Introduction

I literally jumped from the frying pan into the fire when I first started my outdoor photography journey.

I fell into street photography by accident when I visited the beautiful beach of Perranporth, Cornwall. I was kind of amazed by how my images actually turned out, considering I was a complete novice photographer at the time.

However, used various simple methods to capture these shots that anyone can use to capture streetscape images.

Let's get into it.

A Brief History

Just a few brief, contextual words.

I have been visiting Perranporth, Cornwall, ever since I was a child, mostly with my Father, on an annual pilgrimage. I used to stay at a hotel on the beach called, 'The Ponsmere', which has now been turned into beachfront apartments.

I have been subsequently staying at another beachfront B&B called 'The Seiner's Arms'. Breakfast is highly recommended!

A couple of years ago, I was given a commissioned work assignment to photograph book covers which needed to be a mixture of Still Life Horror Photography and Street, Landscape and Seascape Photography.

I loved it so much I became an outdoor photographer convert.

A short time later I went to Perranporth and I took my camera with me...

Equipment

After my stint with a Micro Four Thirds Camera - the Panasonic GH2, I wanted the full frame experience, so I did extensive research and bought the Canon 6D. I only had two lenses. The tilt-shift, TS-E 90mm f / 2.8 and the EF 50mm f / 2.5. The latter was a surprisingly sharp, bare-bones manual, macro lens, which was only a few hundred pounds. I also brought along my trusty monopod - The Manfrotto 675B.

Shooting Process

Imagine rolling out of bed onto the beach. Well, that's pretty much what it is like staying at The Seiners. You are on the beach immediately when you step out of the B&B (barring a paved parking area).

Every day for five days, after breakfast, I picked up my gear and headed onto the expansive Perranporth Beach. It's an exquisite sandy, three-mile-long plane, with caves, a climbable iconic rock called 'Chapel Rock' and there is also a bar, called 'The Watering Hole'.

The Beauty of Street Photography on the beach is that there is never a shortage of people, even in bad weather. A beach really is a beacon and Perranporth Beach is one of the best beaches in Cornwall.

Camera Setup

I used the Canon EF 50mm f / 2.5 lens, which weighs in at a lightweight 280 grams, made for a very simple setup. As this was a manual lens, I simply focused to Infinity. Let me explain...

Infinity Focus

Infinity Focus is quite a simple focusing technique to get to grips with. When you focus to infinity everything in your frame will be in focus from a certain distance to the furthest object in the frame. The area that is not in focus, the nearest amount of feet/metres in your frame, is called the Hyperfocal Distance. Everything from the far point of the Hyperfocal Distance to Infinity will be in focus.

The Hyperfocal distance is calculated by the aperture that you use, your lens focal length, and the crop factor of your camera

It is easy to focus on Infinity

Some lenses have an Infinity symbol above the focusing ring. All you need to do is turn the ring so that it aligns with the symbol.

If you do not have a symbol on your lens, then focus on an object in the distance using Autofocus (then switch to Manual focus) or Manual focus

In this image, I focussed on the furthest object, (the cliffs with the people up against it). That is the furthest object in the distance so I was focusing on Infinity.

In this image, I focussed on the furthest object, (the cliffs with the people up against it). That is the furthest object in the distance so I was focusing on Infinity. I kept using this technique as my primary goal was to photograph seascapes and the beach landscapes, so it was an added bonus that I just happened to also be shooting street photography on the beach.

Aperture

As I was concentrating on photographing seascapes, I used f / 11 for nearly every shot I took. This gave me enough depth of field to keep the majority of my composition in sharp detail.

ISO

It was fairly windy for the five days I was there, therefore there were nearly always cloudy skies so I kept my ISO at 200.

Shutter Speed

I was fortunate to be using two extra items to keep 90% of my shots shake-free. A Remote Shutter release and a Monopod. I surprised myself by getting sharp shots of people at 1/50 sec up to 1/180 sec doing beach street photography, using these two invaluable items.

Image Breakdown

In the image ‘Waiting for the Reds’, I used infinity focus - focusing on the couple by the cliff, and I used the residual wave foam as a leading line in the foreground of the composition.

One of my favourites - ‘Man and Dog’, where the fisherman and his dog took a couple of moments to chill out in front of some rocks. I made sure that the viewer could see the area of land where the man was looking, (to the left) so I positioned him with his dog on the right side of the frame.

In ‘Black and White’, with so many people all over the beach, it was quite easy to find some rocks for the foreground object and user 'Chapel Rock' as the main subject in the distance, whilst capturing a beachgoer on the right of the frame, which gives the image much-needed balance.

Conclusion

I highly recommend a visit to Perranporth. You can not only do great seascape and landscape photography. You can also get your street photography fix too.

Go forth and create.

Street and Urban Photography Blog

Streetscape - How to shoot Street and Seascape Photography on a Cornwall Beach