Almost every guidebook will tell you not to take a photo of someone before asking for the subject’s permission. That’s good advice, it’s polite and it will keep you out of trouble. Unfortunately it will also equate to lots of photos that all look alike or if the person refuses, no image at all. Now I’m not saying to go out and annoy every person you meet on the road and I’m definitely not telling you to walk right up to someone and stick your camera in their face. No one likes that and you could be punched. However there is a difference between being a tourist and a travel photographer. How you and your camera will be received varies from country to country. In my experience Africa can be tricky. I have been chased by an angry mob through the alleys of Marrakesh and nearly beaten by massive dockworkers in Uganda. On the flip side, you very well might find the people of Indonesia or Cambodia running towards you to have their photo taken.

Here are a couple of ways I approach the shot:.

If I see someone interesting looking and hopefully doing something interesting I’ll try to be as stealthy as possible and bang off a few frames before the subject knows I’m there.

Above is a good example inside Bayon Temple in Cambodia…

If I would have asked for his OK before taking the image I’m sure he would have let me but I’d have another stereotypical image of a smiling local next to a shrine instead of this more interesting image of him burning incents for Buddha.

I also use a “spider’s web” technique where I’ll find a good location with great light and wait for the subject to come to me. I was sitting on a porch outside a market in Bo, Sierra Leone when this “lime salesman” came up to me. I just took his photo then we started chatting.

There are more photos of him smiling and laughing with these limes on his head but none as unique and powerful as this first image of him sizing me up when he first approached.

I also used that “spider” technique just a couple of months ago in Taxco, Mexico. I knew I had a great street and incredible light; I just needed the right person to come by to get the shot. I stayed for a hour shooting everyone going by, this is my favorite…

Then, after I feel I have my “action” shot or if I just see a great face in great light

I’ll ask for permission and snap away….

Carnie in Mexico City…

Holy man in McLeod Ganj, India…

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