The very kind editors at Zocalo Public Square gave me a real photo assignment!: Spend a day at MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles and take some pics. One 14 hour day later, here's the photo gallery and text.
I actually spent two days at the park. The first day was just a scouting trip for a few hours to check out some potential shots. A couple weeks later, I arrived at the park at 5:15 a.m. and stayed until 7:15 p.m.
The photos above are a mix from my scout day and the actual assignment day. A few made the final gallery, some were out-takes. As you can see, I really tried to focus on the people. The park's landscape is nice and there are striking views of the downtown skyline. But in the end, I thought it was the people that were the most interesting and I tried to build shots of the park around the people in it.
As for style, some of these are candids. Other times I mustered up the courage to ask people if I could photograph them. I think I like the photos best of the folks who I asked to pose. They feel a little more personal and maybe a little more honest, although I'm not sure 'honest' is the right word.
As for equipment, I shot all the pics with my Nikon Df. Most were taken using the Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens or the Nikon 70-300mm telephoto. I also used my Nikon 18-35mm 3.5 lens occasionally. What these lenses have in common: they're on the cheaper side but still high quality.
The entire gallery of shots is on my website. Thanks for looking!
--S.H.
Nice pics. Congrats. I'll live vicariously through you.
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