Wednesday 9 October 2013

Exercise 15 - A Public Place


What: The main brief of this exercise was to photograph people in a public place, trying to capture them as they interact with their surroundings.
Where: North Berwick, Outdoors
When: Afternoon on a mild overcast day.
How: I decided at random to pick a nearby beach and visit hoping to capture more than people sitting in cars or walking their dogs.

Having completed the previous exercise I was quite upbeat going into this exercise; having learnt that unless I give myself a time limit I will move about too much for too long and then end up in pain for two or three days. Again I gave myself a time window and an area to work in; this time at the beach which was luckliy for me quite busy.
When I arrived I found that there was a sailing competition on, but the boats were about a mile out from the bay as so were well out of range as well out of my remit. As I walked along the beach I regularly changed lenses and photographed in a number of different styles. Again shooting from the hip was a bit hit and miss but I had much for confidence in my work.
I was very pleased by a number of shots as not only was I looking for people interacting with the locale but I was also photographing them as they interacted with each other, I was also pleased by the number of different activities that I could spot.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 70mm (35mm equivalent 105mm), aperture f8, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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I spotted this couple walking past and what caught eye was that she was not wearing any shoes and she appeared not to be carrying any.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 98mm (35mm equivalent 147mm), aperture f4.8, speed 1/350 second, ISO 100, Cloudy white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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They appeared to be having different experiences of the beach whilst being together.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/125 second, ISO 100, Cloudy white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 75mm (35mm equivalent 112mm), aperture f4.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Cloudy white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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I am really pleased with this shot, the subject is relaxed an unaware that she is being photographed even though she is only a few feet away. Her hair caught in the wind leads into the image and he stands out against the background without the lens bokeh being too much to distract the eye from her.

I saw this youngster walking along the beach behind his guardian and he would pick up and set down a handful of dried seaweed as he went. He was completely caught up in his investigation of what he had in his hands.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 195mm (35mm equivalent 292mm), aperture f5.3, speed 1/500 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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This child on the other hand was in full industrial mode, building sandcastles and hills of sand as he went.

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

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I was slightly disappointed in this photograph of the dog "Rocky" and his owner, having used the wide angle lens at a lowish angle I had to try and straighten the perspective as the lens created a tilt away from me.
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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Shade white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Even when I “corrected” the tilt in the image, it still does not look quite right. However it does capture that happiness in the owner and his pleasantness.

I was a little happier with this image, although it is slightly cropped, as for some reason as yet unknown the conical petal shaped lens hood was shown at the outer corners of the image causing a vignette of the image.


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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 100, Shade white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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As I moved along the beach I noticed that this person was wading along the breakers on the beach, not once did he come out of the sea but walked along with his waders in the water.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 70mm (35mm equivalent 105mm), aperture f8, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Cloudy white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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I am pleased with the colours in this image as the sea reflects the colour of his waders and the sky reflects the colours of the shallow water. It was not until I reviewed the image that I noticed that he was wearing a set of headphones and was listening to something other than the sound of the beach

As we moved to the end of the beach, we reached the shallow pool built in Victorian times, which is now mainly used by dog owners for allowing the dogs to play felt the ball in the water.

There were however a couple who stood close by, who were picking seashells up from the beach.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 210mm (35mm equivalent 315mm), aperture f8, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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I could have spent all day in the area just watching and photographing people; what I have started to notice from the teaching from this part of the course is the number of different activities that people can partake of in one area and how the interact with each other and their surroundings.

Overall lessons learning as I go into the Assignment; relax, watch and photograph with care, do not photograph randomly and in a hurry and hope that something will fit the brief. It has been a good boost to my experience and confidence. I feel a lot happier and much more confident photographing outdoors than before I started.


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