Resident iman, Yadz, Iran
Fujifilm X-T3, XF8-16mmF2.8 R LM WR, f4.5 @ 1/1900 second, ISO 160

So, you’ve accepted you’re a chicken when it comes to taking people photos. You’re good at some things, but walking up to people and asking to take their photo is not one of them – what’s the solution?

As travel photographers, including a local personality within the frame helps set the scene and tell the story. People are important compositional elements for a travel portfolio, so somehow we need to develop techniques to help us photograph people.

One technique I use is the ambush. It works best when you have an interesting scene which could be improved by including one or more people. So strictly speaking it’s more of an environmental portrait than a portrait, but who cares – we get to include a person!

Step one is to find an interesting location. In a mosque in the centre of Yadz in Iran, the courtyard is surrounded by corridors with wonderful pointed archways. By standing back, I could frame the courtyard and the opposite corridor within the arch and while a nice composition, it needed a point of interest.

And what better point of interest than an iman or cleric walking past in their flowing robes, or perhaps some locals with their head scarfs and (very often) black leather shoes. So step two is to be patient and wait. Take the photo when the person is in a pleasing position – and usually try to time the shot so their body is interestingly posed.

The main problem you will find is that human traffic draws to a standstill as soon as you want a person in your photo. (If you want a shot without any people, of course there’s no chance either!) So, I stayed in this location for 15 minutes and photographed maybe half a dozen people as they walked by. I doubt they even noticed I was there.

The trick is not to raise the camera to your eye as your subject approaches you or walks into position. If you already have the camera to your eye photographing a scene and they walk into it, they usually don’t realise they are the subject. Sometimes they will walk around you because they are being considerate and obviously that doesn’t help you. But if you’re prepared to wait a little longer, invariably in a city location, someone will walk into your scene and your ambush will be successful.

And if you get caught?