Farmer's Market (Image Heavy)

[ShaneS]

As some of you may know one of my goals this year (and part of my project 52) is to create a photo essay. I had an opportunity to practice this weekend when some friends and I headed to our local Farmer's Market.

The resulting eleven images were all shot on the same morning. We started around 7:40 AM and the last image in the series was taken at 8:25AM (I just realized that this is less than an hour ). The morning started out overcast and the sun peaked out as we were finishing up.

Some images are better than others and I don't think all of these images would end up in a final essay which, if done well, would require multiple visits.

So, feel free to tell me which images stand out for you and provide CC as desired on the essay as a whole or individual images. (You may may be easier to navigate this set in lightbox as it will be long...)

#1

Shoppers

#2

Vegetable Vendor

#3

Takoyaki

#4

Tasty Corn

#5

Shucking Coconuts

#6

Shopping Break

#7

Happy Cakes

#8

Obey!

#9

Classic Spicy Ginger

#10

Try Some!

#11

Picnic at the Farmer's Market

[Mike Buckley]

They make an enjoyable, informative set. #8 is my favorite because the guy's shirt says "Obey" and the look on his face says "Or else." The first one is my least favorite because the woman in the foreground on the left seems to be caught in an awkward physical position. The one element I'd like to see in at least one of the shots of the vendors is a transaction taking place (the vendor handing the product to the customer, exchanging money, or the like.) Image #2 comes closest to that but the woman looking at you and your camera plays a stronger role than the man holding his product.

[mknittle]

Very nice set Shane.

[Manfred M]

Shane - it's an nice set, but I'm not sure if the shots and presentation make the photo essay that you are trying to create.

These seem to be shots of people taken at the same location, but an essay tells a story. Try taking a page out of how a TV program or a feature film use (moving) pictures to tell a story.

You start of nicely with what could be viewed as an "establishing shot", i.e. the first shot that shows us the whole group of market stalls. From there try, for instance, working the scene a bit more. Again, you have the start of something good, but you don't take it anywhere.

Going to your second shot; it too could be viewed as an establishing shot of that particular stall. One of the vendors has made eye contact with you; great, so perhaps the third shot could have been a closeup of her, followed by an extreme closeup. Get her hands on some of her produce, then show us the produce at the stand, then zoom back out with a person buying something there and walking away.

Same type of thought on the food stands; you show us the stand, now work the shot to get the people working there, some closeups, some more distant, some of the food being cooked, etc.

[Mike Buckley]

After reviewing your thread a second time, I just now realize that it seems that none of the shots involve posed people. People in these situations often enjoy being social and one of their social activities is posing for people such as you recording the activities of the event. At events such as this one, I always get in some fascinating discussions with people, sometimes before and sometimes after capturing a posed situation. Either way, those discussions often lead to other interesting photos.

[ShaneS]

Thank you very much Mike, Mark and Manfred.

Manfred, your suggestions with examples make complete sense to me as a read them and have me wishing you were on my shoulder when I was out at the market! The concept makes complete sense to me and I will definitely give it a try the next time I have a chance maybe focusing on one stall (or other subject) as a mini goal so as to not be overwhelmed. Quick clarification in terms of equipment - could all this be accomplished with one lens? I only took my 17-50mm and I would have to be pretty close or plan for cropping if I didn't change lenses right?

Mike, I love how you suggest to ask people to pose, in fact it made me laugh as I realized late last night that every shot in this series had people in it which is a bit of a milestone for me as my imagery is usually devoid of people (they move remember ). I will have to ponder your suggestion and get my nerve up to break that barrier for sure!

I'm so thankful for this forum and I guess I asked the right question as the answer I got was just what I needed to hear! I am a happy camper that is now eager to go out and put this advice to use

[Manfred M]

Quick clarification in terms of equipment - could all this be accomplished with one lens? I only took my 17-50mm and I would have to be pretty close or plan for cropping if I didn't change lenses right?

I think that your lens choice give you a lot of flexibility. Shooting at a wider angle let you step in front of other people to get the shot and keep them out of it. The 50mm setting (75mm FF equivalent) gives you enough of a short telephoto lens to get a bit closer, but I personally would prefer something a bit longer.

There is a school of thought in street photography that you should be getting close up and personal with your subjects and essentially shoot everything wide angle. I don't necessarily agree with this approach, but it is quite prevalent with a lot of street shooters (my main argument against it is the distortion that shooting wide creates and the fact that people don't generally look as natural when they see you and react to a camera pointing at them). I personally do a lot of my street shots with my 70-200mm lens for those reasons. Phil Page (Dubaiphil) has made similar comments.

[Mike Buckley]

could all this be accomplished with one lens?

I would almost always work an event such as this one using just one lens -- a prime 35mm lens mounted on a crop-factor camera. My second lens, if I use one, would be my 85mm prime lens.

My only zoom lens is a 12-24mm lens. That's not to say that a zoom lens can't be very helpful, but everything being discussed so far in the thread can rather easily be accomplished using just one prime lens, much less one zoom lens.

The decision regarding focal length is mostly a matter of preference and having enough experience to become comfortable with whatever choice is made.

[ShaneS]

Since you are both hanging about, I had another question come to mind as I was in the shower getting ready for work...

Would the same formula not get repetitive if you were to do an essay about the whole market rather that, say, one stall? Put another way, how would you transition from one stall to the next? Would you start with a series of establishment shots of the various stalls and then slowly get closer? I will definitely start with one stall for practice but I couldn't visualize an answer to my question in the shower...it's still early here

[Mike Buckley]

Would the same formula not get repetitive if you were to do an essay about the whole market rather that, say, one stall? Put another way, how would you transition from one stall to the next?

My first decision is about the story I plan to tell. Is it the overall atmosphere of the event, people interacting with each other at the event, products being sold at the event, or whatever?

My second decision is about the types of photos that will most effectively tell that story. Sometimes I record a shot list in advance of the event to keep me focused on accomplishing that objective as I walk around the event. While capturing images, I'm not concerned about repetition so long as I am getting to everything on my shot list.

Once I am assembling the photos into a sequence, I'll strike a balance of not being repetitive while ensuring that the most important scenes required to effectively tell the story are included. Not being repetitive in the final choices I make almost always means not using some excellent photos. That's because the point of the sequence is not to include the very best photos; it's to tell the story as effectively as possible.

By the way, sometimes I do my best thinking in the shower.

[Shadowman]

Image heavy is the way I like it when viewing "street photography". Nice captures, I like that you provided a time frame for the submitted captures. Interesting that you didn't deviate from the specific function, would have expected an errant still life, pet shot, or architectural capture within the bunch.

[Manfred M]

Shane - let me again draw you to feature films and TV programs and watch what happens when they start a scene and between the cuts in a scene.

The edits always do something similar; introduce you to the setting and then use various cuts to show you the material that they want you to see, with a good mix of long, medium, short and extreme closeups (sometime). There may or may not be much transition between the scenes.

So in your context, once you know you are finished with one stall, simply do an establishing shot at the next stall and way you go. Just like the movies, you don't actually have to take the shots at the same time. If you wander by the stall again, get some more material and then figure out the order you want to present them in your photo documentary.

Just make sure you use what film makers refer to as "continuity". Showing a sunset shot before a morning light shot probably won't work. A shot on a rainy day will undoubtedly need some kind of transition if there is a burst of clear blue skies. In film work this is known as transitioning; and again how and how much is dependent on you as the photographer. As an example showing a cloud peaking out behind a rain cloud in one of the shots lets us understand why the light went from rainy to bright light.

[Donald]

The guys have really nailed the key points in their posts above. But there's one other thing that I don't think has been given prominence in the discussion above.

You want to tell a story. That story is going to be told through a series of images. So .............. before you ever get near the market (again) and before you ever think about picking up your camera - What do the images look like (in your head) that you know will be needed to tell that story. It's like Mike wrote about - A shot list. And it's about picking up the points Manfred made re movie-making. You need to 'see' the sorts of shots you want that will tell the story of a Farmers' Market.

So, for me, it's the thinking. I wouldn't even call it planning, though I suppose it is to an extent. It's the visualising of what the images are going to look like that will say to me and, hopefully others, 'Farmers' Market'

[Manfred M]

+1 To what Donald has written.

The pre-visualization stage is critical to figuring out what shots you need to tell the story you want.

Having been to the market now, having taken some shots; the next time go in and take the shots that tell your story.

[Mike Buckley]

The pre-visualization stage is critical to figuring out what shots you need to tell the story you want.

Before filming a movie, directors create story boards, which are still representations of the scenes they plan to create to effectively tell the story. We need to do the same at least in our mind before capturing the scenes that will tell our story using a sequence of still photos. The "only" difference is that the movie director gets to choose the lighting and gets to tell the actors what to do and where to stand and walk while they're doing it.

[Manfred M]

Before filming a movie, directors create story boards, which are still representations of the scenes they plan to create to effectively tell the story. We need to do the same at least in our mind before capturing the scenes that will tell our story using a sequence of still photos. The "only" difference is that the movie director gets to choose the lighting and gets to tell the actors what to do and where to stand and walk while they're doing it.

Yes, the story boards are used to communicate the filmmaker's vision to his or team. What you have written is correct for feature films, documentary filmmakers tend to be more flexible in their approach as they often deal with more variable subject matter.

[Shadowman]

Pre-visualization is fine but sometimes you have to improvise, respond to your surroundings, go off script. The farmer's market is a collection of huts territorial wise, but those collection of huts are amidst an even larger environment (the outer neighborhood) and it is that environment that fuels the farmer's market. To tell a story of a farmer's market, you want to include that neighborhood or location; shooting from the outside in, then once you are in the market shoot from the inside out.

[Mike Buckley]

Pre-visualization is fine but sometimes you have to improvise

That's a fact. However, the more prepared we are, the less we have to improvise. I have always subscribed to the idea that it's far better to be overly prepared than under prepared.

[Shadowman]

That's a fact. However, the more prepared we are, the less we have to improvise. I have always subscribed to the idea that it's far better to be overly prepared than under prepared.

Not at all in disagreement, but to help Shane, lets say she plans to photograph brass plates and vases and she wants sunlight sparkling on the shiny objects, however the sky is overcast or even rainy that day. What steps will she need to take to capture the scene she wants and I hope Shane provides examples as well?

[ShaneS]

This is great information and REALLY helpful! I am going to be watching documentaries and other media with this in mind for some time to come.

The concept of thinking a project like this through before starting and clarifying on your mind what story you want to tell is a good one and then, as John says, be open to other possibilities that present themselves to further nuance your story.

As it is I have presented a number of images from the market that talk of the various people that shot and eat there but there is no transition. So this is really a set of still images that may or may not stand alone as taken at the farmer's market and showing what type of activity happens with that as a hub. I needed to be educated!

Now, you guys had me so very inspired that I pulled out my iPhone today and took some shots of a local food truck that frequents our office and I tried to employ some of Manfred's specific shot ideas. I'm off to look at them on the computer to see if they are worth sharing to further this discussion

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in - it is much appreciated!