The old flower-seller

One morning, on my way to work, I saw this elderly woman with white hair sitting on a box at a busy intersection in downtown Sofia. She hoped to sell some of the flowers she had gathered in her backyard.

She looked thoughtfully ahead, waiting for a passerby to buy a flower. She did not invite the passers-by to buy, she did not bother them, she just sat and waited patiently.

Wow, this lady just waited to be photographed. I started looking for a suitable point of view, but I didn't have much choice. I wanted to emphasize the calm face and white hair of this old woman, but the background was very overloaded. So, I decided to wait for a passing car to hide the background chaos. At the same time, I wanted the focus to be on the woman's face, so I had to shoot at low speed to get the car blurry. And I wanted the car to be dark in color. But I didn't have a tripod!

I had with me my Canon EOS 7D MarkII with the EF70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM lens. I squatted low, leaned against the wall of a nearby building for stability, put the lens on my knee, and waited. I took a lot of pictures, because I wasn't sure if I would achieve the desired focus on the woman’s face shooting without a tripod.

And then a pigeon landed in front of the woman, a dark-colored car was passing behind, and I finally took this shot. I think it is a good hit…

EXIF:
1/25sec at f/5.6
70 mm
ISO 200