A place to explore and learn street and documentary photography.

Welcome to  zonefocus.net  - a place to learn all about street and documentary photography. 

My name is Steve Dimitriadis and I am a photographer from the inner city suburb of Glebe, in Sydney, Australia.  I created this site to share my street and documentary learning experience with other, like-minded photographers.  On this site I hope to help photographers who are interested in documenting the people and places around them to discover, explore and learn about street and documentary photography.  

Several years back, in the first week that I discovered this thing called street photography, I took my camera and walked out the door with the aim of just walking the neighbourhood and trying to document the world around me. I was amazed at the freedom and enjoyment that I found by just meandering around looking for photographs. 

As someone who normally would take a swag of kit to a location and specifically ‘do photography’ the freedom of a random photo walk documenting what I saw was really just an amazing feeling - like seeing my city with a fresh set of eyes and for the first time. 

Then somewhere along the way I took this photo, and I was hooked. I realised I could freeze a slice of ordinary life, and that ordinary life was extraordinary.

Couple kissing with onlooker giggling

From that moment on I threw myself into learning all that I could about documenting the world around me in the style that is commonly called street photography (I‘m not big on that label but it's the easiest way to explain how and what I photograph).  I am of course still on that journey but I’ve already had some of the most rewarding experiences of my photographic life, including meeting and photographing fascinating strangers on the street, discovering the streets of my city chasing light, meeting interesting fellow photographers, and even photographing my childhood heroes and being published in print.  All because I chose to always have a camera with me and be open to new possibilities.

I have lots to share with you.

For street and documentary photographers there are many challenges to tackle - developing a style, photographic composition, locations, technique, camera settings, gear, history, approach, ethics, printing and promoting our work to name a few.  We will discuss all of those things here on zonefocus.net.  I believe in life we are always learning so along the way I hope to share what I learn, write about how I feel about the images I make and hopefully have my readers learn a little more about street and documentary photography as well.

Like most of you, I’ve got other commitments - a full-time job, a family - and I want to go out and shoot as often as possible. So generally I will be posting 1-2 times a week on a range of topics dedicated to learning, sharing news and discussing street and documentary photography, and I want to take you along on the journey with me.

I’d love it if you would subscribe by entering your first name and email address in the box below.  

I hope to grow a community around this site and have some exciting plans in store for the future. For now though, subscribing will mean that you will be notified of any new posts.  I promise I will never sell your information and it will be completely secure.  

Finally, I'd love to get your feedback on ideas for topics to discuss and explore, as well as any questions or help you need.  What are your biggest questions about street and documentary photography and how can we work through them together? Drop me a line here and let me know.

Again, welcome to zonefocus.net where we seek the extraordinary in the ordinary.