Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Among arts and craft....

I took some time off to go visit an annual event in London Ontario where various artists gather to showcase their products and services. I carried only a macro lens to the event on my Canon rebel body, sort of to limit causes for changing lenses so often.... a choice which proved to be a great one.. The event was so crowded and all the stalls were covered with people, juggling with lenses would have been the last thing I wanna do. The set up created some challenges.

1. Sellers and artists were interested to showcase but were skeptical about photographing them due to the risk of someone steeling their ideas. I had to clearly state my intentions many times.

2. The lighting was not that good and also highly uneven. Due to the crowd, I could not use a tripod (to not to get in the way of others). So, that meant, a fixed wide aperture to not to increase the chances of getting a sharp shot. This also meant there s a very shallow depth of field.

3. My lens at hand meant (at an effective focal distance of 160mm = 100mm*1.6) meant I should better stick with macros... So went hunting for small objects only.

*** But the most important skill I developed was not photography related at all.. It was the way to discuss with people and build a good rapport with people.. so it was all people skills.

Below are some of the shots. Will provide more as (if) I receive permission from other vendors,
All images are copyrighted. 

















The following two pictures are from two pendents which were made out using multiple layers of glass.. fascinating.. But I would have loved to play with lighting in these ones to bring out some drama.






Thanks
Akila.

2 comments:

  1. You are correct. Gaining trust from the artist is very difficult. After they allow you to take photos be sure to pick up their business card and ALWAYS sent them a 4x6 print of what you took. They will appreciate it, and you will gain trust. If they like them they may even give you an order for photos.
    You might want to try a polarizing filter and see if you can get some of the background light off the blue stone at the bottom. However you do not want to take away any sparkle in the jewellery itself, particularly in the top photos. Nicely done.

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    1. Now you mentioned it... it does make sense to use a polarizer there would actually cut off the reflections. I had it in my bag and didn't put it on due to low light there. But thats a good lesson to learn. I did send all of them copies of these pictures through e-mail and heard good comments from all. In fact one of them asked me to let me know if I drive by that area to shoot more... :) It was a great experience and as I told you, wanna expand to candid street shoots. Highly appreciate your valuable comments.

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