've always thought that I'm a reasonably patient street photographer. I don't really expect great things from every single day on the streets, and I'm certainly generally happy to come home with just a keeper or two. Sometimes it's none, and that's also fine. But you know what? In Liverpool, I've really struggled recently. I didn't used to, but I am doing now, and I've probably been doing for a couple of years. Okay, sometimes life is easier, such as when there's a big event in town, like the Eurovision in Liverpool a couple of years ago, or the Grand National Race Meeting, which happens every year, and I'm really looking forward to next month by the way. When there's something like this, you've got something to hang your hat on, something to go at. But take an average Tuesday or a Saturday when it's damp and grey. I found it hellishly difficult. And this happened to me on this day a couple of weeks ago. I found myself in Liverpool, and I had a few hours to kill before meeting Neil and Tim for a bit of Guinness therapy. Great to catch up with you guys, by the way, if you're listening. It was a damp grey day in Liverpool, and there honestly wasn't much to catch my eye. I just wasn't feeling it. But walking around the Rope Walks district, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. I stopped for a coffee, got my phone out, and had a quick look at my Liverpool archive on Lightroom, I think just looking for some inspiration. And what I found was that I already had a decent collection of images from this relatively small area, rope walks, and actually some of them probably not too shabby. So I thought maybe I can do something with this. And the key thing here is that I already had a viable project on my hands, or certainly the the beginnings of one, and I didn't even realise it. And so a project was born, and I think it's going to be called simply rope walks. And to be honest, it's not the first time that's happened to me. And I think we should all be aware of the the potential of what we already have, our existing material. Don't overlook it. There was a knock at my door yesterday, and it was the FedEx driver who is probably becoming a too much of a mate. And he had an enormous box, which to be honest, I wasn't expecting, had no idea what this was. I thought, what the hell have I bought now? My wife thought, what the hell has he bought now? So I ripped it open with perhaps a little too much gusto, almost slicing through the wood on the breakfast bar. And inside this enormous box, I found a lovely bit of kit from a company called Ugreen. That's a letter U followed by green. And then I kind of realized what was going on. Quite some time ago, and I had completely forgotten about this. Ugreen said they would send me their new NAS kit for me to try out and hopefully talk about. NAS, by the way, means network attacks attached storage, if you don't know. And it's basically hard disk storage for images or whatever. Now I've always resisted these approaches to promote gear. But this time I happily agreed. Because you see, several years ago I lost my whole archive, everything of negatives and prints, all my precious LPs, or vinyls as hipsters call them, in a flood at my parents' house. And ever since then I've been questioning just how good my file storage is for images. And between you and me, it's bloody terrible, chaotic. It's a nightmare. It's so bad. I just don't really know where to begin to get it into sensible shape. There is stuff everywhere. I've got portable external hard drives all over the house, and I couldn't tell you what's on them. I've got stuff on the hard drive of my MacBook. It the stuff is everywhere. It's chaotic. But then I had this email out of the blue from Ugreen. So I said yes. Now at first I thought it was a scam. I thought, you know, they why why why would they? But anyway, they did. And about four weeks later, the new six bay hard drive unit arrived, which should give me, quite frankly, enough storage forevermore. But the whole thing is really intimidating. And it's going to take me some time to figure it out. And I'm just going to dedicate a weekend to it, I think, to get it set up and get it connected, get my head around it. But I'll keep you in the loop with how I get on. Because a lot of the people I meet on workshops are in a similar position. They haven't really got their net their image storage and archival and retrieval sorted out. So I'm hoping my experience here will be helpful. So I will tell you about my journey, and I'm sure I'll be tearing my hair out at some stage. Okay, it's question time, and this is much better than the BBC version. So let's take a couple of your questions, and the first one is from Jill. Take it away, Jill.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Hello, Brian. It's Jill from Liverpool. I'd like to ask a question. I'm new to street photography, and I'd like you to recommend the best camera for me to purchase. Thanks. Thanks very much. Bye.

Is A Photography Degree Worth It

Why Venice Works For Street

New Zine And Winter Workshops

Mini Rant: Multi‑Award Winning

Street Snappers: Collective And Community

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Well, I do have a little background here, and I know that Jill has quite a bit of photographic experience, starting with films and dark rooms and all that good stuff, but is possibly a bit rusty when it comes to digital. And I think she's quite new to street photography. So I need to make an assumption about budget here, because I don't know. And it's obviously uh a consideration for most people. So let's assume, let's we'll look at the£1,000 to£2,000 price bracket. Sorry about the dogs barking in the background. The neighbours have got big dogs, and it's a damn nuisance. Anyway,£1,000 to£2,000 price bracket. So if I'm looking for a camera in this range, my mind goes firstly to Fujifilm. Now I used to be a Fujifilm ambassador, but I'm not anymore, so I don't have any skin in the game. But I do think this is probably the best place to start for somebody like Jill. The obvious starting point is the X100 range, and if budget allows, the latest X100 VI, or 6, however you want to call it, is brilliant. And it's about one and a half grand, so it's quite a good starting point. Now, if that's too much, there's plenty of the slightly older V iterations on the used market, though I suspect prices of those are holding quite firm. So it might just be best to bite the bullet and go for the latest model. Now this has a fixed 23mm lens, which is 35mm equivalent in old money, which is just perfect for street and documentary photography. But if you want interchangeable lenses, which I suspect Jill does, you need to look elsewhere. And I wouldn't hesitate to recommend another Fujifilm camera, the XE5. Now this has pretty much the same internal stuff as the X100 VI, but it allows you to swap lenses, and you can buy it with a very capable 23mm equivalent f2.8 I think kit lens. And I suspect that this would be a really good combo for you, Jill, especially as you could add more lenses as your experience grows and your journey develops. Now, although the Fu G is quite a small camera, if you wanted something even smaller, the Rico GR4 is a brilliant little camera for around a grand, I think. I use a slightly older GR3, which you should be able to get used. You get a mint one for 700, maybe 800 quid. And these are fantastic. They are so tiny, but they really pack a punch. The sensor is fantastic, the lens is crisp and sharp and contrasty. You've got the snap focus function, which gives you zone focusing at the press of a button. It's it's jolly good. Looking at other brands, the Sony A600 range or the C7 range, AC7, something C R uh, I don't know, C7, look pretty good. And they do have amazing autofocus, but they do seem a bit complicated for our simple needs as street photographers. Now I know Sony has simplified its menu system in recent years, but I still find it a bit a bit too much. I think there are just way too many buttons all over the camera, and the menu system, you almost need to be a member of Mensa to work it out. So it's not really to my liking, although it is a very capable camera. Other than that, Jill, I honestly don't think there's much to compete from the likes of Nikon or Canon, or Olympus for that matter. And Leica is I I I'm guessing here, but I suspect Leica is way over budget, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it if you can afford it. There is the Leica Deluxe, I think it's called a Deluxe 7, which is a cracking little camera. It's basically a Lumix, but I think the Lumix version will be a lot cheaper because it doesn't have that little red dot logo. And it's actually a pretty good camera in either version, although I must say I've never been a big fan of micro 4-3 sensors. I think one of the main considerations, Jill, is how the camera feels in the hand and how easy it is to operate. And it needs to be fairly discreet and small and comfortable, which is why I would generally recommend a RangeFinder style camera rather than a DSLR style. So good luck, Jill. We'll be keen to hear how you get on. So whatever you get, get cracking with it for a month or so, and come but come back to us. Tell us how you get on, and I'll report back to my listeners in a future episode. And here's a question from somebody who didn't want to record it, and it's from Sarah in Portsmouth, who asks, I'm 44, and I'm about to mean I'm about to be made redundant from a job in healthcare management. I've been keen on photography for most of my adult life, but I now want to take it a step further. I'm seriously thinking about doing a photography degree, but they seem expensive. Would you recommend a photography degree? Another great question. Thank you, Sarah. And the short answer is yes, I would. But they're not suitable for everybody. There's a lot of hard work involved. Or at least there should be. I don't think there's a lot of hard work involved when I did my degree, but hey ho, that was some time ago. Point is asking yourself why? And this is a big question. Are you doing it because you want it to lead to a career in photography? Is it because you want the intellectual challenge? Or is it to improve your skills as a photographer? If it's career for career reasons, then the degree isn't necessarily the best option, as it may not open the doors you expect it to open. It's very competitive out there. There are a lot of young people straight from university with very good photography degrees, some not very good photography degrees, it has to be said, and they're probably quite driven. You know, they're they're not 44 and have had a career in healthcare management and probably are prepared to work for much less. So you would find that quite competitive if the career thing is your motive. So you need to think about why what why you're you're doing it, which leads me into the next step, which is to choose carefully. And what do I mean by that? Well, some degrees are very vocational and quite technical, where there's a lot of time spent on stuff like lighting techniques and so on. And I think if you're a street photographer or a documentary photographer possibly, then I would probably avoid these. On the other hand, some are much more conceptual or academic, for want of a better word. And this is what I would generally recommend for most people. These will really challenge your thinking and your approach. They won't necessarily teach you the classic three-point lighting setup for portraits, but they will give you a very grounded base from which you'll start to produce more clever work, if that's the right word. Now, many degrees are now online, and with these you need to tread with caution, as what you might find is that a lot of the learning could be done from a book in Waterstones and YouTube videos. But some that I would specifically recommend looking at, because I know they're good, are those from Falmouth, the degrees from the London College of Communication, now UAL, University of the Arts London. Those are very good, and I think you can do both of those either in person or by distance learning. But either way, it's quite a heavy hefty investment. And for the distance learning degrees, I think you can expect to spend about 12 grand for a one-year MA. So it's not cheap, but if you choose carefully and you put the work in, then I'd say yes, it's definitely definitely worth it. And finally, on this question, I would generally strongly recommend academic study late in life. I know street photographers in their 50s, 60s, even 70s, who have benefited massively from this. So it is something we could all consider. Well, I hope that didn't shock you. Right, changing the mood a bit, I've just got back from another week in Venice. The first of four or five planned trips this year. And this was another workshop trip, and what a lovely group we had. I hope you're all listening. We had some very mixed weather, ranging from rain to fog to on the last day, brilliant sunshine, all the seasons in a week almost. One of the great things about Venice is that whatever the weather, it just works, and it's my number one destination for street photography. But why? Why does he keep going back to Venice, you might be thinking? What's the appeal? Well, for starters, it's very different. Life is simply not the same as it is in normal places like, say, London or New York or Leeds or whatever. Maybe that's because it has such a long and very rich, interesting history. Maybe because it's constructed on water and everything happens on water, maybe it's simply because of the incredible architecture. Secondly, it lends itself to different styles of street photography. And if you were to look at the projects that I'm currently doing in Venice, there are a couple which are based on traditional observational street photography. I'm doing a couple of more documentary projects, and I'm doing one about kind of lyrical, quiet, poetic street photography, which has a much more aesthetic inclination. So there really is something for everybody, whatever type of street photographer you are. The third reason, and this is a big one for me, there's a kind of immersion factor. You just lose yourself in the history, the beauty, the strangeness of everything around you. You kind of absorb the unique atmosphere of the place. And for me, whenever I'm in Venice, I get a real sense of well-being and being at peace with the world. Which is not only down to the Negroni, in case you you're wondering, but you do get this sense of well-being. There's no better way to describe it. And I certainly don't get that in London anymore. Well, no, not very often, anyway. So I just got back from Carnivale, the Venice Carnival. Ten days of madness, weirdness, beauty, absurdity. And yes, it's busy, it's packed, but who cares? That's all part of the charm. And from a street photography perspective, that just works. And the the other great thing, in fact, a truly wonderful thing, is that during this carnival period you can buy fritelle. Have you tried these? They're little doughnut type things, probably about the size of two golf balls, and they're completely scrummy and addictive, and they only come out during the carnival season. It is worth going for those alone. My latest scene is now out, and this is based on a project shot during February at the Venice Carnival. And as usual, I've tried to capture the madness, the absurdity, the unusual in the usual at this bizarre annual event. And this the resulting projects project comes alive in this. It's a 52-page zine. There are just 100 limited first edition copies available. I'll pop the link in the show notes for you. And I should point out that I can only ship to the UK. I found that overseas shipping has become a nightmare because of hassle, unreliability, the expense of duties, etc. etc. So sorry folks, if you're outside the UK, it probably isn't worth it for you or for me. So when to visit Venice. Well, definitely in the winter months, and my season tends to be November to March. This is the time when there are relatively few tourists, and the damp, dark conditions really lend themselves to creating a wonderfully muted and almost mysterious aesthetic. And then of course there's the famous Venetian fog. This is something we all pray for when we come to Venice, and it's truly magical when it swathes the city in this huge white blanket. If you fancy doing a workshop, I've got a few places left in November and December. Both of these are quite different. One has a documentary angle, so it's all about storytelling and narrative, and the other is simply winter in Venice, and you can take which angle you you prefer. And as always, there's help all along the way. I'll pop some links in the show notes for you. You may have to be quick, just a couple of places left. Now it's time for my mini rant of the week. I have an actual army hand grenade in my hand right now, and I'm going to metaphorically lob it at something that grinds. My gears, and today it's multi-award winning photographers. Yuck. I know you can't see me, but my head is in my hands. We've all heard of them. In fact, they love telling us that they are multi-award winning. It's like those people who need to tell you they only eat a certain kind of food. But does multi-award winning actually mean anything? Not very often, in my humble opinion. Now this isn't sour grapes because I'm not multi-award winning myself. Largely because I never enter anything, but if I did, let's say I won an award for the best iPhone shot in North Norfolk in 2013, then I probably wouldn't be shouting too loudly about it. Now, this isn't having a dig at enthusiastic amateurs, maybe like you, who often take a lot of pleasure from such accolades, but it astounds me to see how many professional photographers endlessly list this stuff on their websites and so on. And I guess in what is a kind of boastful way. Alright, it's not the worst of the world's problems right now, but I do find it mildly irritating, especially when their work isn't great that great to start with. It's almost saying, look at my awards, in the hope they'll make us look at the rest of their quite average pictures more favourably. So come on, guys, it might impress you, mum, but it's lost on most of us. What is the Street Snappers Collective? You may have come across the Street Snappers Collective, and many of you will be members of it. But I get a lot of questions from non-members asking me what it actually is. Well, it's a kind of alumni group for people who have been on my workshops, a club if you like. Everyone who completes Street Snappers Workshop with me will be invited to join the Street Snappers Collective. Not everybody does join because sometimes they're not keen on Facebook, which is how it's managed. The hub for the group is on Facebook. And that's their prerogative, of course, and that's fine. But those who do join get a very uh a great warm, friendly and supportive community to discuss street photography, to get critique on their work if they want it, to ask questions, to organise meetups, and so on. We publish an annual book and the this the 2025 book is just about to we're starting work on that. So everybody is entitled to have an image in that book. The collective is now 11 years old, and it must be the nicest street photography group on Facebook. We do not have problems. We also have an active Instagram account with about 33,000 followers, I think, and this is really a showcase for our members' work. And you can find it just street snappers. Look for street snappers on Insta. So, all in all, it's a great place for street photographers to be, and joining it is simple. You just need to have attended a workshop, and I'm afraid it is a bit exclusive in that regard. No workshop, no joining. Sorry. Now, if you haven't been on a workshop, I have another group which is called the Street Snappers Community. This is also on Facebook, it's got about eight and a half thousand members, and it's basically a critique group. If you want critique on your work, you can post a picture here, and you will get critique. You might not always agree with it, but it will always be delivered from a basis of constructive criticism, generally warm and friendly, and you know, we I think we we try to say it as it is and not say stuff like awesome capture if it isn't. So you'll find that on Facebook, Street Snappers Community. Feel free to join. You have to answer a couple of simple questions, but that's just to filter out those pesky bots. You may remember from the last episode I talked about a great cafe in London, Bruno's. Great for a pit stop to rest and refuel when you're out for day on the streets. And I'll probably make these pit stops a regular feature of the show. I guess most of them will be in London because that's where I shoot most. But I'll try to include others from around the country and, you know, other countries, possibly. So today's recommendation is the old coffee house, which rather misleadingly is a pub. And this is great. I just tell my wife I'm popping down to the old coffee house. It just makes life a lot easier. And what a fine pub it is. It's about 250 years old, and it's tucked away in Beak Street in Soho, slightly off the beaten track, so it doesn't get too overrun with tourists. And you can normally find us plenty of seats. There is usually space in the main bar, but if there's not, there's a nice cozy room upstairs. It's a free house, so there's a good selection of beers, and it does decent pub grub. Nothing too fancy. Great. And there's a fair chance you might meet other street photographers in there. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Anyway, cheers. Why don't we have one more question? And this one is from Greg, who is a member of the Street Snappers Collective. Take it away, Greg.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Hi Brian, it's Greg Dunlop here. From Sydney, Australia, living in London, street photography, done a workshop with you and part of the Street Snappers community. My question for the podcast is how what steps do you take in coming up with the topics of your projects? And is there any advice that you could give to someone who might be struggling to come up with something that's sort of a little bit more fulfilling than a generic style of project? My Instagram handle is Greg at 88 G-R-E-W-G-A-88. Looking forward to hearing the podcast. Thanks.

Pit Stop: The Old Coffee House

Listener Q&A: How Projects Start

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Well, thanks very much, Greg. This is an issue very close to my heart, and many listeners will know that I'm evangelical about projects, and I know your question will resonate with many people. In fact, I've just had a similar question from Brian Dickinson. Hi, Brian. Thanks for writing in. Much of this will apply to you too. So a good and very obvious starting point for me is to look back at the work you've already done. And I was talking about this earlier in the context of Liverpool. So it's exactly what happened to me. I could be casually browsing through my Lightroom archive while my wife is watching a programme about midwives on a Sunday evening. Trust me, this is a great time to look at your Lightroom archives. So I'll be looking through this and I might spot a pattern, maybe a number of images on a similar theme, for example. And I'll think, maybe there's some potential to do more with this. So at this point, I may start to shift those into a new folder. And then if I go if I decide to go with the idea, if the if I think there is life in it, I'll just start to add to those pictures in coming weeks or months or years, and I'll just be shooting more on that deliberate theme. And a project is born. Another way to get information uh information, another way to get inspiration for a project is from other people's creative works, maybe from a book, a magazine article, could be a film. I know plenty of street photographers who are really inspired and motivated by cinematic stuff. So this isn't to say that you'd plagiarize somebody else's idea, but there's nothing wrong in taking inspiration from it. Let's face it, most things have been done before, most projects have been done before, but they haven't been done in your way. You're putting your own perspective on it, your own spin, your own angle. You're maybe adding to an existing conversation out there, or you're maybe taking that conversation off in a completely different direction. So being inspired by others, that's another good way. A third approach, I could be just walking around with my camera, or without it for that matter, and something random will just pop into my head. Maybe this is one of the benefits of having a highly disorganised mind. Anything can happen. You wouldn't believe the sort of stuff that randomly comes into my head. In fact, you probably wouldn't want to. And this happened not too long ago, on a day when I was running a workshop in Shoreditch, in East London. The workshop was due to start at 10.30 or maybe 10 in the morning. But I got to the area early, around 8 o'clock in the morning, to do some of my own shooting. I don't shoot much of my own stuff on workshops, I try to do it outside those hours. And I was just ambling about with my camera with nothing specific in mind. It was a glorious spring morning from memory, and I was really attracted to the way that that lovely crisp spring light was falling on buildings, and I rattled off a cue a few quick shots. Not too bothered about people, just buildings. And then I realized that what I was really attracted to was street corners in particular. I love corners, they're where where things happen, worlds collide. The light is different on either side of the corner. And since then I've been going back to Shoreditch and shooting street corners in great light. So I have a project about street corners. Now this could be a long burn project, it could take a long time. But it's just g just you know, don't dismiss this idea of this notion of basing a project on a random thought that comes into your head. It happens. Okay, if you have a question for the show, I'd love to hear it. Just record your question on your phone and email it to me at Brian at streetsnappers.com. Just say your name, where you're from, then the question, and if you want to mention, pop your Instagram handle as part of the question. Now, your question may not appear for a month or so, but rest assured it will be on the list. Well, folks, I think that just about wraps it up for today's show. Uh, as you can probably guess from the outro music. So uh I'm now working on the next episode, which I'll try and get to you within a couple of weeks, but I am going to Venice shortly, so uh yes, again, so there may be a bit of a delay. Uh I hope you manage to get out there and do some shooting before we next meet. I hope you get some bangers. Uh and don't be spending too much time in the old coffee house. Toodaloo.