Excercise: Shooting from the hip

For this exercise I was required to produce a set of eight images that demonstrate the life and vibrancy of city living - the busier the better. 

Analyse and reflect on my final images:

• what makes the successful images work well?
• what difficulties did I experience?
• how do I feel about this type of work? is it honest? Are my images a truthful representation of did I edit the truth in some way, consciously or sub-consciously?

I live in the suburbs of the City of Lincoln, a vibrant, 'up and coming' student City, that seems to just keep on going. There is always something going on in and around the City, I felt the ideal place for this exercise.

The overall difficulty experienced with this exercise was the camera angle and the persistent chopping off of heads, legs, anything useful for the images. I'd set my camera to a very fast shutter speed to reduce the chances of blur and even then, because I was walking and trying to look inconspicuous, it was still hard to capture anything useful. I also felt that I was looking at people approaching me more, but trying to point my camera without it looking obvious with getting the angle right at the same time and as a result I felt I didn't look 'natural'. I deleted many more pictures than I took.  

How do I feel about this type of work? It's a quick fix for a potentially good image with, what you would assume on the surface to be 'easy' when in fact it's not as easy as it looks. If it works, its almost a nice surprise, to see what you get. Is it honest? probably not, people around me were mostly oblivious to what I was doing, and those who looked a bit suspicious, had walked on by pretty quickly. It felt a little 'paparazzi' like I was being a bit sneaky, and on some level it was quite comfortable as the people pass you by quickly and the threat of confrontation eluded. There was one moment when a homeless man was handing a copy of big issue to a purchaser, I must have looked obvious as he shouted 'permission would be nice!', which was quite uncomfortable to hear.

One of the 'heads chopped off' images, but I think it sort of works because there is a whole person approaching the left of the frame, there is also some blur giving a little dynamism to the image.

This image has a slightly sinister feel to it as it shows a young woman,, on her own, distracted by something she is holding in a secluded area, there is a opening to the left of the frame which may make the viewer wonder if there is anyone there.

This is one of the more successful images, this man was handing out religious literature, but had the face of someone who needed support himself, he looked so sad, he was offering the chance of salvation for the people who passed him by with his far away look on his face. There is also the man to the left of the frame who looks pretty uninterested, with his hands in his pockets (probably because it was cold) but it lends to the suggestion of disinterest. I wondered if the man took a leaflet from the 'faraway' man or did he pass him by?

This image show a council worker emptying the bin watched on by a passer by with a busy street in the background.

This is a typical street in any city, people walking, waiting around, having coffee and the girl mid-sentence adds a little to the dynamic of the image. 

This image show a busy street but with 'works' going on to the left of the frame, this may have looked better in colour, but I wanted to keep the consistency of the set. The 'works' are a renovation of an old shopping mall to a new cinema/dining experience, this image could demonstrate the improvements in the area.

The city streets of Lincoln have many street entertainers of various genres. I like the reflection of the shoppers in the window with the items in the shop still visible. The busker looks like he's there for the duration with his relatively comfortable looking seat.

Another street entertainer, this time american Indians. Whenever he turned around, he scowled in my direction, again, I must have looked a little obvious.  This image shows more of the hustle and bustle of the busy high street.