Question for street photographers

"Street photography" is a specific photographic genre characterized by the use of wide-angle lenses (in order to isolate the subject from his/her environment), shots usually in black & white, and with a lot of contrast (with very deep shadows). In many cases, it seems to be a tribute to great photographers of the past who just had B&W films and poor resolution lenses...

But like any style, is is renewed by innovative people (like sgoldswo) who think that these "rules" should be broken.

But since your question seems to be addressed to people who take candid photos on the street (rather than people doing "Street photography), I'll try to answer your question.

During my vacations, I like to do "Documentary photography". Among my shots, some will testify how people are dressed, what they eat, how they behave on the street, etc.

In certain Countries (in Québec and in France) it's illegal to take photos without the explicit consent of the people appearing in your shots. In other Countries, it's not illegal but people are more and more reluctant to be photographed. Lastly, in countries like China, most people don't mind or are flattered to be photographed.

When it's not illegal, I like to take one day at the beginning of my trip to take candid shots, in order to avoid shots in which people are smiling doing a "V" with their fingers.

To do that, my favorite lens is the M.Zuiko 12mm (but the new M.Zuiko 17mm can also do the job). I put the manual/automatic mode-switching ring to "manual", put the distance scale to 6 feet and hold the camera at waist level; by experience, the shot will be clear from a minimal distance between 3,8 to 4,7 feet and a maximum distance of 8,2 to 14,9 feet. That's enough to isolate the subject from its environment which is never totally blurred with that lens (just not perfectly sharp).

For example. these are 15 shots at the end of the following article (in French) done this way:
http://jpmartel.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/voyage-a-la-havane-deuxieme-jour/