There has always been one type of photography that I was never any good at, that being Urban/Street photography. I find it really awkward to walk around a town with a camera around my neck and take photos. You get really strange looks and some people get really protective and automatically assume your trying to take a photo of their child to use in a inappropriate manner. I would just like to point out to those people that if you let your child out in public dressed like that then why is a photo any worse than the people on the street seeing them like that?

Back to the topic in hand, one of the things I struggle with is having the confidence to take photos out on the street. What makes this odd is as a tourist I am happy to whack out my camera on the street and take some photos of people, but back home it just feels a tad odd. When I went to Hong Kong this summer I was very comfortable bringing my camera around with me, but when I went to London in December I felt a little silly. However I really wanted some shots of London and decided to take my camera with me almost everywhere. I am really glad I did, I got some really nice shots and it really boosted my confidence of getting out and taking photos of people.

The shot above is one of my favourites, mostly because the girl in the orange hat and red jacket pops out from the crowd of black and blue jackets. The lighting in from the Christmas display gives the background some interest too. I used this Cold Cream Preset as a starting point and then played with the curves, black point and saturation to achieve the final result.