Capturing the moment

09/6/14

This exercise concentrates on finding bursts of activity and from that, capturing the "best moment".

This was more difficult than I first thought. One has to anticipate what will/may happen and then press the shutter at the correct time.

I started off looking at interaction between stall holders and customers at Newark market. I chose a lady who I noticed trying on a pair of shoes. I watched her and took about 10 shots as she made her purchase.

Lady tries on shoes. Stall holder pointing at shoes engaged in conversation

Lady ensuring it fits well. Stall holder engaged in conversation

Decisive moment
Lady taken shoe off and pulls tights from toes

 Lady with shoe back on. decision made to buy (unseen)

I didn't anticipate what would happen when the stall holder stood up. She became obscured by clothing. Stall holder placing shoes in bag for customer.

Exchange of money and shoes taking place

Waiting for change

I expected the lady to try on both shoes but she didn't.  The decisive moment for me would be when the lady decided she was going to buy the shoes. But that is because I knew the series of events and what happens when making a purchase. The image I like best in the sequence is the lady pulling the tights from her toes because this says more about the customer than the rest of the images. It gives her an age bracket and tells me more about the lady than if she was just making a purchase.

I decided that the composition of this set of images was too cluttered and not all of the action could be seen. The view was obstructed by two poles and hanging clothes.

Attempt 2

I walked around the market looking for activity. I found a lady buying strawberries, and realised she was the same lady as in the last set of photographs. The stall is not obscured - however, the stall holder is not engaged with his customers.

 In this image, the lady's hands are holding the strawberries, and she is deciding whether to buy them or not.As far as activity of the lady goes, she is engaged with what she is doing and I like the stance and concentration. I hoped the stall holder would serve her.

The stall holder served the lady. her face had turned slightly to look at the stall holder. Although there is some engagement between the two, I think the first image is better where the lady is shown holding her potential purchase.

Attempt 3

I decided to move away from the market as there was really only one customer at the time. I set myself up on the pedestrian bridge to observe people walking across it for half an hour.

I observed several people pushing bikes, one man push a bike and pushchair together and a wheelchair user cross the bridge. I studied people walking in both directions - towards me and away from me. Those engaged in conversation did not mind me being there, but one group avoided looking at me completely. If people were on their own there was a moment of recognition that I had a camera.

Of the people I photographed, this man looked how I wanted him to look on camera. He was not phased by me being there, and when he stopped and looked at the view, it was me that was surprised because I had not anticipated that he would do that.

I kept the focal length constant at 210mm, F8, ISO200 auto white balance and evaluative metering

1/400

Not enough space around man. Image feels unbalanced.

1/500

I like this image. there is space around the frame, the oncoming pedestrian is blurred and it is the man and his bike which are in the field of vision. The man is looking at the view up the river and the focal length shows that he is crossing a bridge but doesn't show the building behind in full so the viewer concentrates on the man. The colouring works with the bridge, and the his left foot is raised showing that he is in motion.The man and the bike lean in towards each other creating an implied triangle.

1/250

I like this image too where the man's head is turned more towards the view and he is still moving. I think the background of the sugar beet factory is more distracting. I could zoom in closer as I had a 300mm lens on the camera but I wanted to experiment with the focal length and see what sort of distances were acceptable to me.

1/400
The man glances towards the town, still walking. The position of his foot is too raised. Background becomes distracting.

1/400
 The man looks hunched over his bike. The combination of the arched foot way and my position caused the image to look like this because the mans torso did not change much.

1/500
The man stopped and looked at the view. At this point it would have been better to crop in tighter on him with the lens. The bridge becomes too distracting and out of proportion.

1/400
When the man started moving again, I felt the moment had been lost.