In a slump. Can't seem to shake it. Feels like anxious ennui if that makes any sense. Debilitating. Painful.
But "slumps are for chumps" so think I'll have a beer and a grilled cheese sandwich while I watch a re-run of Monk... and then hit the streets.
ZIP IT UP. I know of a cameraman that absent mindedly slung an unzipped bag over his shoulder and dumped a grand worth of glass on the sidewalk. NEVER leave a camera in an unzipped bag. 
LEASH LAW. Use a leash, and if you use a longish one like I do, then it's a good idea to run it between thumb and forefinger. This shortens the drop if it should slip out of your hand and lessens the odds it could bang into something like a door. 
DOORS are DANGEROUS. Always stop and take a second to protect your camera when going through a doorway. Establish good habits.
bOngo sez: "Leash ON Zip UP Watch OUT".
Introducing Pajama Street Photography (special thanks to John Brownlow who turned me on to GOOGLE-MAPS Steroid Edition and Larry Gustafson a fellow founding father of PSP). Troll the streets with keyboard arrow keys until you find the "decisive moment" or more accurately the "pre-decided" moment, then jockey for the best angle and squeezed off a screen capture - sweeten with Photoshop and..
It's a Street Photography simulator - Methadone for street shooters.
"Building the Wall" a PajamaStreet Capture by bONGO.
After a few rounds, Muhammad Ali would drop his gloves, offer his chin as target and never get hit. Having spent countless hours in the ring sparring, Ali had become an expert at one thing that would seperate him from all boxers that had come before or were to come after. He had become an expert at estimating distances.
If you are to float down the street and shoot from the hip, then you too must become an expert at estimating distances. And to do that you must hit the bricks and train, burn frames until you know exactly what distance to be and what camera angle to maintain to get a full body shot of a passerby.
No decapitations. No toe chops. Head and toes baby... float like a butterfly.
It seems that just about every street photographer goes through a bum phase. After you've photographed a hundred shoppers zipping around with white plastic bags and smokers lined up against walls the bums start to look pretty interesting. 
But is it right, is it conscionable? These people are down on their luck. But should you only photograph lucky people? Beautiful happy successful people? What about old people? Old people are easy to snap. They don't move fast. They can't chase you. They have "interesting" faces, and like bums they tend to be helpless and vunarable.
My point is that rather than ban an entire class of people, consider the individual and the particular given situation. And if it feels like exploitation then it is. It's a gut check, a "snap" decision -you may not always get it right - but then when do we?
