Pt 1, Ex 3. A Sequence of Composition

For this exercise, I headed to London with the idea of heading to the usual busy places with lots of people.  Unfortunately a combination of areas being set up for events and a overcast cold day seemed to keep most people away, but I was lucky to find a small demonstration in Whitehall, opposite Downing Street.  The full size pictures can all be viewed in this Flickr set.  The act of capturing these images was quite enjoyable, and not something I'd done previously.  It was also more demanding than I expected it would be as I was constantly trying to find points of interest whilst avoiding collisions as I kept looking through the viewfinder.

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The first photo is as I approached the scene and shows a TV crew beginning to set up

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In this photo I included the view of the London Eye in the to give some interest in the background and clues to the event's location

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Moving along, I noticed a TV reporter  doing a piece to camera.  I made sure I included some of the placards in the background to give context to the the image

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Pulling back from the reporter, the 'pig' and his sign become dominant, but the reporter is still visible and imparts the newsworthiness of the event

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Moving around the TV crew, I continued taking photos.  This is a pretty dull image, but tracks my progress around the event

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Moving on slightly further, I found what appeared to be on of the focus points of the protest, with the man in black (back to us) leading the protesters

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Moving round to focus on the the man leading this part of the protest, I captured this image.  Whilst a poor image technically (poor light lead to slower shutter speeds), it is a good capture in the context of the subjects. Two demonstrators are clearly captivated by the man leading and enjoying the event.

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Moving further along the line, we get more context as to the protest.  The large banner clearly states the purpose of the protest and the man in the Hi-Vis tabbard is organising people.

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Moving back towards the centre of the protest now and we can see people looking towards a common point

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...and that central point is our leader again.  This time leading the protesters in singing.

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..and here we see him encouraging a response from his audience

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Turning round I noticed the statue of Montgomery.  The contrast between military discipline and the random nature of the protesters works well (although the statue is a bit underexposed) as does the relation between people expressing their freedom and someone who fought for it

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Turning to the right I noticed a sign saying 'Sign Our Sausage'

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...and turning a bit more to the right, I captured press photographers covering the event.  I notice that they all had flashes mounted to their cameras.  If only I had had mine with me as the light was really poor - a lesson learnt!

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I then noticed a man to my left - mainly because he was facing the opposite way to everyone else and concentrating on a phone call rather than anything else.  The T-shirt under his jacket the only clue that he was part of the protest

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..but the phone call was clearly making him quite animated.

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Moving round to the right of the protest to seek new views, I found someone giving an interview

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Zooming out give a sense of the seriousness of the message being communicated

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Turning to the left, I captured the press contingent again.  The wall between the press & protesters serves as a physical barrier between the two sides.

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Moving on to the far side of the protest I came across this individual.  He appeared to be on his own and slightly removed from the main group - possibly because of the somewhat questionable phrase he has put on his placard.

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Finally I saw this man, completely on his own, talking into a mobile phone.  He appears to be taking part in the protest somewhat reluctantly and was keen to be on his own.  Perhaps he was complaining to someone on the phone