For this exercise I have to create a set of still life pictures showing traces of life without using people and write about the technical decisions I made and the reasons for them.

I created the images over a couple of days using a DSLR. My reason for using a DSLR as opposed to a smartphone as suggested in the exercise brief is solely due to my finding it easier to work with a larger camera.

The rationale proposed in the exercise brief for using a smartphone is that this would be in keeping with the transient nature of these moments, however, I find this reasoning spurious. None of the images were ‘grab shots’ that existed for a fraction of a second, in the same way that Nigel Shafran’s carefully stacked washing-up was not permanent, neither was it instantaneous, it existed for a period and then was replaced by someting else. The work could have be photographed using a smartphone, an DSLR or an 8 x 10 film camera, the equipment used had no bearing on the permance of the scene being photographed. So my choice was to use a DSLR because that is what I am comfortable using, it is what I am familiar with and it gave me a greater degree of control and flexibility that using a camera phone.

Even if I had been comfortable using a smartphone camera for this exercise I would still have chosen my DSLR. Because all the shots were taken inside and several in rooms with poor lightling, being able to adjust ISO, aperture and shutter speed to obtain the best exposure was the main technical reason for using the DSLR. I used a realtively fast short zoom lens, 28-80mm f2.8, and this allowed me to crop in camera.