Exercise eight: A sequence of composition

Although this post appears in exercise order, it's one of the last exercises that I've managed to complete before the first assignment.

The brief was to take a sequence of 20-30 shots that are 'almost right'; not worrying too much about composition. I believe my images have benefitted from the fact that I undertook this exercise a little later than planned.

The full sequence can be found on my Flickr photostream but I've included a strong flavour of the sequence here.

The event took place in Manchester's Albert Square where there were various F1 stalls but the main event was an appearance by Jenson Button doing a few laps along the streets in his F1 car.

I'm still suffering from being camera shy so I started with a few shots of the F1 cars.

130mm, 1/160 secs at f/5, ISO 200

The black and yellow were striking and the shape of the tyre lent itself to a square crop.

200mm, 1/200 secs at f/5.6, ISO 200

I liked the contours of the F1 car on display and this close up shot gives it a slight abstract feel.

Little was happening and without queueing for lengthy periods it was proving difficult to get close to the cars so I decided to brave it and start taking shots of people and headed across Albert Square.

55m, 1/1000 secs at f/4, ISO 200
This shot of a boy on his father's shoulders caught my eye because of his F1 outfit - a lot of others were wearing branded clothing but not to this extent!

75mm, 1/400 secs at f/4.5, ISO 200

A couple of days earlier Manchester celebrated its first 'I love Manchester' day. I saw this scene and attempted to focus on the two banners, leaving passing people out of focus. It seemed to work.

60mm, 1/160 secs at f/4, ISO200

I saw a number of people had climbed on to whatever they good to get a better view and in this scene there are three boys on two window ledges. Fortunately I managed to capture the boy on the left pointing.

Realising that racing would soon start I sought out a better vantage point and continued to take shots of people and of the road car Jenson began his laps in.

100mm, 1/200 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
Typically rain was a feature of the day and through a sea of umbrellas this vibrant yellow one stood out a mile.

55mm, 1/80 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
The guy outside the 1st floor window isn't a scene you see every day. so I thought it'd be an interesting image. He was later joined by a friend/colleague (see Flickr) but this shot of a solitary figure works better.

200mm, 1/640 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
I was holding the camera high above my head to see whether I could get a shot of the spot where the cars would be passing and stumbled across this image. The colours are vibrant and it also shows that it wasn't just the crowd anticipating the action.

75mm, 1/250 secs at f/4.5, ISO 400
This is one of my favourite shots of the day as it demonstrates the  difficulties people were facing in order to get a decent view.

200mm, 1/250 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
Again, here I was looking for alternative shots while waiting for the cars to eventually pass. I like the sense of anticipation that this shot portrays. The depth of field also works very well.

200mm, 1/800 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
Thanks to the earlier test shot of the lone steward I was able to get a good view of their McLaren MP4. I used the continuous shooting mode and caught a series of shots - this is the pick of them.

I was conscious that if I stayed her my images would largely be similar so a break in proceeding gave me an opportunity to change my location again.

60mm, 1/125 secs at f/4, ISO 400
This shot didn't work as expected. It initially appealed because the group had an elevated vantage point and were naturally framed by the window (see below).

55mm, 1/250 secs at f/4, ISO 400
So I decided to pull back to show more context by including the busy street scene.

200mm, 1/200 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
I wanted a few more candid shots and this one's a pleasant one that's well composed/exposed.

160mm, 1/200 secs at f/5.6, ISO 400
This guy was interesting as he was stood on a chair and therefore towered above others around him. I couldn't get the shot of him on his chair as it was so crowded. Instead I took this one - the out of focus red and orange are good additions.

135mm, 1/125 secs at f/7.1, ISO 800
I knew that I would be shooting above the crowd and needed to use the live view feature. So while waiting for the F1 car to appear I had my camera at my side and saw this scene. It seems to sum up Manchester well.

200mm, 1/1250 secs at f/8.0, ISO 1600
In order to increase the shutter speed and increase the depth of field slightly (to increase my hopes of the car being sharp and in focus) I had to bump up the ISO considerably. Again, this was one of a series of shots.

If I'm honest I've been putting this exercise off as I'm not terribly comfortable with a dSLR in public (I even tried this exercise yesterday but as there were fewer people around I refrained). However, after a while I really began to spot more opportunities and by the end of the couple of hours the element I was enjoying the most was candid shots of people.