Street photography rewards being ready to shoot instantly, since the moments that make the genre worthwhile don't wait for you to adjust settings.
The biggest difference between a productive street session and a frustrating one usually isn't skill — it's whether the camera was already set up for fast, low-friction shooting before stepping outside. Fumbling with settings while a moment happens in front of you means the moment is simply gone.
A light kit matters more here than in almost any other genre: one body, one or two lenses, and nothing else to carry or think about. Street photography is also one of the few genres where knowing local norms and legal boundaries around photographing strangers in public is genuinely part of preparation, not an afterthought.
None of this needs to be elaborate — a fast shutter-priority or manual baseline, one main lens, and a settled sense of the neighborhood or event you're heading into is usually enough to spend the whole session reacting to what's in front of you instead of your own gear.
A few things to plan for