London trip - photography practice

We had a great long weekend away in London last week and I hoped to have a go at what might have been called street photography (although it was actually in a market!). 

We went to Borough Market - a perfect opportunity to capture people at work and play.  The weather was a bit dire - very heavy rain and not the best light.  This brought plenty of people into the centre of the market to stay under shelter - good for the food stalls, not so good for me being bumped and pushed by people from all sides.  The market was amazing, packed with stalls selling freshly cooked dishes of curry and paella alongside freshly juiced high energy organic fruit and veg.  There were beautiful bright colours everywhere. If I could have recorded the smells and sounds I may have made a  better job of things.

I found that I struggled with my shyness again.  I tried to be discreet when taking photos, aiming to capture the atmosphere of the stall holders without intruding.  By not asking permission of the stall holders before taking photos I found myself unable to stand where I needed a good shot.  Standing in doorways from the outside looking in made the shots dark.  This also proved challenging when trying to decide on the settings.

As you can see by the image below I needed to change this unsuccessful technique.

I had to photoshop this image to make it halfway decent, altering the levels to reduce the appalling very one sided histogram and desaturating it to add more interest. This made the image quite grainy.

So - I had to brave it and approach people directly before photographing them.  These proved much better and I was a little happier with these images.

The trip to the market highlighted just how little I had learnt so far about the practicalities of the camera. Constant use of the camera in all conditions will be the only way for me to embed the knowledge.  All in all this confirmed the need for practice, practice, practice. So I aim to have my camera with me at all times in future.