This photograph of a girl giving a passing man a critical look is far from good in technical terms. There is motion blur as I have taken it without stopping and the light is challenging ranging from a remote bright spots to almost black holes in the building on the left. However, her expression here is priceless and I only wish I had some miracle mirror camera to see his face.
I found myself today at the sharp end of a triangle. I have noticed the girl on the phone as I passed the construction zone at the Pitt Street Mall. She was half enclosed by the construction safety tunnel and her whole front was out of it exposed to the sun. It looked a bit like the old portraits where other then the person in focus everything turns into a black void.
I took the camera and started to focus on her, when I noticed the two men on the left. From their reaction I gathered they thought I was about to photograph them. I quickly re-framed the photograph to include them in the background. The resulting image looks like a collage of two separate photographs only joined by the invisible photographer as both the men and the girl look at me at the same time.
To me part of successful candid photography is to capture people in their natural element without them being aware of it. The moment they realise they are the subject of photography people start to pose.
As you can see from this portrait of the woman with red hair I have failed to capture her without her realising it. In fact she seems to be a bit surprised by me photographing her. Her look is quizzical yet she did not turn around.
How would you react if you realised you are being photographed?
This elderly gentleman had a very good look at my camera as I was passing him at a bus stop. I wondered how many stories does his photo album tell?
Usually when people realise I try to photograph them they turn away but not this pretty brunette who looked me straight into the lens and held the look. This girl was not only gorgeous but also very confident.
