By André Costantini
Now, it is probably no surprise that there are plenty of farmers markets in California. But the size of the Mercado market in Little Italy was one of the bigger ones I've seen around. I am told that it only started four years ago and now there are over 130 vendors on any given Saturday. It stretches five blocks long (both sides) going on Date Street from Kettner to Front Street. Of course that is only one of about a dozen farmers markets you will find on Saturdayin San Diego.
Obviously, with a market of this size there is so much to shoot. There are cheeses and meats and produce and prepared foods and flowers and crafts. There is also plenty of opportunity to sample a lot of what you might shoot!
With so much to choose from sometimes it becomes difficult to know where to start. I suggest trying to make a little series, it helps focus your attention with a self assignment. This is often a helpful exercise to improve your technique. That day I was traveling light and had taken only my Tamron SP 17-50 f2.8 on a D7000 body. With one lens and one camera, I focused mostly on textures catching some nice ones on fruits, vegetables and flowers. I usually tried to fill the frame with whatever the subjects were. I was less interested in where I was and more interested in the forms of the subjects. In all of the images the color is important but when it is too saturated the textures get lost. I processed the images by increasing the contrast (which adds visual depth) and then manipulating the saturation, so that the color would not overwhelm the photograph.
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