This was a fun image to find. Often, when I am walking through subway stations I am completely engulfed in looking for another image. It’s a passion!. Believe it or not, this image (and subject) caught me off guard. I keep my camera set as wide open as possible and had the lens set to its farthest focal distance. I try to keep my camera this way so that I don’t have to make any immediate changes when I see a scene. However, this was different.

This man was moving fast. You can tell from the subject’s posture that he was moving as fast as possible. He was already well past the farthest focal length on my 35mm lens, so of course I had to focus quickly as well. I had to shoot from the hip and guess the focal length! This is one of the joys of not using autofocus, ever. I spun the manual focus ring of the lens speedily and hoped for the best. I think it came out great.

Compositionally, I really like the immediacy of the contrast in this work. Fortuitously, the subject was wearing a dark suit, light shirt, and tie. Perfect for striking composition for me. As with most photographers, I like my subway work to be somewhat impactful. I used the dark areas of this subway to accentuate the contrast of the entire scene. Finally, the natural lines in the scene are very leading. I hope you enjoyed this work, let me know what you think.

- Maurice