There are two fundamental approaches to street photography. Most photographers do both without knowing it. Making the distinction conscious helps you do each one better.

Hunting is active. You move through the city. You are looking for subjects, situations, light — whatever you are after that day. You turn down streets on instinct. You follow someone for a block because something about them interests you. You cover ground. The advantage of hunting is exposure to volume: more streets, more people, more potential photographs. The disadvantage is surface depth — you see a lot, but you rarely see any one thing thoroughly.

Fishing is patient. You identify a good spot — a corner with interesting light, a doorway where people pause, a market stall that creates natural compositions — and you stay. You let the scene come to you. You learn the rhythms of the place. You see the same background ten times with different people moving through it. The advantage of fishing is depth: you understand a space, and when the right element enters it, you are ready. The disadvantage is commitment — a bad spot is an expensive mistake.

The best street photographers know how to switch modes. They hunt to find the spot, then fish once they have it. Some sessions are better as pure hunts. Early mornings in a new city — hunt. A market you know well — fish.

Signs you need to hunt more: your work is shallow, lots of variety, no recurring themes or places, no sense of a body of work.

Signs you need to fish more: you rush through locations, your timing is off, you miss the peak moment because you arrived after it.

The point: both approaches make photographs. Only one of them builds an understanding of a place.