RT Panther
All-Pro
Obviously, I can't speak for how anybody else shoots. It's possible that some street photographers specifically target homeless folks and shoot a number of them to get the right shot. I constantly observe a lot of people on the street looking for interactions, situations, expressions, gestures, whatever, that looks like it might say something in a photograph about that individual or that couple or the human condition in general. In some situations I specifically try to avoid shooting the homeless for reasons discussed previously. In other situations, if they're just among the swirl of people out on the sidewalks I don't specifically aim for them or aim to miss them - they're just like everyone else to me in those situations. But as you can see from my Flickr stream, the number of shots involving the homeless that actually make it that far is EXTREMELY limited.
To me, the whole exercise feels nothing like I envision the paparazzi shooting experience, where you're doing everything possible to get the payoff shot of a particular celebrity or celebrity couple or possibly celebrity event. You know WHO you want to shoot and what you're after. Any street photographer I've communicated with is looking at the whole area with radar attuned to as many people as you can take in waiting for someone or some group of people do do something interesting that might make for a photograph that says something, that tells a story. The people are the stars of the show, but you don't a have a clue who's gonna be in your next photo from shot to shot - they just present themselves. It's much more of a spontaneous sort of a thing and far less pre-meditated than it sounds like you're thinking of. At least, again, in my case. There are a lot of people out there shooting and I'm sure everyone approaches it a little bit (or a LOT) differently. So I can only really speak for myself...
-Ray
Great civil conversation on a touch subject Ray & thanks for your perspective! (At the moment, I've said everything that I've wanted to say)