The Daily blog #60
To Be Seen
I had just shot the last frame of film in my 35mm film camera when I saw that fur coat. At that same moment, he saw me holding a camera and immediately asked me to take his picture. I turned on my digital camera and shot five quick frames. The wind blew my camera strap into the shot in three of the frames, but I pulled it together for two. Then, we shook hands and he went on his way. He wanted to show off that coat and my camera brought me into his world for a moment- so he could be seen. He may never see this picture, but I bet he hopes a whole lot of people will. He was that proud of his coat.
In situations like this, having your camera not only with you, but ready to shoot at any time is important. I was shooting film up to the last second before I saw him, but when I ran out of frames I already had my digital camera set up. Often, an aperture of f/16 is not optimum for a portrait, since everything is in focus and there can be lots of distractions in the background. I think the perspective of the buildings and the texture of the fur coat separate him from the background a bit, but I probably would to have tried an aperture closer to f/5.6 for at least a couple of shots. Either way, cool guy with a cool coat.
Gear used:
