The Missed Shot

Initially, I thought I had messed up this shot entirely – but have come to kind of like it after a day of consideration. I have been focusing on a couple of key techniques lately

reduce : look for simpler compositions that have less clutter

isolate : make sure the subject in each image is clear and obvious

camp : find the right spot and wait for the image to “happen”

and finally, walking slower and looking for backgrounds first, then subjects. Of course, this has been happening with varying levels of success!

Here are my other images from the day out.

I went out yesterday with my Contax G2 (you can read more about this wonderful camera here), with both the 35mm and 90mm lenses in the bag. For a change of pace, I decided to run with the 90mm all day. It is a great focal length to get up closer to people, and isolate faces. Where it tarnishes a bit is the way it “closes” in on the subject, losing all the wider background interest a wider angle lens gives.

Interesting framing of subjects is also another area that I have been trying to explore. I was walking up Flinders Lane when I spotted a couple of people having a smoke break at Chapter House Lane, behind an iron gate. The gate worked like a frame and I felt it turned a relatively ordinary image into something cool.

I snapped the shot and kept moving. It was the one frame I was excited about for the whole day prior to developing it. Unfortunately, it turned out ot be a bit of my own Robert Capa d-day moment… something went haywire in the camera controls when I took the shot and it was way under exposed. The shot should have worked much better with f2.8 and iso 400 film. I can only think that I had the Auto Exposure lock on – and that it metered for a much brighter spot prior to exposing the film.

I was very disappointed… But now, the next day, I am starting to warm to the image a bit. It has some marks on the negative which I am not sure of, but I can either clean it up or retouch it. The grain of the underexposed film looks OK…

It reminds me a bit of this image I took in Kyneton – something went wrong in processing at the shop (i used to get my black and whites developed by a store – blasphemy!).