Hi Joan,
Street photography, candid photography, documentary photography, it goes by many names and is arguable one of the most aesthetically elusive aspects of photography that your likely to find. The good news is that there are a number of successful practitioners to learn from - Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Gary Winogrand, Cartier-Bresson – to name just a few. The other good news is that a quick Google search for “street photography” will yield volumes of useful sources of information.
For me, pursuing an artistic ambition is more of a journey that a destination. By my way of thinking, there is no such thing as a “feeble attempt” – if you learn from it, and it contributes to developing your own unique visual voice, than it truly has value, even if only to you. There are no failures, only different degrees of success.
As for this photo, my bias would be to the monochrome school of thought. One, it helps reduce the non-essential aesthetic distractions posed by color, two, it aspires to the classic tradition of street photography, but most important, it effectively leverages the power of unbiased, objective documentation – in other words, it’s real, it’s evidence, which is the basis, in my opinion, of truly successful street photography.
Tech note: you may want to play around with the exposure, contrast, etc, as others have mentioned.
The thing I like about this image, aside from the humorous title, is the seriousness with which these two are contemplating lighting fixtures, like they were in a museum looking at art. There is a fun metaphor in what you have captured. I especially love the two stanchions, or pipes to the left of the image – a rather succinct way of satirizing the artists’ contempt for his audience?
Lastly, a note about street photography and the law. The way I understand it, if you are in public, and can see it, it’s fair game (with a few exceptions – nuke plants, military bases, etc.). If you capture a recognizable individual in public and have no commercial plans for the image you don’t need a release – if you want to use it for commercial use, you need a release. When it comes to private property, like inside a Home Depot, store policy and “a reasonable expectation of privacy” prohibit you from taking photographs. As with most things however, there is more to the story than what I have outlined above – below is a link to a PDF that sums things up pretty nicely. You can also do a Google search to learn more about street photography and the law.
http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdfAnd if you are interested, here is a link to my Flickr street photography page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43708662@N07/
