I had wanted to try something different, so walking up to strangers and asking if I could take their photo seemed like a excellent choice. I wanted to get photos of people's faces, eyes and expressions especially, but I didn't fancy doing this with a zoom lens from far away. I would have to overcome some obstacles.
+ getting the exposure settings right, there and then, first time
+ adapting to the ever changing light and British weather,
+ getting used to talking walking up to anyone and saying "Hi, would you mind if I take your photo ?"
+ remembering to eat
+ adapting to the ever changing light and British weather,
+ getting used to talking walking up to anyone and saying "Hi, would you mind if I take your photo ?"
+ remembering to eat
- o -
I began my day, as I do with a coffee, (are most photographers powered by caffeine ?), a double espresso from wonderful Caffé d'Italia (Fish Street, Northampton). Sitting outside watching the world go by, I started to get my settings approximated for the current light (these would obviously change as the day and location progressed).
Now...just walking up to someone and saying "Hi, can I take your photo ?" might seem like second nature to some, not so to me at this point. A group sat opposite me, joined by a young lady in red, her hood up, I could still see that her hair also tinged with red would make an excellent photo.
I was quite lucky in that I was sat, probably no more than 2 metres away, and the group could see I had my trusty old Nikon D7100 on the table (with the Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art), hopefully they might guess that I was at least somewhat interested in photography. Now, this particular lens isn't a subtle one that you can hide away, just reach up and snap, put down and then pretend nothing ever happened, it's large, its heavy but it gives really excellent results. If you want the smaller lenses, have a look at Nikon's own 50mm f1.4 or their f1.8 or if on a budget look at the Yongnuo 50mm.
So, "what's the worst that could happen ?" I thought. I tried my hardest not to seem like a absolute weirdo when I approached the group and asked if it would be alright if I took a photo of her. She was slightly shocked that someone would consider this, but I got a few nice shots in the minute or so I spent with the group.
Now...just walking up to someone and saying "Hi, can I take your photo ?" might seem like second nature to some, not so to me at this point. A group sat opposite me, joined by a young lady in red, her hood up, I could still see that her hair also tinged with red would make an excellent photo.
I was quite lucky in that I was sat, probably no more than 2 metres away, and the group could see I had my trusty old Nikon D7100 on the table (with the Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art), hopefully they might guess that I was at least somewhat interested in photography. Now, this particular lens isn't a subtle one that you can hide away, just reach up and snap, put down and then pretend nothing ever happened, it's large, its heavy but it gives really excellent results. If you want the smaller lenses, have a look at Nikon's own 50mm f1.4 or their f1.8 or if on a budget look at the Yongnuo 50mm.
So, "what's the worst that could happen ?" I thought. I tried my hardest not to seem like a absolute weirdo when I approached the group and asked if it would be alright if I took a photo of her. She was slightly shocked that someone would consider this, but I got a few nice shots in the minute or so I spent with the group.
Her eyes, expression and the colours she was wearing just lended themselves to a great all round photo.
Boosted from the feedback from her friends and her, I proceeded on my way looking for the next willing victim.. I mean subject.
Tip : smile, and the world will smile with you,
... or they'll think that you're mad
At the time of writing this, it's December, the streets are packed with people doing last minute shopping, some are very busy, stressing over the amount of things that need to be done, others not as much. On the most part, I managed to find people that were more relaxed. The two gentlemen above were an absolute delight, the dapper chap with the absolutely FANTASTIC moustache has apparently been photographed a few times and was quite used to posing naturally, attired and groomed the way he was this is not a surprise.
My apologies to the older gentleman on the right, I have forgotten his name, we spoke at some length, about how he had come to Northampton as an evacuee from the east end of London in WW2, about his "naughty" first wife (I'll let him tell you that story) and many things after. It was an absolute pleasure spending a few minutes with him before and after taking the photos.
Only a couple of people didn't want to have their photo taken, some didn't come out exactly as I had wanted, I said earlier about "what's the worst that could happen", luckily for me on the day, the worst was someone politely saying "thanks, but no thanks".
Tip : know your camera
WHOOPS ! - My Nikon D7100 is now my backup camera, I haven't used it much for about two years.
So, obviously everyone reading this blog knows about the exposure triangle ?
Balancing Shutter Speed, aperture and ISO to get the desired effect.. No ?
Ok until I write my own, here's a link to someone else's guide to the exposure triangle. Right, so you now hopefully understand a bit better why these three settings are important when taking photos in Manual mode.
Balancing Shutter Speed, aperture and ISO to get the desired effect.. No ?
Ok until I write my own, here's a link to someone else's guide to the exposure triangle. Right, so you now hopefully understand a bit better why these three settings are important when taking photos in Manual mode.
On the Nikon D7100, the Image Quality settings button for this model is right next to the ISO button. It turns out that it's quite easy to switch from using high resolution RAW images to just JPEG very easily, when you think that you're adjusting the ISO due to changing light. This can make editing the photos a little more challenging than normal, but I was happy with the end result of the images above.
- o -
That's it for this blog entry, I don't want to make this too long, so I'm going to split this feature into two, so that it's not a complete wall of text for you to trawl through and as my street photography experience was itself split over two (equally caffeine fuelled) days (Day 2 available here).
- o -
Thanks to:
Caffé d'Italia, Northampton
Café Creperie, Northampton
Bewiched Coffee, Northampton
#NikonUK #SigmaLenses