Shooting 50mm on the Island of Gozo
I made this quick video while visiting friends on the Island of Gozo (Malta) recently.
I am prone to taking too much gear on trips, but this time, seeing as this was supposed to be time to relax, I thought I would just take my Canon 5DmkII and a Sigma 50mm prime.
Taking one focal length forces you to think more, and move more, in order to get the shots you want... and of course means a lighter bag, and grateful back muscles. Limiting yourself with one focal length for a trip forces you to think more creatively to compensate (zooms can make us lazy). Your legs have to become your zoom with a prime lens. If you want to exercise your photographic eye, this is often a good challenge to give yourself.
I also offer some thoughts on not needing the very latest gear in order to get good shots, and reasons why the Canon 5DmkII is still good enough for me.
I've included some of the shots I got, including some of the Good Friday procession in Rabat.
Enjoy.
How to shoot portraits outside your culture (featuring The Himba)
I put out a video recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSiZHcmflX4&t=241s) talking about how to start moving your photography career in a particular direction. I asked myself what sort of photography really spoke to me, and in my case it was pretty obvious.
It was people photography.
Portraits.
Especially portraits of people from different contexts and with different stories to my own.
My photography heroes are Steve McCurry, Sebastiao Salgado, Jimmy Nelson and Joey L for his work in Africa, India and Syria. I understand that it’s a different era now and that grabbing a job at National Geographic is not a realistic option. I also know that no one is coming to knock on my door to hire me for this sort of work just because I would love to do it. There are no favours in this industry.
If I ever manage to make this sort of work my full time job it will be because I have already proved that I could produce quality imagery in this area. So I packed my bags and gear and headed to a country which has always held a special interest for me; Namibia. I went to the tribal homelands of the Himba people and organised through a local guide (the wonderful Vanessa) to head into one of the villages for golden hour, for two evenings in a row, to shoot portraits with them.
For the portraits I shot using my Canon 5DmkII and a Sigma Art 50mm f1.4. On top of this I was using a Tiffen Variable ND filter to be able to cut the light and keep the depth of field where I wanted it without overexposing.
The first evening I went in I shot all natural light with a large white reflector.
On the second evening I went in and shot mixing strobe and natural light using my Alien Bee 800 with Vagabond Mini battery pack, shot through a 1.5m Photek Softlighter. This had the desired effect of darkening the background and shaping the light on the face for a slightly more dramatic look.
The overall experience was amazing. I intend this to be the first of many trips, but I will likely always remember this one as important because it helped prove to myself that I can do this; that all the work I have put in to build up my skill set over the years has resulted in images like this. On my ever evolving photographic journey it has been great to discover that this is a valid direction for me, which is exciting because it’s one which I would get a great deal of fulfillment from.
Here’s to the journey ahead.
Enjoy the video:
Here are a selection of the images I managed to capture:
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