SUE BRYCE Portrait Couture CAMUS WYATT Unobtrusive LEON - f11

We asked Camus for some background:
“My basic motivation for photography came
around 4 years ago, when I was at university
doing a degree in history and international
relations. For various studies, I was flicking
through books containing a lot of great 20th
century photojournalism – Robert Capa,
W. Eugene Smith, Josef Koudelka, James
Nachtwey – to name a few. This led me on
to other (primarily black and white) imagery
capturing human life, especially streetstyle
photos from names like Doisneau and
Cartier-Bresson. My father was a former
photojournalist and newspaper editor, so I had
at my disposal an abundance of great 60’s and
70’s photojournalism and manual-type books,
which must have affected my style a lot. Very
much influenced by the ‘classic’ style of street
photography I guess you could call it, chasing
the ‘decisive moment’, but with sometimes a
quirk or twist to it.
Technique and equipment wise, I try to be
what I’d call ‘unobtrusive’, which is somewhere
between completely hiding and being
completely obvious. I never pose a street
shot because for me that defeats the whole
purpose, which is to grab a photo that says
something about real life. All of the images are
shot in available light.
I use Pentax gear, at the moment a Pentax
K-7 with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4, which basically
equates to a fast standard. Very rarely feel the
need to use anything else, although I have in
the past used a Pentax pancake 21mm. I used
to use zooms, but now use primes for two
reasons. The smaller physical size, and also
the ability to ‘pre-frame’, where you know
what you’ll see before you look through the
viewfinder, if you use the same prime lens
enough. This is a real advantage for being
quick in street photography, as it means you
only have to have the camera to your eye for
a split second.
I try to minimise post-processing, but use
Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex for my black and
white conversion.”
TS
www.camuswyatt.com
Northern Vietnam, 2009. Pentax K10D
with Sigma 24-60mm lens.
© Camus Wyatt.
60 | Issue 02 | August 2011 Portfolio :: Camus Wyatt
f11 for PhoToGrAPhErS And AfICIonAdoS | 61