Standing Back

My aim for this project was, similar to the previous project, to capture an interesting moment, although this time with the idea in mind to get shots with the telephoto lens that I wouldn't have been able to get without it.

   I did realise there was potentially the problem of producing photographs that were overly similar to 'developing your confidence' and 'capturing the moment' as I was using the same lens. To combat this I mainly used longer focal lengths for my lens on my APS-C sensor-sized camera. This was in order to find out what could be gained from using such focal lengths.

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   In this regard I think I was successful. I found two main features of using this focal length occurred frequently. Firstly I could easily isolate the subject(s) against their background  because of the shallow depth-of-field. Secondly, surprisingly, as a result of the first feature, I could suggest a sense of place for the subject. This happened because the out-of-focus backgrounds were still vaguely recognisable because of tell-tale street signs or vehicles. The subject remained the main point in the photograph though. I therefore made a note here to remember that a sense of place could still be achieved with a long focal length effectively.

   I decided to research any photographers who favoured a longer focal length who used this long focal length with a similar effect. I discovered there was a photographer called Thomas Leuthard and thought that my photographs bared some resemblance in that there was a sense of place as well as person, as described in the previous paragraph. This boosted my confidence because I now knew the kind of results that could be achieved in this way. Some nice examples of where he utilizes a telephtoto lens to isolate his subject while still retaining a sense of place are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/4978992550/in/set-72157626159231741/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasleuthard/5598374408/in/set-72157626159231741/ accessed on 20 May 2012.

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   There were some difficulties I got through on the way to aquiring shots I felt were interesting however. These were all technical, the first being people getting in the way quite frequently when I was about to take the shot. Then I found the telephoto lens obviously gets less in the frame, which made framing harder and timing more important (and rewarding). Finally a strategy I found was to wait until the subject happens to look up or towards you because the expression can be seen this way (as shown in 11 and 12). This makes the chance of them seeing you a lot more likely so takes quite a lot of courage. I learnt that for me the situation where this occurred and where I had time to consider composition was when the subject was standing still: at traffic lights for instance.

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