Exercise 9: A Comfortable Situation

For this exercise I decided to visit Lincoln on a pleasant day during July this year. Lincoln is always busy with locals and tourists and I thought, correctly that the fine weather would encourage large numbers of visitors. I chose to concentrate on the old part of the city round the cathedral and Steep Hill, the main thoroughfare from the shopping centre up to the cathedral, as it would be busy with tourists. I felt quite comfortable in this setting as it would be easy to appear to be photographing the tourist sites while actually taking photographs of people. I also chose to use my canon G10 compact as it would be less obtrusive than a large DSLR with a large zoom lens.

In the above pictures I felt very comfortable taking the picture of the couple looking in the window and they are completely unaware of the camera and concentrating on the shop window. The gentleman in the centre image is, I think unaware of the camera but his head is turned to one side and the picture is missing something. I like the image on the right of the couple talking. They look very relaxed and it is nearly possible to feel part of their day.

The ladies in the left hand image above are engrossed in their conversation and not aware that they are being photographed. The young man in the centre image is also unaware but I have caught him in an unflattering pose. I really like the photograph of the three boys sitting on the bench talking. I wonder what they are looking at?

In the two left hand images the subjects do not seem to be aware of the camera and are involved in their own activities. In the right image, however, I think that this father and daughter (?) are aware that they are in the picture but they appear not to mind and to be totally relaxed.

The gentleman above may be aware of the camera and I do not feel he looks comfortable at all.

The images below were all taken on the same day during the interval of a concert at Lincoln's Drill Hall. All of the subjects are engrossed in conversation, presumably about the concert, and all look relaxed. I certainly felt comfortable taking these pictures.

This was an interesting exercise and one which I enjoyed. Although I felt in a comfortable situation, it was always at the back of my mind that someone might object and this is somewhat unsettling. All of these people were complete strangers that I have met before.