In trying to get the information for you I did some more reading up on the subject, and it turns out the EXIF data is not available for these photos. What I was seeing is not the actual data. I then downloaded software for this purpose and the photos say the following:
The data has been removed, which is a sort of clue in itself I think. In any event, image number 10 is the one most revealing of the likely distance away from the subject. I would like your opinion on how the shot is possible from a far distance. Would you say a 200 mm lens was necessary to get the shot from around 60 yards? From what I have learned, the rule of thumb to keep in mind is that the larger the subject is in your viewfinder (and therefore the closer she is) the more blurry the background will be. I find the background to be indicative that the photographer was near the subject, ie. a little further down the sidewalk, on a knee. Thanks.
HatesSociopaths,
Good questions and comments.
With regard to the EXIF data, I wouldn't expect to see any. In my experience, EXIF typically gets stripped from a DSLR image whenever a photo is cropped. I need to see if my HD video camera even saves EXIF data to a still image shot from the video, even before it gets cropped. I wouldn't expect it to. Image #10 is the widest shot I remember, but I wouldn't swear that IT isn't a crop. The aspect ratio of #10 might give us a clue.
Agreed that background blurring (aka bokeh) is more pronounced at the telephoto end of a lens that zooms from wide to telephoto. This is why I don't think it was shot up close. But it is also possible that the shot could be from an even further distance than one might imagine, lens zoomed all the way out, and the subject still not fill up the frame. In this instance, you would still have blurring of the area behind the subject, but the photo would "look" like it was shot at a wide angle because the subject appears small. Whether this is likely given the distances and obstacles the photographer had to work with is something I haven't studied.
With a quality high resolution HD video camera, one can shoot from a long distance and crop a still the size of the TMZ photos that looks quite detailed. This is what I *think* happened.