SHOPPER

When I first started shooting with the Fujifilm X100S cameras, I went looking to shoot a little differently than I had as a newspaper photographer. Since acquiring the little rangefinder-like cameras I have been shooting mainly with the aperture giving a little more depth of field (DOF) than I did with my professional Nikon cameras and lenses which I tended to shoot with a shorter DOF to help the viewer to focus on what I got me to hit the shutter button.

Yesterday's post about "Inspiration" got me a little pumped up for today's sojourn to the local market which my wife and I do pretty much every Monday. I also got to thinking that, like yesterday's image with a short DOF, I wanted to try to get an image from the hip with the aperture wide open (in the case of the X100S that would be f2). With the camera pre-focused at about 10 feet, we started our shopping. It was not until we were almost done that I saw this woman walking toward me and, with the camera hanging around my neck, waited until I thought the composition might work.

While the image is far from perfect, i do like the results I achieved here. One, I pretty much nailed her approach and got the focus almost dead on. Add in it was shot at f2, my timing was pretty good. Add in that the short DOF gives me the fuzzy background that I wanted and I got the shot I was trying for. The unexpected bonus was the shopper appears to be looking right at me so I have eye contact that I was not expecting. All in all, a good first attempt after slacking off my shooting skills for the last few months of the quarantine.

Want to get your inspiration gurgling again? Give yourself a challenge and then go out to try and fulfill it. It, like my first effort here, might not be a keeper but you may see something that gives you some hope!