street photography can be tricky.

Depending on the time of day, you can be dealing with traffic, cat calls, and curious onlookers.

But if you can make all those distractions disappear for the short period of time you're with your client, the results

ARE SO WORTH IT.

To that end, I have a two main tricks up my sleeves for getting consistently good shots in a challenging and distracting environment.

1. First and foremost, I try my hardest to make my clients laugh and keep them focused on me and my lens (I mean, it's not that hard - I'm pretty funny). Soon enough, they forget where they are and that they were ever nervous at all. Keep in mind that with this tip, you have to be quick. Because if you're doing it right, your client will likely laugh with all that they are, and that's just magical (but sometimes fleeting).
2. Most importantly, I get creative with composition. I think this tip requires you as a photographer to let go a little bit. For me, I'm pretty free spirited in terms of how I got about a shoot. I usually say something like, "umm, that spot looks nice. Just go stand there." At which point my client looks at me like "WTF, do you know what you're doing?" But I'm all like "I got this. TRUST." And then I take a peek through my camera's viewfinder, look left, right, up and down, shuffle side to side, and do the boogie woogie until I find what it's all about (see what I did there?). It's all about taking literally any spot in the world with half way decent lighting, eliminating distractions like exit signs and trash, removing unflattering crowds of people, and positioning your client to work with the light that's available to you. Don't forget to reassure your client that you actually do know what you're doing by showing them the results on the back of the camera. They'll get all excited that you're not incompetent and become much more comfortable with the process.

So let's see my tips in action. Meet Tessenie, a model from Toronto Canada. I worked with her for just one hour,

but it was incredible.

Tip number one was rather easy to implement - I tend to get a tad excited when I'm in the presence of someone owning their sheer gorgeousness. So with Tessenie, I literally couldn't stop saying

"oh my god YES,"

and she couldn't stop laughing - probably because I sounded nuts. But that's cool.

For tip number two, we happened to choose a location that was moderately busy. We also started the shoot at 3:00PM - the sunlight is harsh, and school was letting out. But with some creative positioning and composition, a little patience timing shots to remove cars, and a little letting go of achieving perfection and instead embracing messy things like the busy street, Tessenie ended up with a gorgeous gallery loaded with pictures she could fall in love with.

And I was one happy photog.

Check Tessenie out on Instagram

Toronto Plus Model

Miami Model Photographer

Location Highlights: Miami, Florida; MiMo District

Brand Highlights: Forever 21