Busy traffic

This project presented a relatively unusual challenge as I have rarely tried to present a place as being busy. I had read that the town we would be staying at during our journey through South West France, Sarlat, hosts a large street market on Saturday morning. We arrived Friday afternoon, and this gave me the chance to briefly familiarize myself with the area of the old town where the market is held. The weather forecast was for bright conditions with some hazy sunshine.

Image 1

                Tourist group

Panasonic Lumix G3 at 14mm (28mm equivalent): Iso 400 f8 for 1/160th seconds

I started in the central square of the town as I expected that some parts of this would receive the morning light. I chose this group of Spanish tourists as my first subject. I debated whether to use a telephoto lens to shorten the perspective, but I decided that a wide angle view would give a more context. I did not want a photograph of a crowd of people and nothing else.

I climbed on a low wall so that I could look down on the group and moved close to make the foreground figures a reasonable size. After a couple of initial glances to see what I was doing, they shifted their attention back to what the guide was telling them.

I tried a horizontal framing as an alternative thinking that this would show more of the square. The horizontal frame was less succesful, however, as this included a relatively large area of white awnings of the stalls which was unattractive.

Image 2

                              In the centre of the square

Panasonic Lumix G3 at 14mm (28mm equivalent): Iso 160 f22 for 1/8th second
Looking to capture a picture with some movement blur, I moved down to the centre of the square at a cross-roads in the market place. I set the camera to minimum ISO and minimum aperture giving an exposure time of 1/8th second. I supported the camera on a walking pole that I had brought with me, as I knew I would be using some slow shutter speeds. I soon discovered that few of the people walking past were moving fast enough to create a blur at this shutter speed. Most people were standing looking at the stalls or moving at a very slow pace. There were also several who avoiding walking in front of me as they did not want to "spoil" my photograph! This was one of the few shots where I caught some movement blur. This single blurred figure in the foreground seems to be enough to create a feeling of movement against a background of other figures that are virtually motionless.

Image 3

                                       Fruit seller
 Panasonic Lumix G3 at 42mm (84mm equivalent): Iso 200 f8for 1/125th seconds
I walked away from the central square towards the direction of the sun looking for stalls with less flat lighting conditions. I found this stall on the outskirts to the market which was doing a fantastic trade selling grapes and melons. This photo was taken from some steps which gave me a little height to look down on the stall. I also took some close-up shots with the lens set to wide angle. In this case, I felt the telephoto gave a better composition. In the foreground there is a sizeable group of people, some stretching for the grapes and others queuing behind. The background is rather cluttered, but I chose this shot, as I see that there is a man with his back to us walking away with his bag of purchases. I felt that his presence added something to the narrative of the composition. The man in the yellow shirt on the right hand side of the frame is more prominent than I would have liked, but the eye is quickly drawn to the activity of the people in the centre of the frame. Some more post processing work on this photograph would be beneficial: this may be a candidate for project 22 - Adjusting balance between a person and the space.

Image 4

                                      Main street shoppers
Panasonic Lumix G3 at 14mm (28mm equivalent): Iso 160 f18 for 1/4 seconds
The main shopping street was lined with stalls, but this was also a thoroughfare for people heading to and from the market. I placed myself on one side of the street facing a stall on the opposite side with my camera set to a slow shutter speed. As groups of people passed by, I took a number of shots. Of these, this was the one I preferred as there were a large number of passers by, but the stall and awnings behind are still visible. This seemed to portray the crowd better than other shots where there were fewer people,but more of the background stalls were visible.

Conclusions

I have considered which of the above photographs I would choose as the best way to portray the "busyness" of the Sarlat market. I think the choice is between image 3 and 4 above, on the basis that images 1 and 2 are less visually interesting and more static.
Images 3 and 4 convey different aspects of the Sarlat market. Image 4 conveys the constant traffic of passers-by in the street, but the character of the market scene is less apparent.
I, therefore, would choose image 3 as the best way to portray the busy market:

• This shows people busy at a market stall and the character of the place is clearly apparent. 
• The composition is more interesting as there is there is a diagonal element to the composition from the man in the right foreground to stallholders in the left midground. In image 3 in contrast, the blurred figures give rise to a composition of verticals and horizontal lines which seems less dynamic visually. 
• I feel that there is a narrative element in image 4 which is lacking in image 3. This may not be an essential element for this project, it think it provides a stronger interest for a viewer.