David Bracher:
Tim, your shopping centre shot has always been a favorite of mine. Love it. I keep going back to it. Just wish it was in my gallery though.
Talking to strangers in the street really puts me off. I think I could get some interesting shots with a compact....must try it. But the effect of my 10-20 lens is hard to leave behind....though you do have to really stick it in peoples faces to get 'the shot'. I've tried a zoom lens from a distance....boy, that really doesn't work for me. People close to you see the huge extension (ooh err!) and immediately stop and stare and wonder who you're looking at. I even had a group of girls (the worsed) jokingly shout out Stalker in the middle of a busy park....I was even stood with my wife! ............maybe I should have just said ' In your dreams fatty ' but this attitude does make me nervous. It's also what makes this kind of shot so interesting....it's not easy! What I need is a Harry Potter invisibility cloak.
Wayne, I like the Japan shots...good tones.
Hi Dave, totally understand if you have had a bad experience but as I said before its really just like landscape photography, except urban in nature.
Your point on the SLR is one I hear a lot and its why the older famous guys favoured a rangefinder Leica, but hey 'I'll take a dozen', right who can afford that!
Its a great art and its these very reasons that its dying and that's a shame and most likely a result of changes in society, however that's the very fuel that can push photographers onwards to capture that change for the future historians.
A broad view I know.
In reference to the 'commando' comment, I do wear underwear, usually and I used to be 17 stone with a 30 inch waist, 10 years on I'm 14 stone with a 32 inch waist, but the confidence is still there and I never run, probably regret that one day...lol
Check out the bad tash, that's gonna scare anybody away, apart from making me look like an apprentice porn star!

Rgds
Tim
Ambient Life - DCM Gallery
Ambient Life Web Site