Getting Closer

I have no other secret to share when shooting a human object except "getting closer", as one will see on this blog going forward, as well as on my other image blog. I shot lots of people, in travel or for professional work, and I always try to get close than to stay away because human subject is not about a person, it is about the interaction and communication, this is the significance of being human or for that matter, as being animal. And this is also the reason I often use macro lens for human subject, usually not because I want to get into macro scale, although sometimes I do, but I don't want the closest focus limit of a regular lens to obstruct the spontaneous process.  When it is time to make the image, make it, rather than step back, focus and shoot.  But if you are having a camera and lens not having adequate close focus capability, practice yourself to work on its range.  And this is why today's smaller sensor digital camera is so useful, because most of them allow a much closer focus distance than those film camera.
Background blur?  Yes, yes, yes, background blur is not the only way to shoot portrait, and yet there are many ways to achieve it rather than a so-called portrait lens, shallow depth of field and so on, these are all too academic, and I will cover this later.
In addition to those images on last subject, GF-1, with example of getting those images at rather close distance - they are not cropped, the camera+lens to subect is typically aroud 1/2 meter (1-2 ft), this is another one also took with GF-1 with the beautiful 20/1.7 Pancake lens, on a Nepali girl, at Swayambhunath Stupa, shot at dusk.  This is one of the last picture of the day, ready to get back to city for dinner.