Three people leaning on a railing, all of them facing away, and behind them a wall of orange that used to be flowering shrubs. Nothing back there survives as an object. It survives as colour. Most people who want this look go shopping for a faster lens first. That is usually the wrong move. Aperture is involved, but it is the third thing that matters, and buying your way to f/1.

The stall had everything a photographer thinks they want. Whole crabs on crushed ice, whelks in their shells, three grades of oyster, lemon wedges cut that morning, parsley banked up like hedging. I shot the counter twice, wide, both frames from standing height. Both were mush. Too much of everything and no reason for the eye to stop anywhere. Then I bought one oyster, the vendor handed it over in a paper tray, and the picture was already made.