Urban photography

At the Exposure 2011 photo show yesterday, I listened to Sam Javanrouh speak about street photography.  I have an interest in street photography but apparently not strong enough for me to go out there and take pictures everyday as Sam does.  A few tips I recall he mentioned were the following:

1. Shoot first, then ask--if you see action in front of you, just shoot it first then (if the subject is a person) ask for permission to post online.  Do you really need to ask for permission though?  If it is a public space, everything should be fair game but this is a hot topic on the web.  Some would argue for asking permission and some would argue against.
2. Wherever you go, even if it is to a local variety store to pick up some milk, carry a camera with you.  It is easy enough to carry a phone with a camera these days so this should not be difficult for anyone.  If however you have a DSLR, pictures can turn out better.  Would you carry a DSLR wherever you go?  I used to carry my DSLR in my backpack everywhere I go but decided to leave it at home after a while as it started to feel heavy on my shoulders--however, if the purpose is to take photos everyday, I would say go nuts and carry the DSLR (almost) everywhere you go.
3. One of the best time to shoot is just after the rain.  It is interesting that he should mention that because one of photos I took of a building right after the rain happened to be used as a banner on a university academic department website.  The lustre created by the rain can be very beautiful.
4. Always expose for the sky.  This is the same tip that this author also gave in a book Chris suggested (I cannot remember the title or the author's name offhandedly).
5. Images are "made"--if you can, shoot RAW all the time. Images with blown highlights might be recoverable.  Your camera in RAW mode captures a lot more data than in JPEG mode.  Sam would photoshop the image by bringing out the details of parts of an image by using layers and bringing all the part back into a final composite.

This year's show was interesting because of the special speakers they brought in.  The usual speakers were there too.  Chris Bogner is always at the show, although I did not hear him speak yesterday.  The Star always has their photojournalists speaking, etc.