James . 22/06/2025 James . 22/06/2025

Shooting Street with a Zoom……. Part 2

Finally ready to put your scepticism to one side and become a believer of the merits of Street Photography with a massive zoom? No? Let’s get into it anyway!

Before we get to the juicy bits, I feel we should do some housekeeping. What the kids are calling “Real Talk”.

Firstly, I’ll be mostly using the word zoom throughout, as that’s what most people are familiar with in terms of nomenclature and what most people who shoot on the streets would tend to use rather than a long prime. That said, pretty much everything I discuss here could just as easily apply to a long prime.

For clarity, in this part of the article, I’m talking about lenses that can shoot at a minimum of 100mm and up. Right—glossary nailed. Now let’s talk philosophy, ethics, and what I am trying to sell you… and what I’m not. This article isn’t intended to convince you to use a zoom. My only intention is to open your mind to the possibilities - and in turn, encourage you to question some of the bullshit that infects this community. Selfishly, I’d like to feel that, in some small way, I’m making a difference in how anyone reading this thinks about zooms. My aim is to steer us away from the dogma, elitism, and snobbery that plagues this particular lens choice when it comes to shooting on the street.

The world is full of people shooting 28mm on black and white film, and it makes me think of people weeping for times that are long gone. All the New York shooters, here’s a newsflash: the hats are gone, the newspapers are gone and that way of shooting street is gone. Lean into it too much and you’ll become a copy of a copy of a copy no matter how good you are there’s a danger people will just start to see you as a tribute band. Why have we created these Leica labelled Portra Potty prisons for us to live in? There’s nothing inherently wrong with that setup—but with so many people using it, why not try something different, for God’s sake?

I believe the number one reason that a street photographer picks up a zoom is pure and simple fear.

Street photography is terrifying for many when first starting out. That fear - or anxiety - at least for me, hasn’t gone away, even after seven year of shooting on and off. So I understand why some photographers see the zoom as a way to minimise the risk of conflict. But for many, that’s as far as it goes. They see the zoom as a cheat code.

I once witnessed a photographer in an alleyway, standing about ten metres away from a clearly inebriated homeless man who was sprawled out on the deck. Unconscious - most likely obliterated on Spice (Manchester’s drug of choice). I walked past and said “he won’t bite mate”.

I don’t think he got the joke. That’s nothing new for me - I’m sarcastic, dry-humoured and a fan of the deadpan. Most people, after I say something I think is funny, just give me a puzzled look—like they’ve caught the whiff of a fart on the breeze and are trying to calibrate their level of disgust. Maybe I’m neuro-divergent or something.

Anyway, we’ve gone off on a tangent.

Right! Fear and the zoom lens. That’s where we left off wasn’t it? I see a lot of photographers doing the same sorts of shots all beginners start with: photos shot from the hip of people walking down the street. This kind of thing has spread through Instagram like a recessive gene. And unless it’s a particularly special shot, it bores me to tears—so I get especially frustrated when I see someone using a zoom to capture that.

And that’s often where it ends for some shooters—until they’ve got the balls to buy a tighter zoom or a prime and get serious. They don’t understand the power of these magic lenses—probably never will—or how creative you can be with them.

Before we get into that, let’s tackle the first criticism thrown at zoom lenses: that they make the viewer feel distant from the subject.

One more time for the people in the cheapseats….HOGWASH!

Well… actually, no. This is one I can partially agree with.

There’s something about the signature a long lens imparts on an image that makes it feel slightly “off”. The proportions are janky, and I think most of us—even non-photographers—can instinctively feel it. Compare that to a shot taken with the godlike 28mm: in street photography, this is almost certainly the perspective we’re most used to seeing.

It feels like you’re part of the photo. Often there are multiple people in the frame—a crowded street, faces looking into the camera. You know the photographer is close, because the subjects’ eyes are on them. And something about the proportions places you, the viewer, right there in the middle of it..

But what’s this? Why am I writing a love letter to the 28mm lens I’ve mocked so mercilessly of late? Ok lets get back on message.

If this lens is so great why is no one screaming for wildlife photographers to shoot birds with a wide-angle lens?

We’re both photographing living beings. So why can’t a 28mm lens work for wildlife? And by the same logic, why can’t a wildlife lens work for street photography?

We accept that shooting wildlife with a wide-angle isn’t really possible, but still manage to appreciate those images—zoom and all—even if the subject appears distant. No one complains about feeling far away from a baby gosling. Why not?

So if a zoom photo makes you feel distant from the subject, in my opinion, it’s either because the image itself isn’t compelling enough to draw the viewer in—or you're simply shooting the wrong kind of scene.

Take the example above—a photo I shot of some far-right protestors. It’s just a quick snapshot, not something I’ve agonised over, but I think it illustrates my point. Plus it’s the longest photo i’ve shot (at 450mm) because this band of vicious thugs brought out a yellow streak in me longer than the Nile.

There’s something about it I can’t quite put my finger on—I feel slightly removed from the scene. At 450mm that’s quite a long way to stand away from. Now imagine the same group of people shot with a wide-angle lens—the feeling would be much more visceral.

So yes, we’ve found a valid limitation of the zoom lens. But let’s flip the script: what are its strengths? And how can you make a zoom work for you?

To explore that, I’d like to introduce my friend Maria Panagiotidi (you’ll find her on social media as Maria Page). Maria is a talented photographer whose work has featured in exhibitions, magazines, and all over Instagram. She’s built a name for herself with striking images full of colour, humour, human connection, and an impeccable sense of timing for special moments..

And conveniently for this article, a considerable amount of her work has been shot with either a zoom lens or a long telephoto.

We’ve shot together dozens of times on the streets of Manchester, and on those walks, I came to understand just how much more there is to zoom-lens street photography than simply standing further back.

I’ve broken down shooting with a zoom into a few creative techniques that set it apart from using a conventional lens:

Compression – Using the lens to stack elements in the frame, creating dramatic depth and visual tension.
Details – Isolating small, often overlooked parts of a scene that would be lost with a wider focal length.
Reach – Getting to places and subjects that would be physically impossible (or at least uncomfortable) to approach with a non-zoom lens.

Compression

A long lens has a unique visual effect: it compresses space, making objects appear closer together than they really are. The three photos below illustrate this effect in different ways.

The first image: You’d need at least an 85mm lens to achieve these proportions (I believe this particular shot was taken at around 120mm). But the overall effect is make server, the light and the patron appear much closer than they are in real life giving the image a cinematic quality.
The second image: A photo from Maria’s Metropolis series. Here, she uses a zoom to flatten the background, creating the illusion that the street is far more crowded than it actually was. The people seem unnaturally close together, which adds a clever and engaging sense of visual tension.
The third image: Those red ropes hanging by the glass appear impossibly thick—almost like cables. The woman’s nose looks like it’s nearly touching the window. I wasn’t there when this was shot, but I’d bet the compression effect played a big role in creating that illusion of extreme proximity.

Details

Another area where the zoom lens shines is in creating uniquely detailed compositions thanks to its reach. It allows the photographer to frame scenes in ways that would be extremely difficult—if not impossible—to achieve candidly in street photography.

Shot 1: This one speaks for itself—the top deck of a double-decker bus. Try getting that angle with a 28mm lens!
Shot 2: The use of compression here makes the No Smoking sign appear much closer to the hand holding the cigarette. And the reach of the zoom gave Maria the time and distance she needed to frame it perfectly, capturing the only details that were needed making this a perfect minimalist composition and really selling the juxtaposition.
Shot 3: This image makes us feel like we’re sitting right in the passenger seat next to the driver. It completely flips the tired cliché that zooms create emotional distance. On the contrary, we couldn’t feel closer—only the car window seems to separate us from hearing the stereo or feeling the blast from the heater.

Reach

These images are only possible thanks to the exceptional reach of the lens.

Image 1: Taken during the filming of a scene in Manchester, where barriers made it impossible to get a decent shot with a conventional lens. (Trust me—I was bored shitless with my 28mm!) The side effect of the zoom’s compression and perceptual distortion gives the image a surreal, almost otherworldly quality.
Image 2: Shot at 120mm through a narrow slit in a window, this one creates a fantastic, semi-abstract composition. The compression of the long focal length, paired with a wide f/1.8 aperture, adds a pleasing bokeh that softens the scene beautifully.
Image 3: No explanation needed. The sheer reach of a zoom makes otherwise impossible shots suddenly accessible—and this is where Maria’s work really shines. She captures scenes from just about anywhere she chooses to plant her feet, elevating her images to something you simply don’t see every day.

Summary

Photography is art—and street photography is a strange little niche beneath that broad umbrella.

What frustrates me most about this niche is the sheer amount of dogma that surrounds it. That frustration is what inspired me to write this article: to show some love to the humble zoom lens, and to remind people that any lens is just a tool.

Whether you choose to shoot close or far, that choice is yours. It’s also your decision whether to use your gear as a crutch—be it a 28mm to blend in with the crowd, or a zoom to stand apart from it.

The next time you pick up a lens—whatever it may be—remember: it’s just a lens.
And a lens shouldn’t come with ideologies, propaganda, or baggage. It’s a tool. That’s all.

It’s your glass paintbrush, and your camera’s sensor is your canvas (we don’t talk about film shooters on this blog 😆).

So whatever lens you choose, use it well. Learn it like the back of your hand.
And if you do that… maybe, just maybe, an artist you’ll be.

James . 28/05/2019 James . 28/05/2019

Blog Post Title One

It all begins with an idea.

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