P&P: Exercise 11, 12 & 13: Standing Back, Close and Involved, Standard Focal Length

These three exercises are experiments with focal length.  The first requires shooting at maximum, then at minimum, and finally at a medium standard.  The purpose is to demonstrate not only the property of lenses, which was included in Part 1 exercises, but also the dynamics of photographer participation.  At maximum length the photographer can often remove himself from interacting with his subject, while at minimum length he becomes a very real part of the scene.

This weekend I took a stroll through Satwa Park, an area of town inhabited largely by South Asian and Filipino laborers.  My intention was to shoot for 30 minutes each at either end of my kit lens - 55mm and 18mm.  Using the rule suggested in the course notes, in which subjects seen with the naked eye are the same size when seen through the view finder,  I found that standard focal length was close to 55mm, the extreme end of my lens.  I therefore shot a few images at 35mm to see what differences might suggest themselves.

I chose to combine these exercises as they are so similar in design and because my lens does not offer noticeably extreme variations.  

As for my experience, I found shooting at 55mm sometimes inconvenient as it caused me to have to back up to get subjects in frame.  Conversely, shooting at 18mm was sometimes a bit uncomfortable as it forced me to get closer to strangers than I normally would.  As you will note, most images were taken with the implicit consent of the subjects.  Many of them are looking into the camera.  My method was to make eye-contact, then point to the camera and raise my eyebrows in a request.  Only one person declined, a man with his wife in an abaya, and he actually apologized for doing so.  Altogether it was a positive experience.  I haven't had as much confidence shooting in some time.  

55mm

18mm

35mm