The Frame - 3 - Morning in East Coast Park

Project: Looking through the viewfinder

Exercise: A sequence of composition

For this exercise I chose to present the atmosfere of a morning in the park. The place, the people, the activities that happen here in a week's day morning. So I've started with a few photos of the place, trying to create an overall view, as it is shown in the course.

First photo shows an important thing related to the place: the park is located on the seashore.

Photo 1

Second photo involves people, taking a walk or jogging on the park alleys.

Photo 2

To the left, more trees, benches and...people in the distance.

Photo 3

Same in the fourth photo, just slightly closer.

Photo 4

I went a little closer, and photographed the family sitting near the tree.

Photo 5

...and a bit closer.

Photo 6

I noticed there were school children in the area. So I captured the image of the boy, passing the alley, going to his group.

Photo 7

...and his group is here, about to finish their field trip.

Photo 8

I went closer, and photographed the group of girls. The children are almost ready to go, they all gathered their school bags. And some of them are collecting the garbage.

Photo 9

...another angle.

Photo 10

Two boys are taking the garbage bag to the garbage bin. The big boy seems to dislike this, judging the way he's "holding" the bag.

Photo 11

I turned my camera back to photograph the rest of the children. They are leaving.

Photo 12

Last small group ...

Photo 13

A little backward on the alley, some girls are practicing in-line skating. Wait...one of them is actually the teacher.

Photo 14

And she's really into it.

Photo 15

Cyclists are an important characteristic of this park, so I let the image of the skaters receive this addition, of the woman cyclist passing by.

Photo 16

And I thought it was a good moment in the sequence to show other cyclists as well. And as they're constantly passing, it wasn't difficult.

Photo 17

I turned back to my right a little, and I saw that the family sitting near the tree was up and about, with the baby pushing a toy car, trying his frist steps.

Photo 18

...change of places.

Photo 19

In the meantime I heard some noise, and by the time I finished shooting the photo of the baby and his family, there were some developments nearby.

Photo 20

A park maintenance car and team arrived at the scene. Workers started to repaint the bicycle and skater signs on the alley.

Photo 21

I found it interesting to follow their work, and my attempt to "a sequence of composition" became more like "a sequence of events".

Photo 22

I liked to photograph them, as they were wearing these colorful uniforms, and handled paints. Orange and yellow made the photos warm. And they were operating this "strange" machine...

Photo 23

...in the process

Photo 24

Here I closed in on him, to show a more accurate image of his work.

Photo 25

...and of the machinery.

Photo 26

Finished, moving to another location.

Photo 27

So this is what I could come up with for the "sequence of composition" exercise. I had more than one moment when I wanted to close in on something, or on somebody. But when it came to people, I realized I couldn't go any closer. I didn't want to intrude. My zoom lens does a very poor job, when at 150mm focal length, and so I used a wide angle lens in the beginning and later I changed for the 50 mm one and got as close as I could, trying not to annoy anybody. The maintenance guys were not bothered by my presence, so they became the easiest subject to capture up close, and so I continued photographing them.

But I think my "sequence" is kind of broken, and I would need some more professional advice and guidance for this sort of exercise.