Exercise 11: Standing back

This exercise calls for the use of a lens with a medium to long focal length. Between 80-200mm is suggested so my 70-200 seemed ideal.

I started out by shooting on a tripod through the window to catch a typical street activity, the post being delivered. This allows for an easy setup, the shots can be anticipated but some patience is needed to wait for the moment:

From OCA People and Place Photos

From OCA People and Place Photos

Next up was a trip to the park and loch surrounding Linlithgow Palace to find some people and activity. The fishermen make for easy images, I just stood on the bank and snapped away, they noticed me taking photographs but were busy with the fishing:

From OCA People and Place Photos

Not surprisingly there were plenty of teenagers hanging around, this is typical,a group on the swings:

From OCA People and Place Photos

And this group enjoying a picnic:

From OCA People and Place Photos

Mother and daughter read from one of the information boards as they look at the Palace in front of them:

From OCA People and Place Photos

Finally the high street. This chap appeared to be browsing in a shop window while waiting for his wife:

From OCA People and Place Photos

And this one amused me, taking the shopping home from the supermarket by taking the trolley as well:

From OCA People and Place Photos

In general using a telephoto lens means pointing the camera directly at the subject so some confidence is required. The Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS is a whopper, especially with lens hood on, and it has a white body, designed to keep the lens cooler, but making you stand out conspicuously. If the shots are to be unaware this means the subject will mostly be looking away and not at the camera so there will be no direct eye contact. Putting the camera up to the eye, taking the picture rapidly and dropping the camera down again helps. Inevitably some people did notice me taking their picture, I had a few funny looks but nobody challenged me. The usual technical considerations apply, so faster shutter speeds to keep things sharp, implying reduced depth of field and in some cases higher ISO values (I mostly used ISO 200 and ISO 400) with more potential for image noise. Image stabilisation helps.

Tips

• try not to just photograph people's backs!
• If you have someone with you then one technique to try is pretending to shoot the person you are with by shooting over their shoulder. This allows you to be largely ignored and allows for capturing some candid moments. In this example I have left the dummy subject in the bottom left of the image to show the idea:

From OCA People and Place Photos