Street Snapping (with Snap Focus) feat. Ricoh GRIIIx
The parental duty of escorting one’s child to a RAD competition (Royal Academy of Dance) presented me with a little time to kill and an opportunity to try some street photography with a unique feature I don’t exploit nearly enough with the Ricoh GRIIIx. Snap Focus is a type of capture mode on GR products that essentially operates as a kind of ‘zone focus’ (removing the need for autofocus at all*). You select the distance in camera (a shortcut button can be set up to make this distance selection quicker) and then just estimate your own proximity to the subject (or object) you want in focus. You get to choose from 0.3m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, 2.5m, 3.5m, 5m and infinity. Infinity is actually super useful for those landscape shots where perhaps you distrust the AF box or lack time or energy to manual focus and zoom in to check everything is hunky dory for your mountain range shot. Just toggle to Infinity and snap! Snap Focus is a pretty neat tool on the GR cams and a popular choice for those doing street work and want to remain as inconspicuous as possible. It also helps get around sluggish autofocus by being an instant take, something clearly important for when capturing moments on the street.
* in truth there can be a small amount focus driving when using snap focus, because it can still take the lens a moment to shift from near to far. For example, if one moment I set Snap Focus to Infinity, and then the next shot I set it to 1m, then on the first actuation of shooting at 1m there is a significant delay as the lens motors shift the focus from infinity to the new 1m range. This actually caught me out a few times and my first snap shot at a new distance market was delayed as it travelled to this new range. It’s good practice to fire off a single shot at a new distance made to make sure the subsequent shot fires off immediately without delay.
I took advice from ‘Samuel Streetlife’ when it comes to configuring my camera, enabling the front shutter button to activate as normal autofocus/AF box, but as a dual hybrid approach we can also make a simple tap on the rear screen (anywhere on the screen) activate the Snap Focus feature with the current distance selected. Thus making sneaky shots extremely easy as the shutter finger is nowhere near the actual shutter button during the process but instead tapping the rear screen (like a smartphone) to activate the capture. To passers by this can appear like you are checking previous work on the back of the camera screen when secretly you are taking flicks (ethic discussion imminent!!).
Below are some grabs I found decent, bare in mind I only had 30-45mins to spare. I think if I spent an entire day or week doing this kind of thing the gene pool would be richer…
Let’s look at some images.
The first two shots of the day were on the train journey to the city (which takes about an hour). I quite liked how this gent was sleeping the entire journey, and at one time the woman opposite took a leaf out his book and joined him for some shut eye. Later, we had a new person sitting and he had an interesting tattoo that I deemed worth of capturing. But still the sleepy guy remained…
This shot is somewhat cheating as this person is known to me (the dancing daughter), but I still like the ‘unawareness’ factor as I grabbed this shot whilst waiting for the connecting metro.
These four images represent my best efforts of capturing people as they passed by me. In reality I tried this several times but often the people were out of frame. The bottom left image of the gentleman wearing the jacket is actually having some great critical focus, a kind of fluke with this aperture and methodology.
IIRC both these two shots were taken when I had actually passed them by and was recording them blindly from behind! I would hold my camera down by my side and aim up slightly, or I went to scratch my head or adjust my headphones whilst holding the camera with lens pointing back over my shoulder towards them. I quite like how happy the guy appears on the left and how the fella on the right is fidgeting with his necklace.
I did a few ICM shots whilst using ND filters. Truth be told I liked these shots more than the Snap Focus folk shots, I particularly like the second shot of the buildings where nothing seems quite in focus. I’ve noticed a charm to some images where the shot doesn’t have clear missed focus but in fact no focus at all. If I return in the near future I think I would focus more on this kind of work.
Probably my best moment caught in time, but shame about my camera settings. Not only did I misjudge the distance here but I also collected a rough ISO (I might have still had an ND filter on from before!), woops!
These two images are the only successful shots of faster paced action caught on the day. The woman displays an interesting freeze frame as she jogged for the green pedestrian light and the cyclist could be mistaken for being stationary if not for the feet placement on the pedals (I also like that I captured his shadow in full too).
The two pictures of the gents were taken whilst waiting for the lights to change whereas the other two images show some handholding moments caught whilst moving.
The ND filter goes back for some shutter drag to try and get some ghost action, not a great shot but…
And these final snaps were taken post competition, on our return journey back, a mixture of Snap and normal focus (I think you can tell). I actually quite like the Snap Focus shots, I swear there can be a charm to slightly out of focus shots… as long as nothing else is in focus it gets a green light!
Ethics
When it comes to taking images without prior consent… I don’t actually have a huge moral dilemma with this. I’m paid to take candid shots in my professional line of work and some of that involves children photography (with parental consent of course). But my counselling background has given me greater knowledge surrounding issues of consent. Like with many things, children seldom understand the demands asked of them, and in the case of photography the child often loses rights whilst the parent advocates for them (rightly or wrongly). You may have consent to take the picture but the actual subject (child in this instance) really doesn’t understand what is going on enough to formulate a stance on this position. The picture is taken anyway..
It’s 2025 and there is an abundance of surveillance equipment in society. Whether it be security cameras or our phones tracking and listening to us… privacy has long bolted.
On this particular shoot I was quite surprised to see a muscular chap walk the street wearing tank top whilst walking a giant poodle, he caught passing by attention (likely he was seeking it) and a flourishing of smartphones appeared to record him going about his business. Certainly I am not the only one documenting my time on the street this hour… Still, it is interesting that smartphones once again seem easy to dismiss and get a free pass unlike ‘real cameras’.
When (in the past) I have had a more obvious approach to street photography, be it a larger camera or using a viewfinder and thus demonstrating clearer intent… I feel the issue of consent is apparent and such technique invites possible and reasonable rejection. I feel more comfortable shooting street with the appearance of doing so, allowing people to approach me should they feel uncomfortable with that experience. Of course I am still trying to be candid, it is usually after the moment has been documented that disapproval may come, but it just feels ‘righter’ to give that transaction that chance.
With these super sneaky snap shots however, the subject has no idea that they have just been digitally captured... non consensual.
With my candid professional documentary event work, there is an underlying level of consent. The subject might not know they are being captured at that moment in time, but on the day they see me, its clear the venue, organization or governing body has hired me for the days activities. Occasionally I am approached by a concerned participant voicing dismay at being recorded and of course reassurance is given to make sure they will be avoided during the proceedings.
The Results
The first thing I noticed was how difficult it was to actually capture a person within my 28mm (40mm FFE) frame/fov. I totally underestimated how tight this would be. I had many images that looked like they could be equally as interesting as the ones shown but because the subject were too heavily cut off at the edges of the frame made for a dud image. I think using the wider GRIII (not GRIIIx) would have resulted in a higher keeper rate. It’s important to understand the majority of my Snap Focus shots were done whilst both I and the subject were in motion, few were done where both of us were stationary.
Next, what I found interesting was the results themselves. Usually when I do candid photography I am in a lot more control. Compositions play a strong component in my work, I tend to find angles first, foreground and background elements, I look for interesting light and I even burst on moments to ensure I can find the strongest image in that sequence that sells that moment best. It’s candid (often the subject is unaware they are being photographed) but there is deliberation. Here, with Snap Focus, it felt like a complete luck fest. I can’t recall the last time I took shots with a camera only having to chimp them a few minutes later to see what I got. Mirrorless cameras give you a WYSIWYG approach, but here I was often holding the camera in such a way that I was eyeballing it, having the optics roughly pointing in the general direction, hoping for success!
I mean it wasn’t all completely without skill, I still had to set the camera up to having a semi decent exposure for what it would be facing, and then predetermining my focus distance for the subject I was approaching, either distancing myself a little if I felt I would be too close for my setting or closing in a little. This meant sometimes I got some perfectly focused f2.8 shots and other times everything in-between. I could have stopped down, f8 and be there, and increased my keeper rate. But my objective here was to study the results (even if only a handful were successful) where the emphasis was placed on the person going about their business and not actually the street itself, thus I wanted the subject to pop out the frame and become the primary subject.
And herein lies the problem I think with this kind of work. I just didn’t find it interesting. There really isn’t much to enjoy from capturing someone going about their business. Some are looking straight ahead, some looking at their phone, some in conversation with their phone, some walking a pet or child, some laughing with others… but overall it felt like moments of time caught that just lacked substance (and environmental context).
As I said before, I think a wider lens would help to bring in more context, but when I look at successful modern street photographers I think the difference lies in the approach. They tend to place stronger emphasis on the environment/composition and the subject becomes a supporting element rather than what I grabbed which was the other way around. I see some seasoned street photographers find a spot, find a composition, hunker down and wait. It has more in common with wildlife photography than whatever it was I was doing…
Summary
I’m glad I gave this a shot. I mean I have used Snap Focus before, I find it very useful as a way to get around the Ricoh slow AF, especially in low light. I’ve just never used it quite as intensively as this. It was a good experience to do something different and reflect on the process, I seldom get to do that nowadays. I did enjoy myself irrespective of the results.
