Brooklyn Private Photo Tours

Street Photography Workshops

Explore Brooklyn with a Street Photographer and Life-long New Yorker

Are you visiting the city – or are you a local who just wants to explore?

Want to see the sites, cityscapes, and capture the people of Brooklyn – or do you want to learn the tips and tricks of a street photographer?

Custom Brooklyn Photo Tours

*All tours customizable to your specific needs.

3-Hour Photo Tour: 295 USD

 

Printed and emailed gift certificates available.

Contact James to set up a custom photo tour.

Capture Real Brooklyn

Visit off-the-beaten-path locations and see aspects of Brooklyn that would be hard to explore on your own.

In addition to being a professional photographer, James is also a certified city history guide, so you will also learn about the history of the neighborhoods, people, and architecture.

All Brooklyn photography tours are customized to your skill level, interests, and schedule, and are private for you and your traveling group.

And when you schedule a workshop, you will also receive James’ downloadable e-books, The Essentials of Street Photography and Street Photography Conversations.

Gallery

James Maher BioAbout James: James grew up in New York and currently lives in Sunset Park Brooklyn, with his wife an young son. Like many New Yorkers, he is a terrible driver and cook, but he’s an excellent navigator.

He has been exploring and capturing a wide variety of the city since he first picked up a camera, has worked as a portrait and commercial photographer since 2005, has had a regular neighborhood feature for the NY Daily News with street portraits and interviews with locals, and is a certified NY tour and workshop guide.

James is the author of The Essentials of Street Photography and The New York Photographer’s Travel Guide.

Read James’ article on exploring and photographing New York, featured in Digital Photographer Magazine.

Watch at 10-minute documentary about James’ work:

 

Most popular Brooklyn itineraries:

Route 1 (3-hour): This tour focuses on Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront, the Sunset Park, and Greenwood neighborhoods. It’s an amazing, beat-up, and beautiful area of old factories of all types, old buildings, quirky things, a defunct railway, and most importantly a gorgeous waterfront with incredible views of Manhattan (and a great waterfront Park to see them from). We also visit the iconic Green-Wood cemetery, one of the most beautiful places in New York, located at the highest point in Brooklyn, with incredible views of the city.

Route 2 (3-hour): Explore the Bushwick and Williamsburg neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with some of the most incredible street art in the city. Capture the spirit of these areas and the quirks of the neighborhoods with both old homes, factories, and businesses, and new trendy buildings, boutiques, and sites. This route has a huge variety of things to photograph.

I also offer custom routes depending on your interests, including straight street photography sessions.

Bennett StewartBennett Stewart
22:33 04 Oct 21
We had a group of six take a photo tour of SOHO and Chinatown with James. He took us on a route that gave us a bounty of opportunities for great shots of people and places. He also peppered the talk with running commentary and background info and very useful photo tips. He helped me take some very good candid shots of New Yorkers I could not have done without him. Highly recommended,
Linda Burton RicksLinda Burton Ricks
00:11 03 Oct 21
Excellent street photography workshop as well as cultural, architectural and points of interest lessons. This was a present for my photographer husband and I got to tag along. James gave recommendations to him via email ahead of time so he could make the most of their time together. Great way to see neighborhoods of NYC in a new way. Thank you, James, for a wonderful experience. We look forward to exploring more of the city through your lenses.
Michael AgostaMichael Agosta
19:09 26 Sep 21
James is both an excellent photographer and knowledgeable tour guide. I lived in NYC for 4 years a longish while back, but rediscovered parts of lower Manhattan from a photographer's eyes, which I found fascinating. His tours are great, and he's also just a fascinating guy to spend a couple of hours with. Street photographers often see what the casual observer will miss...I leaned toward photography as a hobby because it helped capture memories from the countries I've been able to visit, but also to see the world around me more thoroughly, more carefully. I needed a nudge to start taking street photographs. James provided that nudge.
James has been an incredibly attentive, knowledgeable and patient teacher. I really enjoyed our lessons together and have greatly improved my confidence with the camera. I would recommend James to anyone looking to learn photography.
Saif AltayyarSaif Altayyar
05:01 17 Aug 21
I'm so glad I found James to take photos of my proposal. He's super communicative and has a great eye! He even guided me to other great spots in Central Park for photos afterwards. 10/10 recommend to anyone looking for a talented photographer.
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What we can cover:

  • Off-the-beaten-path locations and iconic views
  • Fantastic locations for photographing people
  • Camera and photography education for all skill levels
  • Street photography techniques
  • Capturing street portraits
  • Camera settings and zone focusing
  • Storytelling with photography
  • Learning about the neighborhoods so you can best photograph them
  • And everything is tailored to your skill level and interests!

 

 

Let’s talk about you

Where would you like to go and what would you like to learn? My favorite part of this job is getting to know people from around the world and seeing how they photograph New York!

I hope to be able to meet you.

 

Contact

[email protected]

(917) 494-6712

 

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