You don't have to follow in your favourite street photography Youtuber's footsteps and invest in the latest full-frame flagship and lens. They're wonderful if you can afford one and know how to get the most out of that sensor, but for the most part, see Rules 3 and 4.

An exaggeration, but when learning, don't crowd your creative space with whether the shot you're taking would be better with the other lenses or cameras in your bag. Take one camera out with you. Take the shot. If it's not there, come back when it is and accept that you can't control the world around you.

Film is becoming more expensive but if this is an accessible option, you can find 35mm SLR cameras in charity shops all over the place, and processing is more available than ever. Shooting film in general will help you Rule 8, but it will also teach you the exposure triangle and how to control light in your shots, and if you can do this on film then it becomes simple with digital too. 

Become more present in your surroundings, whether you're shooting or not.

Not every moment is a moment worth capturing. Being present in your surroundings doesn't mean walking around with your trigger cocked, but instead knowing what moments are worth pressing the shutter for and being ready when they happen. Again, the best camera to use is the camera you have with you, if that happens to be your phone, get the shot anyway. You don't have to use it but it helps train your eye and in some cases is a good reference for a future location to return to.

If it doesn't appeal to you, doesn't improve your shots, or simply confuses you, you don't have to shoot colour. You don't owe the colourful scene you're shooting anything. Colour has always felt muddy to me, personally. I love beautiful colour grading, but it is not my strength and not what I enjoy shooting. Eliminating it as an option leaves me feeling free to see and capture the images I want to capture. I shoot with my camera in the monochrome profile and shoot with the intention of a black and white outcome, which I would recommend even if you shoot colour or want to improve your black and white shots. This helps you control the absolute fundamental part of the image, light. If you shoot in RAW, these files will be colour when they reach your editing software and you can then edit them to black and white, if you shoot JPEGs they will remain black and white.

At this point, if you're shooting digital and you're camera has a viewfinder, you're seeing what's on the screen anyway. If the light is bright it can be easier to make out your scene but if you wear glasses as I do then they become almost impossible to use regardless. Above all else, glueing the camera to your eye restricts movement and angles. You'll likely shoot in a range from head height to kneeling as anything else means lying down or gaining a higher vantage point. Practice taking the camera away from your face, look at the screen, don't look at the screen, wave your arm in the air like you just don't care. Most of us see the world from head height every single day, find a new angle.

Harsh but true. Talking to more people and becoming used to that interaction will help but if this doesn't come naturally, you will always feel slightly uncomfortable with the feeling of invasiveness that sometimes comes with street photography. Try looking for different subjects, or for example, find interesting light and wait for a subject to enter the scene. People walking into the scene feel like the invader if you were there first and will often apologise for walking in front of the camera. You don't have to be shoving a lens in someone's face to be a street photographer.

It's not edgy, especially if you're commercialising the photos. Stop, have a chat, give them some money and buy them some food. Don't put a camera in their face. 

The phrase "90% camera, 10% edit" is thrown around a lot, implying that the shot should be 90% right straight out of camera and editing should be the chef's kiss. Throw that notion out the window. Get the essential 10% that you can't edit afterwards correct in camera. Composition (scene and correct subject) and desired exposure. What does or doesn't come after this step is what defines you as the photographer, especially if you're not shooting on film and have extensive post-production options at your fingertips. See Rule 18.

Whether it's only taking one camera and lens out with you when you shoot or working to streamline your editing process, simplifying and taking away these distractions will leave you with more creative space. It may be 90% edit, but the edit doesn't need to be tedious and overworked. 

Don't believe anyone who says you can and most certainly Rule 17.

Not just film emulation. Learn how to edit photos in a way that is appealing to you. If you do buy presets, use them as a starting point or a learning tool. See Rule 18.

A quote hated by people who say modern art isn't art. What you see is what YOU see. You can't control what others see in your work. Sometimes the art isn't in what you've shot, but in what someone else sees or feels when looking at what you've shot.

Yes, there are times when f1.4 is beautiful, especially if the subject you're isolating in focus is the focus of the scene, but oftentimes closing the aperture puts that subject in the context of the rest of the scene and tells more of a story.

Need I say more?

See Rule 21.

Crop, edit, learn, return. Photography, and more specifically your visual style, is a journey and so are your images, no image is necessarily final and if it can be improved upon in a way that makes it more pleasing to you, improve upon it.

A quote that has been reused hundreds of times over and often misunderstood. Imitation alone is not art. Art is the personal influence you put on the inspiration you take from the ideas and techniques of other artists you admire, which causes your work to stand entirely alone from theirs. Seek out photographers, artists and creatives whose work you enjoy, understand what it is about their work that inspires you and how you can implement their visual language in your own. 

TBC