Exercise: A sequence of composition

The idea of this exercise is to record the way we approach and photograph a scene. For this assignment, I was instructed to take a series of photographs, taking the photographs as I went along, without spending too much time composing.

I chose a farmer's market on a crowded, busy weekend, and was immediately drawn to a vendor making interesting things out of balloons for children. I thought the balloon shapes might be interesting, as well as the reactions of the people. I felt self-concious, however, and this feeling definitely made me tentative and hesitant to get in to the best angles. I felt like I was intruding on their space, and I also felt like I was in the way. It was tough to get to spots that allowed me good views in without being out in the middle of the flow of people, or in too close for comfort. I definitely need to work on figuring out how to feel more comfortable photographing people in public.

Anyway, here are some samples from the series.

This shot captures people waiting in line to get a balloon.



A girl walks away with the balloon figure on her head. I would've liked to have captured the top of the balloon. It might work without it, however.




In this shot, I'd hoped to capture the girl's face as she was watching the guy make her balloon, but I didn't feel comfortable getting in close. After this, I swapped lens and went with my telephoto. It's only 105 mm so, so I still need to be relatively close in order to get the shots I was looking for.


With the telephoto on, I was able to get in a bit closer and get the facial expressions. I decided that this is what I found really interesting about the scene.


This was my last shot. I like how the guy is looking at the kid, and the kid and his dad are looking up at a balloon sculpture, I believe. The shot would have worked better if I had the object of their gaze in it. That way there would've been three points of interest: they guy looking towards the kid (but you can't see what he's actually looking at), the kid and his dad looking up, and the balloon sculpture that the guy had made. Would've been three points of interest all tied together. Oh well.

If I had composed that way, it would've had the added benefit of placing the balloon guy lower and to the left, which I think would've worked better.

I still think this works though, because we can use our imagination to wonder about what they are all looking at. As it stands, this photo raises questions. What is the balloon guy smiling at, another kid there? Are the kid and his dad looking at a balloon sculpture they like? Another person up there?

But at this point, I felt like I was wearing out my welcome and headed out.

I cropped the shot by eliminating some of the useless area on the left, which helps make it more balanced, and brings more attention to the fact that we can't tell what any of the people in the photo are looking at.