Close Enough?

(Shops selling these scrumptious foods, collectively know as Siu Mei [literally Barbecued Flavour] are ubiquitous thoughtout Hong Kong. Be it piglet meat [far left], chicken, BBQ pork or goose, the secrets are in the timing of barbecuing and recipe for marinating. If you have been to Hong Kong but without tasting'em, you haven't quite seen the real Hong Kong yet)

Photographers are taught to be in the action, meaning that a good picutre is usually made possible with the photographers close enough to the spot of action. But how close is not too close?

To me, this is all about relevance in terms of composition and theme.

Composition-wise, the point should not be required making. Zooming the lens or moving yourself about can make or break the composition of an image to your taste.

How about theme? Take for example the above example, the image is intended to show the full array of food items sold in the Siu Mei shop, with the chef as a complimentary subject to act life to the image and give some extra information to the viewers. Moving a bit backward would have included unnecessary information in the image. For example, the spotlights above the window panel. Moving closer would have defeated the intention because some essential information would have been trimmed off.

So, my practice is, first think up a theme, then decide the composition and lastly get to the right physical position. One thing is sure: standing too far away from the scene usually results in an image too confusing and less powerful. Shooting landscapes is a different issue, of course.

To illustrate a bit further, here are three more shots:

Theme: The chicken meat is mouth wetting I needed the composition largely filled with images of the chicken. The oil droplets dripping from the chicken legs add some strength to the message. I stood very close with my GX200 turned to the Marco mode. The chopping board and the chopping knife are the supplementary subjects.

Theme: The chicken meat is being prepared I needed the composition with the chicken meat as a secondary subject to boost the message to be delivered by the primary subject, which is achieved by the chef's hands getting hold of some chicken meat. The legs dripping oil become the foreground to add interest to the image, which was shot with me stepping a step back from the window.

Theme: The kitchen for the preparing chicken I needed the composition to include more information in the background, which is the kitchen. If I included too much background, the interest of the image would have been diluted. I just retracted the lens to a bit wider and got this shot.