Exercise 9 - Focal Lengths

This exercise required that I chose a view that was open but with details in the distance. I decided to follow the example in the folder and take an image that was portrait in aspect as I tend to stick to landscape in most situations, possibly merely because of the camera's ergonomics.


Anyway, whilst I was taking pictures in Manchester, this was one of the exercises I had planned to execute and I had noted (in my notebook) to head towards the Cathedral. I'm not a big fan of churches and try to avoid shooting them, but in this scenario it was an easy view to choose as it offered a lot of detail from a wide angle and a telephoto range. 


I didn't use a tripod as I was planning on taking some street photography, but I did maintain the exact position in regards to distance from subject at all times.

This was the image taken at the widest focal length if 17mm. I like the view as the lines on the road lead the eye towards the cathedral tower as do the diagonal lines of the building on the right. The image doesn't seem to have much balance at first, but the solidity of the tower and it's smoggy stones create a strong centre of gravity.

Here is the image cropped to show the clock tower which is the detail that I started to aim towards as I changed lenses.

here is the clock tower taken at 200mm from the same spot as the original photo. The detail and aspect of the images are the same. The relationship between the clock face and the scene is the same in both images.