During the next to last day of our 80 weeks trip around the world, I suddenly found myself shooting at F16 and a speed of 1/8th for the first time. For someone that basically shoots only at large apertures and high speed, what could then have happened?
Influence. I fell to influence. Indeed, I had just discovered a wonderful picture by Raghu Rai at the Mumbai train station. I found it reproduced so well the atmosphere of this extraordinary place that I could not help trying a similar effect when I got in the building. Bad or good ? I don't know and I suppose that it unconsciously happens to many of us as we reproduce framings and scenes we have seen before, somewhere. In the end, our perception of the world is the sum of past experiences so a lot of what we photograph today is influenced by pictures we have seen in the past. I guess that as long as one does not try to mimik consciously what has been done before, this is fine.
This being said, the slow speeds and motion blur is not my thing and after a couple of attempts (picture 1 and 2), I quickly switched back to what I consider my own style : high vantage point and blur (picture 3 and 4). Though these last two pictures are not anywhere near Raghu's wonderful take on the station, they do represent my own vision of the world. I'll stick to them, no more F16 !
If you would like to discover Raghu Rai's picture of Mumbai Central station, follow this link (second row, last picture). And if you never heard about him, take some time to discover his wonderful work, it is definitelhy worth it.
(click on pictures for high res)
All pictures taken with Leica M9 with 35mm Lux Asph
For many years I used slow speeds to catch movement,1/30 usually, and f/4 or f/5.6 and I loved it. I always liked moving scenes. Your style and you are good indeed.
I've learnt a lot from Raghu Rai also and I shoot at around f10 to f16, but i don't shoot with slow shutter speed. Mine is at about 1/250. With ISO800 to 1600 this is definitely possible even in low light. The result is you get good depth of field and no blurs.
I like how you captured also.
To each one's own style! ;-)
I can see why you tried to imitate his style. Definitely worth experimenting with.
I like it very much. It emphisise the busyness of the place, well done.
http://streamlightphotography.blogspot.com
The first two image make me feel as though I'm right in the mist of this train station…thumbs up