The event was the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines playing at a picnic in the grounds of the British embassy on 24 April. Just a day after St George's Day.
WoodwindNikkor 18-200 @ 105mm
F/5.3 & 1/320s
ISO200
Confession being good for the soul, I confess that I was aiming for a more tightly-cropped image of the bespectacled clarinetist, but I chopped the knob off the top of his helmet. So this one will have to do. As you see, I was aiming to get all four clarinets in shot, but with short depth of field in order to accentuate one of them.
Drum MajorNikkor 18-200 @ 120mm
F/16 & 1/40s
ISO200
Poor man. He stood there, motionless, for about 20 minutes with sweat beading off him. This despite the tropical uniform. I liked the reflection in the silver globe. Small aperture here so that the items reflected in the globe would be in focus.
DrumsNikkor 18-200 @ 24mm
F/5.6 & 1/400s
ISO200
One rank of drummers. The shutter speed was short enough to freeze the marching, but still retain some movement of the drumsticks. The YBOD will be pleased to observe that at this late stage in the proceedings the flag of St George had blown back over the parapet and was almost invisible. Maybe I should have cropped to top to remove the slightly distracting white ensign.
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Good call Mr Cooper, although choosing a homework topic to suit your own (albeit very recent) back catalog is a bit naughty ;0) And of course these shots are not admissible as evidence given that they were presumably shot on the 23 April; being before the start of the month.
ReplyDeleteOf the three shots my personal favorite is the drummers as the drums are really nicely lined up on a diagonal and well spaced therefore reduce in size by the same amount from drum to drum. However I am guessing this owes more to the discipline of the marines than the excellence of the photographer ;oP I would however have cropped this either to the bottom of the windows in the back ground if you are aiming to show the drummers and ankle height of the nearest drummer. Or, if the drums themselves are the interesting feature (which for my eye they are) I crop even tighter, perhaps starting from the line formed by the shoulders of the back three drummers and the bottom being the feet of the second drummer. Would really bring out the really well organized drummers. Perrupperr-pum-pum!!
The woodwinders have a similar appeal but for the exactly the same reason don't appeal becasue the second piper isn't in line and therefore brakes the charm. Also I find the woman in the black dress in the top left a bit distracting. Nice use of DOF though.
The Drum Major (and I would love to have been brave enough to call him a majorette) could so easily have been dismissed as a bull's eye shot except that the Septum (if that is was the majorette's baton thing is called) really works in breaking the bull's eyeness and, like you say, the detail in the reflection nicely draws attention away from the center.
Nice set of shots of a good bit of patriotic pomp and ceremony (what what old chap) and look forward to seeing what you come up with for your homework ;0)
Great work done with a pen & a lens.
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