A lot of people think long lenses are a way of avoiding having to walk. They aren't. They are for compressing distances and creating shots where everything seems much more tightly packed than it actually is. I've also used a shallow depth of field, or opened the lens up, to focus the eye on the central action - the background is deliberately soft.
Having said yesterday that photography is hard, street shooting like this is easy (in terms of physical effort anyway). You just need to keep your eyes open, and imagine how things would look through different lenses and from different angles. In turn, wandering around a city trying to find photo opportunities, as opposed to snapping obvious landmarks, is a great way to develop a sense of place.
The location, of course, is my favourite city, Lisbon. Lisboa is what Paris is supposed to be, but so very rarely is: scattered with pavement cafes, featuring a busy nightlife, laden with wonderful street scenes, full of friendly people, and easy to get around. When I'm in a city mood, this is where I want to be. I can't think of a better place to conduct a romance either. Mind you, I find my liver needs a few days off afterwards.
The weather has returned to normal now, so the cameras are packed, the car is loaded, and we'll see if we can make this a blog as opposed to a photography course tomorrow.
Do you have any photos of Estoril and Caiscais? My aunt lives on Avenida dos Bombeiros and I would like to see it again.
ReplyDeleteI guess that I will just have to go by myself!
Looks that way - only been to Estoril once, to have my beloved dog cremated, so I wasn't doing photos!
ReplyDeleteLove the tram pic, Louis.
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