Shoot Cities Like Wildlife

The habits transfer exactly: scout the terrain, learn the light, wait for behaviour.

A city has habitat (districts), behaviour (rush hour, market hour, the evening promenade), and light that rewards the same discipline the bush does. Scout at midday when the light is useless — find your angles, your foregrounds, your escape from the wind. Return at the edges of the day and wait for the behaviour to cross your frame.

The wildlife rule that transfers best: one subject per frame. A street corner holds forty stories at once and the camera flattens them into noise. Pick the umbrella, the window, the ferry — and let the city be its background, the way the savanna backgrounds a lion.

And the ethical rule transfers too. Photograph people the way you photograph animals: at a respectful distance, never baited, and leave when your presence changes the behaviour.