Sunday 7 March 2010

Exercise 8

What: The brief of this exercise was to start the process of thinking about the practical process of composing a photograph.
Where: Farmers Market, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh
When: Just after noon. The weather was dry but cold.
How: As part of the exercise process, I held the camera to my eye and then started to photograph the people at the market, recomposing the photograph as I went without removing the camera from my eye. In this manner I photographed and recomposed until I got a photograph that I was happy with.

I started at the top of the stairs at the rear of the market and took the first photograph looking towards the stalls. Looking at the traders and customers I used the telephoto lens to zoom into the stall.



The second photo in this sequence, I shot part of the way as I zoomed in towards the stall. I continued to zoom in so that I could get a better photo of what was going on.


I then started to focus and compose on the customer at the staff as he purchased his food.


I was happy with this final photo of the sequence as I felt that I had the balance was right in the photo, between the customers and their background.



The second sequence is the composition of the mounted policemen who were coming through the park behind where I was standing.

The first photo was just as I held the camera up to my eye and I has the mounted policemen in the frame of the viewfinder.

I then followed their movement through the gate and I zoomed about half way in, as they were now coming into a good position where I could fill the frame with their presence.
As I composed for the final photo I took this photo, looking back at the sequence, it may have been better to stop on this photo.


I composed and took the final photo, just as they were moving out of the park and they started to turn away from me. The final photo has a sense of movement in it as the riders are moving out of the frame and the horses’ legs show that they are moving.

Moving further into market, I decided to focus on the traders behind the stalls. I again took the photograph as I held the camera to my eye.




I moved away from the first trader as he was quite static and focussed on the traders on the next stall as they moved around.




I then took this photograph which emphasised the rather busy trade which was going on at this stall and how busy the girl was working. I decided to move as I could not quite get a composition which I was very happy with.

I moved round to the front of this stall and recomposed on the girl as she cooked the burgers and sausages on a hot plate at the front of the stall.



Having focused on the girl, I took the second shot, but found that a customer had quickly moved into the frame and was in front of the hotplate blocking the image. I moved slightly to the left and zoomed in tighter on the girl





I was a lot happier with this photograph as I feel it is well balanced with the customers on the right side of the frame and the traders on the left.




At this point I changed lenses from the telephoto lens to a small and wider lens, as I felt that I was limiting myself for compositions as I was very close to the subjects.


I decided to stay with this subject and focus in on them cooking on the hotplate. The first photograph was taken at wider angle where I could show the whole of the stall and the customers in front of the staff

I then noticed that a gap had appeared between some customers and the girl who was cooking on the hot plate.


I then zoomed in a little and took another photograph between the two standing customers who were at the extreme either sides of the frame.


I then dropped the focus a little towards the food on the hotplate and zoomed in slightly to bring the girl and the food tighter into the frame. I was happy with the final photo as it demonstrated what was going on for the traders on this stall.



I moved further along and stopped in front of another stall selling dairy produce. I then started this sequence again with a wider angled photo of the stall.




I wanted to focus in on the trader as she was talking to the customers.

I decided that I was not close enough



I could not quite get the composition I wanted, so I turned the camera on its side and again recomposed on the trader as she chatted away.


I was not completely happy with the final photograph as the trader was partially blocked out by another customer.




I then turned to a customer as he tried out a sample of the soup on sale at a stall in the market. I wanted to get a photograph with both the customer and the trader as they spoke together.




I then in turn decided to recompose on the trader and get to an angle where I could show what was going on and what the stall was selling.

I felt again that I was not close enough to the subjects, so I moved forward slightly.


I wanted to get the trader and the customer talking together, so I waited until they continued to talk.
I decided to take one more photo as I felt that while the composition was okay, the trader had blinked and her eyes were partially shut. The final image has the trader and customer at either side of the frame and has the soup urn in the middle of the frame.


I moved down the market and went to photograph another trader selling meat. As I was a distance away from him to took the first photo, before composing a bit closer on the trader,

I then took a couple of photos where I was happy with the composition and I captured the transaction of the customer making a purchase and then moving away.

I moved a little closer into the stall as the side of the stall was just a pile of rubbish and it was pulling my eye away from the stall.




I was quite happy with these shots as together they show a sequence.


At this point the stall went quiet and the trader went back to his mobile phone. As I had captured what I thought was a good shot, I moved onto the another stall location.

I then focused on a vegetable stall , in the first photograph, one of the traders was blocked out by a customer, so again I zoomed in slightly towards the traders and started to photograph them as they moved about.

The second trader is still blocked by a customer walking into the image from the left.
I composed a little lighter and waited for the customer to move.
Again the customer moved into the image again and I still did not have a clear shot of the second trader. I zoomed in slightly towards the traders and started to photograph them as they moved about


I waited until the second trader moved round to the right hand side of the frame and started to move into the image.



A final shot of the vegetable traders, both of them together and the way they are standing I feel makes for a good photo.



The final sequence I took as I moved towards a trader sitting to the side of his stall. I felt that the first photograph did not show his face as he was turned away from the camera



I held my position and as I moved the compostion and focus towards the trader I took a second
photograph.



I wanted to keep the sign and the two men to the rear of the trader in the photo. I took the third image as he turned towards me. The final photograph I was happy with as it captured his mood at that moment.

I learned quite a bit in this exercise regarding the compostion of photographs and how I should be thinking about what is going on in front of the camera as well as what is going on inside the camera.

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