Candids 4

Today I am returning to the theme of candid travel photos taken on slide film. When shooting candids I usually compose and shoot quickly because I don't want the subjects to see me pointing a camera towards them. If they see me, they stop what they are doing, the scene changes and the image is missed. The three images this morning were taken in Calgary, 1988.

I saw two young people sitting on a park bench and even though I didn't have a clue what they were talking about, it looked intense. There are a few problems with this image, all caused because I shot so fast. The feet are cut off and all I had to do to fix this was move the camera down a little. The image would have been much better if it was a closer view but the lens was at its maximum zoom . I could have zoomed back or moved the camera to the left a little and included the whole bench. I have a cropped version of this photo and will send it to anyone who requests to see it.

Two bicyclists stopped for a rest and chat. Again, my lens was at maximum zoom so the photo shows the closest view I could get at the time. I included the bicycles to provide information to the viewer - you can deduce that the people are bicyclists and taking a break from their exercise.

The gentleman reading while sitting on a bench was very interesting. He definitely wasn't dressed for a hike or the warm weather. He was wearing a suit so I assumed he was on a break from work and took some time for himself. The location was in a residential area pretty far from downtown Calgary so I may be wrong. I had more time to compose this photo and decided to shoot before the person in the background got any closer.

The hikers were photographed on Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park. I took a photo of the sunbather because he was lying on the rocks. I wondered why he chose such an uncomfortable area to catch a few rays!