London night street photography. In order to do street photography you need some balls, to do flash street photography you need to be very confident (or pretty drunk), have a good fast-talk (just in case). If you really feel like flashing complete strangers in the middle of the night, even a fast glass is optional

Old street tube station, lady with a fur

Any combination of fast film / fast lens can do good, if you add a flash even a not so fast combination is acceptable. Anyway we were not shooting for any agency or portrait class, we were in just for the hell of it, so the two outfits were: minox GT (f2,8) + superia 400 @ 1600 + inexpensive flash and Yashica GSN (f 1,7) + superia 400. I’m not fan of the fuji superia, just it happened to find a big stock at a ridiculous price at a car boot sale, I’d rather use tri-x @ 1600 or, if my wallett is full, Ilford delta 3200. Of course the results are hit and miss, we had quite many out of focus shots just because we forgot to change the selective focus (damn cheap wine) or because with the lens wide open sometimes is difficult to guess the distance, especially with the Minox’s scale focus.

Hackney Road, lonely girl with cab

Walking through dark streets at nighttime flashing random people is quite invasive but in particular occasion you can do it without really raising (almost) any eyebrows. Shooting in tube stations, outside clubs or in busy street corners is safe and even without flash you can have good results, while in order to shoot in alleys and streets to passer-by the flash is a must and in this case a public celebration works on your side.

Hackney Road, couple walking through trash

We took some of these pictures on new year’s eve around Old street and Hackney Road in London, overall the reactions were not bad: just one complains,a guy who asked the picture to be deleted (it’s always funny try to explain that you have to develope the pictures first) and a couple of funny looks. All the others couldn’t care less. It was good fun.

He has a shiny golden jacket, she has Madonna leggings

no, he didn't complain

Old street station