Until yesterday, I can’t recall using a camera stand on the streets and setting up a photograph as carefully as I’ve done here; with the exception of rare sutdio work, I’ve always taken photographs hand held ( note the careful use of words here:I hate the expression “shooting” when it comes to photography). There was something quite pleasant about the whole process: looking around, setting up the stand, triple checking focusing thanks to a loupe, setting the f-stop manually, ,waiting for some interesting alignment/arrangement of people passing by, using a release cable, shifting the lens for a second frame, packing up sometimes to only move a few yards further along and starting all over again.
My aim was to get to grips with the 24 mm PC Nikon lens mounted on a D800 and come back with very basic no thrills views of buildings in town whilst taking care to work with either the sun behind me to avoid complication with uneven skies and the likes (I took a few chances with the sun coming in from different angles). I didn’t bracket in view of possible light touch (realistic) HDR treatment for the simple reason that the D800’s range at it’s native 100 ISO is quite remarkable!
Anyway, I was hoping to also capture something more personal than asceptised brochure type views of buildings and if I am pleased with the twenty odd such views that I came back with, it is this photo and the ones in the previous post that matter to me. I am looking forward to printing them soon. A2 is a minimum:the resolution of the D800 is phenomenal.
These modern spaces are not always as lonely and cold as it appears here, but most often are. With that in mind, I consider this an effective portrait of a this space,created to encourage encounters but where people pass by each other most of the time without ever exchanging a glance or a word. With my stand I created some interest and had a lovely chat with a man who wanted to knoow what was interesting me in this particular place that he didn’t even notice anymore…
chevaugeon photographer 