Exercise: Standing back

For this exercise in am to select a medium-long focal length, ideally between 80-200mm, I must note what practical difficulties I have and what creative opportunities I find the long focal length with the distant position give me.

I used my 75-300 lens for this exercise and found a spot sitting outside coffee shop looking in the direction of the bottom end of a pedestrianised part of town. There was also a pedestrian crossing close to where I was sitting, where people unknowingly lined up for me! When thinking about practical difficulties, the possibility of camera shake was a consideration but sitting outside the coffee shop whilst taking the photo's was quite useful as I could use the arm of the chair to steady my elbow to reduce camera shake. Another practical issue was that of the difference between the telephoto view whilst still trying to look at what was going on with the other eye, so looking for shots through the lens needed me to reduce the zoom back in order to increases the view through the viewfinder or alternatively I moved the camera away from my eye but would have to move a little quicker if I thought a good shot was imminent. I felt quite comfortable taking the photo's and didn't feel that anyone had particularly noticed that I was actually taking photo's of them, and for those that seemed a little suspicious I just pointed my lens nearby at the building so that it looked as though I was taking a photo of something nearby. This is a selection of those taken, I will be taking the lens out and about with me when I can and take advantage of the 'inconspicuous' opportunities gained by using it.