I’ve found that going out and shooting and building your confidence is a great first step. Now I’ve hit a point were personally I need to do more than just framing and shooting photos. I get the feeling sometimes through this method of working that I’m still not a photographer, just a camera operator. My steps so far has been to learn my camera and the content I want to shoot. But the medium I wish to cover keeps changing and I haven’t settled on one genre yet. Maybe I just need to cover different stories or photo essays and my style will flow naturally.My next step and I think we all need to do this more, is practice. Going out and just shooting content is great, don’t get me wrong. But I think we need to focus more on composition. So the next step is to focus on different compositional areas.

Do you find that you keep telling yourself, 'If I just get this,' 'If I save and buy this, my photography will be that much better'? That lie you tell yourself, to get that faster lens or camera, or that changing your style will make you happier. No matter what I do, I always seem to start looking at alternative gear and styles; I can't help it. I seem to think that getting a 28mm over my 35mm will make everything better. The trick to snapping yourself out of this is telling yourself, 'but then what?' What do I mean by this? Let's say you get the gear, you get everything you wanted, now what? You still can only shoot with one camera and one lens at a time. The more options you have, the more unhappy you become because you have more options to master. You start questioning, 'Did I pick the right option?' You become a jack of all lenses and cameras, master of none.

Okay, so before I can start doing street (social) photography, I need a camera. I normally use DSLRs professionally, but a massive camera like this would just get too heavy to carry around town all day. My weapon of choice is the Leica M8, using a 35mm prime lens. To be consistent, I've chosen to shoot only in black and white. I used to shoot with an M6 film camera but don't have the time and money to develop the film, juggle work, a social life, along with personal work. So I have made the decision to use a digital Leica, and just tape the display so I can't chimp.