A standard view

Planning
The Farmers Market in Guildford is only held once a month and I knew that I would be away on the April and May dates. I therefore wanted to go to the market at the beginning of March. The market is held in the High Street which is generally shaded from sunlight until the afternoon. The market however is closing down by this time and I therefore decided to go along in the morning and make use of whatever light there was available.
Photography
I went through the market twice taking photographs, once early morning before it was busy and a second time around lunchtime when the market is at its busiest. I was using my Nikon D200 camera and 18-200mm lens as I was expecting the light levels to be relatively low. My Canon bridge camera is less obtrusive but it does not cope well with low light situations. I therefore decided to use the DSLR which can produce reasonable results even at ISO 800. I have selected two pictures from the early morning and two from my lunchtime visit. 

Thigh stretch

First thing in the morning, the stallholders were mostly putting their produce out on display, but this man seemed to be taking a break. He was looking directly at me, but it was as if he did not see me. He did not seem to react or change his gaze even though I assume he was aware that I was taking a photograph. Maybe he was just feeling cold as he was not wrapped up as warmly as the other stallholders.

Goat cheese stall

This man did react when he saw me carrying a camera. I explained what I was doing and he subsequently ignored me and concentrated instead on attracting the attention of other passers-by.

Gipsy lady

At lunchtime there were crowds of shoppers at the market. This lady was standing on the pavement constantly shifting her gaze to look up and down the street at the passers-by. It is reasonably likely that she was aware of me as she was alert to everyone in her vicinity. I had to wait some time to catch a moment when her face and eyes were visible and there were no passers-by obstructing my view.

At the beer stall

Otherwise at lunchtime, I looked for opportunities to photograph some of the market customers as well as the traders. There were several practical difficulties in doing this:
- the stalls are covered and light levels under the covers are low. I was therefore looking for people  on the outside edges of the stalls rather than under cover. 
- It was a cold day and there were people queuing at the stalls selling hot food. I tried to photograph various customers standing behind the steaming food, but I was unsuccesful in getting a satisfactory picture. 
However, I noticed this couple enjoying a drink and a convivial chat with the proprietor of the beer stall. I was able to take a number of photos before the lady noticed me. It was this photo of her gazing at the camera which seemed to portray best the friendy atmosphere of the scene.
I feel that there is something to like in each of the four photos that I have selected from this shoot. The subjects show some individuality and character. The figures stand out strongly enough from the backgrounds.,
Conclusions
I spoke to a friend who is more experienced in street photography about my experiences at the market. He suggested that next time, I speak to the stallholders beforehand to tell them that I would be taking photographs and asking them to just ignore what I am doing. It that there may be some difference between theory and practice here:

• The introduction to this part of the course is entitled "People Unaware" and my tutor also mentioned in his guidance for these projects that I should ensure as far as possible that I am unobtrusive and that the subjects are unaware that they are being photographed.
• From a practical standpoint, however, I wonder whether it is satisfactory for the subjects to simply be ignoring the photographer.  For example, the stallholders preoccupied with selling their produce in a market would seem to be valid subject for candid photography as long as they are ignoring the presence of the photographer. In other words, it may be sufficient for candid photography that the subjects are "acting as if they were unaware", instead of being "totally unaware" of the presence of the photographer.

I have been reading through Training Your Gazed Chapters 1 to 4 whilst writing up these posts. I notice that many of the street photographs in these chapters are showing more of the surroundings than I have done in the exercises so far. I should aim to take a broader view in some of the remaining exercises.