Since I've started the People and Place module I have found my confidence in taking "street" images has increased and having got over that initial feeling of being uncomfortable I'm finding that I really enjoy doing it.
In addition I feel that I actually see more of what is going on around me because I look, rather than let it enter my brain un-processed and quickly dismissed.
Reading some of Henri Cartier-Bresson's quotes I find they are 100% correct, inspiring and offer a very interesting approach which I'd like to take on board as part of my photography.
I've listed just a few below that I found good lessons to learn:
“A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.”
“The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.”
“Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity.”
“Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.”
“You just have to live and life will give you pictures.”
“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”
“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”
“Thinking should be done before and after, not during photographing.
It is the last two quotes which suggested to me I should stop using a short tele-zoom lens and instead used a fixed prime lens. Once I get used to its focal length I know that in my eye I already know what I will capture within the frame and I will not lose time changing the focal length but instinctively capture what it was that first attracted my eye - I will not lose the moment fiddling with the focal length.
I have done some research on what focal length would suit me on full frame and many options exist, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm etc. In the end I purchased a second Nikon 35mm f/2 AF D lens, relatively cheap and 1/3 the price of a second hand Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF G lens.
The advantage of the D lens is that I can use the focus distance and setting the camera to manual already know what I will capture within the focus depth of field, very handy for quick images. the focal length allows me to get in close and also capture a fair angle of view.
I'm hoping this aids me reducing my thinking during the act of photography and I do indeed increase the times where I capture the moment that fleets in front of my eyes.
Lets see how this works in practice....
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