Rotten teeth, pockmarked faces, gummy eyes. That was what I shot. Old men with beards which look like frothing seas. I did a lot of close in work under good light and there were some nice shots, but no killers. Worked well from 2 pm to 6 pm: 350 photos.
- Worked under intense downward sunlight. Although it gives me the very detailed image that I want, it does create strong shadows under the eyes which takes away the emotional tension in the photo. This isn’t always the case, as sometimes some reflected light gets under, or the person tilts their head up, or the exposure meter reads from directly under the eyes.
- Worked in Gulistan which was perfect for these close in photos. Lots of density, and lots of distinctive looking people. I gravitated towards old men for some reason.
- I took some breaks to let the sun drop a little bit further (and give myself some time to recuperate. The actual process of shooting is very intense. You are often working directly in the middle of traffic, or on the side of it and there is activity in all directions. As I have to get very close to the person I try to hang back a little when there was fast moving traffic around so that I didn’t distract and kill the subject or myself. The heat makes you sweat constantly. My shirt is soaked after the first 20 minutes and stays that way during the day. I make sure I get fluids throughout the day (mostly sugarcane juice 5 taka (10c), and young coconuts (freshly cut 20 taka)). The sheer amount of noise, heat, and physical danger of close misses from rickshaws, busses, baby-taxis, cars, carts and people takes a toll. Add the constant, deep concentration of looking for interesting faces, perspectives and you have sheer pleasure!
- Focus was pretty good. The move to f4-f5.6 rather than f2.8 obviously increased the sweet spot. There were however, the key ‘ones that got away’ which is always disappointing. No other way to solve this but to keep on working.
- Exposure was good as I was mostly shooting away from the sun and the camera didn’t have a chance to fuck things up to badly. A hood would be great.
- One thing that’s becoming a concern is that I have to look at my camera way less. Looking at the camera is the main reason for blowing my cover. I need to check so that I can get the settings right, see if I have the focus point at the right place (although I’m becoming far quicker at this), and see if I need to go in for a second or third shot. I need to reduce the time to do each of these things and make sure I do it less conspicuously. Another issue is making too much eye contact. A little bit is ok, but sometimes I stare hard and people cotton on. I need to slide my eyes over the situation rather than stare so hard.
- I had my headphones with me and that provided a welcome sanctuary at times where I was idle, like riding the bus and so on. The other affect it had was to make me really confident. Having good music on put me into a good mood, and made it easier to enter into the flow. As I was coming back home on a rickshaw I had an amazing 10 minutes of noticing very interesting situations. The photos didn’t come out that great but I was hyper-aware. Getting into this mode as easily and quickly as possible should be my goal.
Why tomorrow will be better
- Keep shooting at a smaller aperture.
- Take along music to psych yourself into the mood, and use it for respite.
- Try to remember settings and practice setting things without looking at the camera (counting clicks etc.). Do quick, natural looking checks.
- Stare less, and slide your eyes around more.
- Start a little later in the afternoon to get yellow light. A lot of the initial shooting was unusable yesterday.
Posted 2 years ago
