My photo-walks are almost always me, myself and I but a recent shoot has helped me realise that I rarely walk alone !

You can never un-see something that you have seen , the imagery you consume lives deeply in your subconscious for ages and can often turn up to your Street shoots uninvited, that’s usually okay but when your photo book influences turn up wholesale in one three hour shoot you have to acknowledge a problem !

William , Elliot and Stephen are good photo-walk companions and valued inhabitants of my bookshelves but I don’t want them living rent free in my head , photo-shoots or portfolio !

I could be suffering from a photo-book overdose , if I had never seen the work of Eggleston , Erwitt and Shore would I still of made the pics below ?

All of the pictures below are genuine “Original” responses to my surroundings or so I thought at the time of capture , they were not intended to be tributes to my heroes but …

These pictures are a sobering reminder that we all walk in the foot prints of giants and carry a shed load of influences wherever we go , Street Photography is difficult enough but finding our own “originality” is the ultimate challenge !

Those who shoot for themselves should have fun and enjoy the SP journey but if you have aspirations for your work to inhabit bookshelves alongside serious photographers you need to bring a big bottle of uniqueness to the next Street Photography party !

The first step in developing a original approach is to understand where you are now and create a vision of where you want to be, the same old , same old is just that …

You don’t need to invent the wheel but you might need to modify it !

All this outside influence stuff has made me think that we should be more careful about the photo books we read , garbage in, garbage out ,… thankfully, the opposite must also be true ?

Who will subconsciously gatecrash your photo- walk this weekend ?

Keep it real and stay safe ..