Project: Standard focal length - learning outcomes

Project: wide-angle - learning outcomes

• using a wide angle lens brings more into the frame but when used close up out in the street a distinct feeling of being close up in the frame
• To achieve the desires 'close and involved' image, I needed to be withing a couple of feet of people, looking at other images I'd taken for this exercise, they just didn't work if too far away

Project: medium telephoto - learning outcomes

I especially enjoyed this exercise allowed me to be a guilt free 'nosey parker', I used a 75 - 300mm lens in order to take photo's of people from a distance. Whist the lens made it very easy to zoom in to people, the compression made it difficult to scan around the scene without having to look away from the camera, make it quite disorientating to scan solely through the lens. The selection of the subject was important as less inclusion of subject matter in the frame required more precision as there is less to crop out post processing. Using the telephoto lens allowed me to take more intimate images in a less obvious and intrusive way, taking candid images much easier and very comfortably as a result. The location and position chosen to take these photo's was important as it was easy for people to walk into the frame and with the compression of the lens this was hard to anticipate easily.

Project: The moment - learning outcomes

This section required the development of 'powers of observation and anticipation' of what may be coming next, on the whole this exercise taught me the need to select the correct settings on the camera, for patience and the need for fast reflexes along with a fast shutter speed, I also needed to feel confident to shoot freely as often the anticipated 'moment' that I intended to capture may have ended up being one not anticipated.

Train Your Gaze, Roswell Angier p33.
'With human subjects, the moment is always decisive in matters of framing. The photographer arranges the information found in the camera's viewfinder, often intuitively and extremely quickly, in a way that seems appropriate to his sense of the quality of the instant. Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term "the decisive moment."

Man jumping over the puddle

Project: A comfortable situation - learning outcomes

This section has looked at developing confidence, this helped me get used to taking pictures of people out and about in 'people unaware'. What helped increase confidence was taking pictures in areas where people with a camera was a regular sight, these tended to be the tourist areas, comfort levels were fine, less so in other areas, especially when someone looks at the camera. When I had a look of suspicion I pointed the camera in another direction so it looked like I wasn't trying to get anyone in the frame.