As part of the competition, I've also been practising the 'ho-hum, fiddling about with camera...erm...click' method of getting un-posed photos, as I'm sure many of us here have. Am I the only one who has loads of photos of people walking around with their eyes closed, or is there some nationwide plot to stop Mikey from getting decent pictures here?!?

I'll trade you for these headless photos of mine! O that one where it looks like this man is sticking his finger up his nostril! ( Actually that is why I took it!!! ) Bsteph

the best are on subways when people are fast asleep, and you decide not to give a rat's ass about the other peopole around you. I used to do that a lot my first 3-4 months of photography, you get some disgutipated looks from those who see you, but usually if you can stand the looks, it becomes worth it. I saw one man's gallery (big pro guy, big name, just can't remember it), and his street portraiture was incredible. It seemed like he'd walk right up to people, hold his camera in their face, and click, though they were oblivious to everything. I was able to do that once or twice, but this guy musta been a genius...

See above--I guess I need to practice some street photography--I always feel like an intruder.

photographers are intruders, that's one of the best parts of being a photographer. The only challenge is to become good at intruding, lol. Remember, if you walk up to someone, and take their picture, and then they give you two tons of shit, yell, scream, and etc, you still got their picture. It can be a dirty business, but it's better than being a personal injury attorney.

My biggest obstacle in taking "street" photos is the fear of muggers stealing my equipment. I just take walks through a safe neighborhood to get what I want, but I don't think my fears are in the least bit diminished. Almost got mugged a couple of weeks ago-- aack.

Mike, Just think about how many times people blink... With a quick shutter speed you'd have like a 25% chance to shoot someone with their eyes closed (25% is just a wild guess, I really don't know :) But anyway, people blink really fast, so with a bit of a longer shutter speed the blink won't be as visible, or at least the chance that you'll capture the exact closing won't be as high as normal. Personally I like shooting walking people with slower speeds, cause the blur a bit....freezing a walking person often looks weird...no motion. Also I think that people who are in a hurry or nervous or whatever blink more than someone who's very relaxed. Also perhaps people who are focused on something blink less. But I'm not really sure....I'd love to know how that works. But anyway, unposed is much better....especially when people, cars, bikes, etc are going sort of the same direction at sort of the same speed, so you don't have to quickly capture that one special moment. Btw, want to share some work with us ? :) Have fun!