Why shoot wife, friends, grandpa, grandma not considered street? Normal comments from people new to doing street photography  is that they have to overcome the discomfort of shooting strangers up close using 35mm or 50mm lens. No teles, no zooms. You are not more than 4ft to 6ft away from your subject.

You try to catch your subject without them catching you in the act of taking their pics. Most of the time people are ok with their picture being taken. Sometimes they do monkey poses when you are spotted and you feel like an idiot.  At most, they are annoyed.  On the rare occasion, the person might get pissed off and scold you or even chase you.

If you take pics of familiar people, that discomfort level isn't there. You know the people, and you could even pose them. Then what's the point of it all. Like cheating no?

You also notice another "rule" above which is no teles, no zoom. All unwritten of course. You could use a 200mm and snipe from far away and claim it as street, but deep inside you know it ain't so. I didn't make up these rules. There is a pdf somewhere on the net by the Chairman of the Council of Street Photographers America (Chris Weeks) which sets the gold standard for street pics. I kid you not!! (Ok maybe a bit). 

The purist got video liao... no need read wall of text.

http://vimeo.com/6497905