This set of images was taken in the local park. I have tried to show a variety of activities including intimate group gatherings, parent/child interaction, sporting/leisure pursuits and also the thriving commercial side of a busy public park.
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I visited Leazes Park in Newcastle City Centre for this exercise. The park is the venue for the annual Newcastle Green Festival which, amongst other things, aims to promote environmental issues and heighten environmental awareness. There is usually quite a few things going on, with workshops, circus acts, musicians, healing tents and a childrens section. I researched a little on the website before attending http://www.newcastlegreenfestival.org.uk/
I still found it very difficult to get up close to people with the camera, even though the majority of them don't mind being photographed I find it much easier to capture natural expressions when standing well back with a telephoto lens as people change as soon as they see the camera pointed at them. Here are a selection of the images taken on the day. I have tried to document the activities taking place, the expressions and gestures of the people attending and also show the variety of uses the space was host to. The equipment used here was a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. This focal length gave images which most resembled the view of the scene as seen with the eye. It has no distortion effects whether used up close or from a distance and made a realistic image of the scene. A good use could be for documentary style photos but some creative effect can still be achieved by working with a wide aperture.
I found photographing people with a wide angled lens for this exercise very uncomfortable. I used a 24-70mm lens at it's widest angle on a full frame Canon 5D. The act of getting up close to people with a camera without asking for permission to take their photograph very intrusive and it made me feel quite rude and impolite. It also attracted the attention of possible subjects as they become aware of the camera being so close and tended to moved away from it.
I found shooting from the hip a lot easier but of course this takes lots of practice to get right and as I am inexperienced it resulted in a lot of failed images as most of them relied on guess work and crossed fingers. You get a lot more of the scene in the shot with a wide angle though so there is more possibility of cropping down later to alter composition. Wide angles create more depth in an image and can be used to emphasise the parts of the scene closest to the camera which can give the viewer a sense of being inside the scene. For this exercise I used a 70-200mm lens but as I used it on a Canon 7D with a cropped sensor so it was the equivalent to a focal length of 360mm on a full frame.
I found shooting from a distance relatively easy as people didn't notice me as much because I wasn't right in their faces and because I was so far away, the people that did notice weren't quite sure whether I was pointing the camera at them or somewhere else. As I was shooting from across the street, passers by and passing vehicles did obstruct my view intermittently but it wasn't too much of a problem as the weather was poor so there wasn't too many people about. I would imagine this would have been more of a problem if the street had been busier. Using an aperture of f/2.8 I found it easier to single out my chosen subject and blur background and foreground to create separation. The long focal length also compressed the scene somewhat and narrowed the perspective which creates quite flat images. The images for this exercise were taken at the same event as the last exercise. I wasn't quite sure how to approach this exercise so I decided to try a couple of different methods. For the first two images I stood and observed the people and the scene for a while first in order to predict their movements then waited for a certain moment before I released the shutter. When you study people for a while you notice their little habits and can sometimes predict when they will do certain things or make certain gestures. I stood and watched the brass band while they performed and noticed the young boy on the left in IMG F80A3989 kept looking up at the conductor every few minutes so I waited and captured him as he did. It did take a few attempts though as his glance only lasted a split second. IMG F80A4002 was a little easier as the conductor's bow at the end of the performance lasted a little longer. The second set of images were taken during a performance by a fire eater. I used continuous shooting and chose the images which best display the moment when reviewing them later on the computer. These are the images which, in my opinion, best capture gestures, the nature of the act and the reaction of the crowd.
For this exercise I attended a 'Museums at Night" event at Beamish Museum which is not far from where I live. It's a place I visit quite often and is popular with photographers which is why I chose to do this exercise there as I knew I wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb with my camera. The staff are very accommodating, they dress in traditional period costumes and usually stop and pose whenever they see a camera pointed at them. This kind of defeats the object of this exercise though so I found I had to keep my distance to get candid shots. This helped me to capture natural expressions and gestures.
Here are some of the images from the evening. |
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