P&P: Exercise 21: Making figures anonymous

Facing away, Small

When the place is the principal subject, but when it will look better inhabited, it is often useful

to find ways of reducing the visual attention that a person or a face tends to command.

The point here is to use people as accents, not as subjects, and thus techniques that make them less individual, and more anonymous, are appropriate.  Several techniques are suggested, including reduced size, facing away or partly hidden, blurred, or in silhouette. 

As with the previous exercises, these images were taken at Dubai Mall.  The one above depicts the shop front of a bakery and uses figures to add some visual interest.  The female foreground faces away, the make at right is small.  

P&P: Exercise 20: Busy traffic

From a single figure we move to many.  In this exercise we are to depict a space heavily trafficked, looking for possible patterns in the coming and going.

P&P: Exercise 19: A single figure small

We are asked to create an image of a large space with a tiny human figure, one that is at first glance not so easily seen.

Consider how obvious, to a viewer’s eye, the figure will be in the image. Some delayed reaction adds to the interest of looking at this kind of photograph, and there is even an element of surprise if the scale of the place (perhaps a cathedral interior) is larger than expected.

P&P: Exercise 9: Developing Confidence

Part Two of the course moves into photographing people without their knowledge or consent, what might otherwise be known as reportage or street photography.  The exercises assume the student has little or no experience with this kind of image making and so are designed to lead him or her into a public place and gradually move in on the subject, shooting first with a telephoto and then wide angle lens.  This first exercise is nothing but a warm-up:  get out there and shoot.

This morning the wife said we would be doing our weekly food shopping at the Dubai Mall.  Great.  I'll visit the aquarium.  There are always loads of tourists out in front of the big glass wall, all snapping away.  

I wore my tourist hat and bag and blended right in.  Made eye contact with several people and asked the South Asian guys if I could shoot them.  No problem.  They love posing.

The only time I felt inhibited was in wanting to shoot a Saudi family.  Gulf Arabs can sometimes be sensitive, especially the women, and as I didn't want problems with security I just let them be.  

Next up:  Shooting with telephoto.