Exercise 11 - Standing Back (Project Medium Telephoto)

What: The main brief of this exercise was to find a comfortable situation and concentrate on photographing people in “action” without attracting their attention

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Morning and Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: I had a route planned that I wanted to travel so that I had enough time to locate a photograph subjects that I found interesting.

Having previously used a telephoto lens to photograph people unaware I was reasonably comfortable that I could obtain the objectives of the exercise.

This time around however I did not have the advantage of a slightly higher position to photograph from. This meant that I had to negotiate the foot traffic of passing people and hope that during the photograph that they did not travel though the frame blocking the view.

The extra distance did allow for framing however there were a number of immediate disadvantages, a lower position meant that the frame could be interfered with by items in the foreground as well as items in the background. I did find that I had to “hunt” positions where I could photograph from. Also being low to the ground meant that people did not always see me and occasionally they would walk into me or push me out of the way. When this happened I had to stop and martial my confidence again before bringing the camera back up to my eye.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

One of the first problems I encountered was that the foreground was not always as clear as I wanted it to be, as in this case I had a metal fence between myself and the subjects. I tried to use the circles and top bar of the fence to draw the eye into the frame, but I am not sure if I succeeded.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I also found that I quickly lost the bright light, and that personally the weight of the camera and lens was too much when it was being hand held.

I found that this interfered slightly with composition and framing.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/350 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

It did however allow for the opportunity to locate and isolate subjects. In this case the subject was handing out leaflets to passing foot traffic and from his expression I could see that it was not fulfilling. I would have preferred to have a f-stop or two more to allow me to isolate him from his background but the long focal length is enough to enhance the focus onto the individual.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Again the practical difficulty of maintaining a steady hand caused a few problems, on review of a number of images, I found that the camera when set on continuous focus sometimes suddenly adjusted the focus when someone moved into the bottom or side of the frame, this along with struggling to maintain focus on the original subject due to shaking hands and arms meant that I lost the choice of image that I wanted. Here while tracking the walking woman from left to right the camera wanted to refocus on the subjects who entered the frame from the bottom.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I did find that passers-by and traffic sometimes either blocked the view or entered the frame just as I was setting off the shutter, therefore spoiling the image. In those cases I just had to start again.  Once or twice I found myself being knocked by a passer-by causing me to lose balance and lose the shot.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

The great advantage of course is that I could pick and choose my subjects without their knowledge allowing for natural un-posed images

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/500 second, ISO 200, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Overall I enjoyed the exercise, as it allowed me to pick and isolate my subject matter without interfering in their actions. I found it allowed me to be more creative in selection of subject matter and in finding a good shooting position and work from it rather than having to get right into the subject and lose my own personal focus as I have to become more focused on ensuring that I am not knocked over.

Exercise 10 - Capturing the Moment

What: The main brief of this exercise was to attempt to capture the moment.

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: Previously I had passed this location and noticed a lot of activity. Knowing that this exercise was coming up I noted the location and decided to return to see if it was still busy and whether or not it would be suitable for the exercise.

I used a combination of a 50mm prime lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens.

Although in all of the images I picked out when I reviewed them, the telephoto lens images stood out, as I feel that each image captured the particular moment that I was looking for.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

This gent was striding along the street; his hurried movements caught my eye as everyone else was strolling along. He was deep in thought and I wanted to capture his expression.

Moving along to my intended area, I found that it was not as busy as the previous visit, probably due to it being on a Sunday and the park entrances were taken over by a local newspaper promoting the golf competition which was happening locally.

I found a quiet location and watched people interact with the news sellers, as well as the interaction of the selling team itself.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 135mm (35mm equivalent 202mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 230mm (35mm equivalent 345mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Manual white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 165mm (35mm equivalent 247mm), aperture f5.0, speed 1/500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I watched a number of people taking part in tutored golf lessons, while watching some of the people I decided I wanted to capture some of the movements of the golfers and the tutors as they worked together.

This movement from the golfer as she is about to start on her backswing a hit the ball into the net was the one movement I was trying to capture from her.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 230mm (35mm equivalent 345mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Watching the tutors I spotted that they spent a lot of time demonstrating their interpretations of the movements of the golfers. This tutor spent a couple of minutes demonstrating foot positions. His movements were like a little dance and I wanted to capture his twist as he moved his feet.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 270mm (35mm equivalent 405mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 200, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

This tutor was showing the golfer the right position to hold the club during the swing, this was the best of the images I captured as I wanted both of them to be focused on the end of the club.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 155mm (35mm equivalent 232mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 200, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

While the golfers were being tutored people continued to walk through the park. I captured this couple in discussion as they passed through the park ignoring the golfers around them.

 I was surprised to find that I had chosen exclusively images captured using the telephoto lens. I feel that it made it easier to monitor and predict the movements of the subjects as well as allowing me time to monitor and compose the image that I wanted. 

Exercise 9 Revisited

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take a number of photographs of people gathered together in an outdoor situation

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Morning and Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: I had a route planned that I wanted to travel so that I had enough time to locate a photograph subjects that I found interesting.

Having taken a break for several months due to the ongoing progression of my ill health, I decided that I should revisit this exercise and start where I left off.

This time around my confidence was a lot lower; I am uncomfortable directly approaching people and talking them into allowing me to take a photograph. I felt however that I really needed to start rebuilding my confidence again, so I did a mixture of people unaware and people that I approached and spoke to.

As we travelled the route I spoke to people as well as photographed them using a combination of a 50mm prime lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens. I tried not to use the telephoto lens where I could, but occasionally I had to be out of the main thoroughfare to avoid being knocked over.

It was quite a challenge using the 50mm lens and not to attract the attention of the people being photographed. However as the day progressed my confidence rose as I worked through the exercise as I felt happier talking the photos.

To begin with I found a sitting position where I had 360 degrees of view; I could see quite a distance and because I was sitting away from the main thoroughfare I was comfortable enough to sit with the camera and watch people as they went about their day.

As people passed, I was able to see them come into view and I was able to frame them in the cameras view finder and wait until they became well composed within the view finder. The longer that I sat there the more people started to ignore me and allow me to point the camera in their direction.

When using the 50mm lens, I did not want too great a depth of field but at the same time I did not want it to be razor thin. I decided on an aperture of f/2.8 as I knew that I could obtain the depth of field that I wanted without isolating the subject from their surroundings.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 160, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 160, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I was surprised by how close I could be to the subjects without them knowing that I was choosing them for the image.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I noticed a large number of people who were either concentrating on their mobile phone or talking on their mobile phone and was at this point that I realised that a lot of people were very involved in their own “thing” and had were not really paying attention to what was going on around them.

I decided that for a couple of shots I would focus on the people in my immediate surroundings

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/1500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I was surprised to find that I could photograph people who were in fact quite close to me, and who had been sitting close by for a while and who were no ignoring the fact that I was photographing individuals and were giving their implicit trust and permission.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

Having become very comfortable with the concept of photographing people again, I moved on down the street into a local market full of German produce.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/3000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/60 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I could see that some of the stall owners were initially watching me as I lifted the camera to my eye, but then just went back about their business. Everyone appeared to be quite happy that I was not intruding and did not notice that I was picking out who I wanted to photograph.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

After that I moved onto the main street and continued to photograph.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

To begin with I did feel uncomfortable and mostly photographed people side on as they passed as I did not want to attract too much attention, but as I carried on I found myself standing in front of people attempting to catch their expressions. As I gained a little confidence I was happy to see that most people were not too bothered that they were being photographed and some were oblivious at being photographed.

I tried to capture some gestures but did not manage much as lot of people were either on their own or too busy with their own thoughts.