Exercise: A sequence of composition

When on a week's holiday in Majorca at the beginning of February, I took the opportunity to tackle this exercise knowing that there would be markets within easy reach, almost every day.  Like others before me, I found that I ended up with a series of smaller sequences, rather than one long sequence.  Mostly because of the very short timespan which characterises the shopping people do.  Curiously, it was not as easy as I imagined, moving around in the market as there were several natural barriers - the stall and other shoppers are good examples of this as well as the need to get in close.

I am including two sequences in this blog, the first being in the fish market area of the Mercat de l'Oliver in Palma and the second being a rather rambling outdoor street market in Llucmayor.

Overall I feel pleased with the sequence in the fish market - I found this type of photography really quite stimulating and challenging and I found myself more into "telling a story" rather than concentrating on the task in hand.  The lighting was harsh, but I have left that alone as it is part of the atmosphere of the market.  The camera certaily performed well, shooting at ISO 1600.  By the time I published these Lightroom 3 Beta 2 was released with absolutely stunning luminance  noise removal which I played with on this sequence of photos.

This was rather interesting - the market trader and his customer were totally engrossed in the sale / purchase, so I was able to do an entire 360 around them.  The close-ups were in the middle of the sequence, but I also felt it was important to have them "placed" in the overall environment, hence the wider shots.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  The sequnces included were two of many - some successful, some not so.  It is certaily something I shall be doing much more of.