There are many monumental moments in a person’s life. High School graduation, first love, and college acceptance are but a few. However, nothing can be more profound and life absorbing that the day one purchases his or her first camera. It is hard to believe that a purchase so small can have such a profound and lasting effect on the course of a life. A simple trip becomes a mission with a purpose; a birthday party becomes an all-day activity; and an athletic event is transformed into an up and down, jockeying for position, never sitting down day of challenges.

The purchase of a camera changes lives. It gives meaning to the simplest of things. A flower is no longer a mere flower, and a butterfly brings unparalleled joy to an otherwise normal day.  Your children will only recognize you if you have this strange box pressed against your face.  Your spouse will instantly know that this small black object is never to be touched. However, you realize quickly that this camera opens up a diverse world for you. For the camera is the prism (pardon the pun) from which you will forever view the world.

The beauty of photography is that it offers many different worlds to travel through life. There are unique joys and challenges with each of then modes. Some venture of the path of the nature photographer. It requires early morning rises and the daily companion of a tripod. Others enjoy the challenges of the portrait world.  Meeting people and having them sit in from of your camera, while you try to digitally capture their inner most thoughts. Still others relish venturing out into the wild tracking birds of prey, not with a gun, but with their trusted little black box. There are still others that set out each Saturday to the nearest sporting even with the goal of seizing that split second moment when the athlete hit, kicks or catches a ball.

However, for the truly adventurist, the world of Street Photography offers the greatest challenges and rewards. The mission here is to wonder the roads of our cities in the hope of capturing a glimpse of our humanity.  Identifying and recording a “decisive moment” in our personal interactions with other people or things is the challenge of our daily pursuits. Leaving home with the hope of capturing at least one photo that depicts our human existence in a way not previously seen is objective

Yet in this vocation of street photography, there are many sub genres that serve to broaden and enrich our search. This article is devoted to illustrating the joy and difficulty in capturing each of these “area of the street.”