Like the abstract and concertina effects that we can get by isolating big city buildings. Made a slight step (*) to get the nice blue sliver between the two buildings.
Showing posts with label Henri Cartier-Bresson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henri Cartier-Bresson. Show all posts
Friday, September 23, 2011
Buildings - Blue Sky - Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
Like the abstract and concertina effects that we can get by isolating big city buildings. Made a slight step (*) to get the nice blue sliver between the two buildings.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Red - Financial District - New York City (Fri 12 Aug 2011)
As the following posts will show, I was drawn to the graffiti on the temporary construction barrier fence.
Some times you get lucky.
In this photo I had noticed the fence graffiti and was just starting to move over to photograph it, when I saw the first man in the red shirt emerge from the subway. I quickly noticed the yellow and orange paint and then framed my shot.
Decided to wait just a moment to see if anything would become more obvious to my visual filter. In waiting for this brief moment I got lucky with another man with a red shirt emerging from the subway and a passerby with a red shoulder bag coming into frame. That was the moment to press the shutter. I did not notice the red flavoured drink of the passerby until reviewing the photo.
For me travel photography is not about landmarks but colour, combination and lines. This photo seems to make all the failed efforts worthwhile.
This is all described brilliantly by Henri Cartier-Bresson (*) here
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Subject - The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Extract)
There is subject in all that takes place in the world, as well as in our personal universe. We cannot negate subject. It is everywhere. So we must be lucid toward what is going on in the world, and honest about what we feel.
Subject does not consists of a collection of facts, for facts in themselves offer little interest. Through facts, however, we can reach an understanding of the laws that govern them, and be better able to select the essential ones which communicate reality.
In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and show the world around us, but it is an event itself which provokes the organic rhythm of forms.
There are thousands of ways to distill the essence of something that captivates us, let’s not catalogue them. We will, instead, leave it in all its freshness...
The Subject in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Originally from The Decisive Moment (full text here).
Intersection - Airport Tarmac / Lyon - Mon 7 Sep 2009 (picasa)
Subject does not consists of a collection of facts, for facts in themselves offer little interest. Through facts, however, we can reach an understanding of the laws that govern them, and be better able to select the essential ones which communicate reality.
In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and show the world around us, but it is an event itself which provokes the organic rhythm of forms.
There are thousands of ways to distill the essence of something that captivates us, let’s not catalogue them. We will, instead, leave it in all its freshness...
The Subject in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Originally from The Decisive Moment (full text here).
Monday, October 4, 2010
Composition - The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Extract)
The photographer’s eye is perpetually evaluating.
A photographer can bring coincidence of line simply by moving his head a fraction of a millimeter. He can modify perspectives by a slight bending of the knees. By placing the camera closer to or farther from the subject, he draws a detail—and it can be subordinated, or he can be tyrannized by it.
But he composes a picture in very nearly the same amount of time it takes to click the shutter, at the speed of a reflex action.
Sometimes it happens that you stall, delay, wait for something to happen. Sometimes you have the feeling that here are all the makings of a picture—except for just one thing that seems to be missing.
But what one thing? Perhaps someone suddenly walks into your range of view. You follow his progress through the view-finder. You wait and wait, and then finally you press the button—and you depart with the feeling (though you don’t know why) that you’ve really got something.
Later, to substantiate this, you can take a print of this picture, trace on it the geometric figures which come up under analysis, and you’ll observe that, if the shutter was released at the decisive moment, you have instinctively fixed a geometric pattern without which the photograph would have been both formless and lifeless.
Composition in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Originally from The Decisive Moment (full text here).
Anyone who has ever looked through a viewfinder, taken a photo and cared will be able to relate to the above.
Low Tide - "A photographer can bring coincidence of line simply by moving his head a fraction of a millimeter" - Padstow/Cornwall - Tue 09 Sep 2009
Workers - "You wait and wait, and then finally you press the button" - Lyon/France - Thu 17 Sep 2009
A photographer can bring coincidence of line simply by moving his head a fraction of a millimeter. He can modify perspectives by a slight bending of the knees. By placing the camera closer to or farther from the subject, he draws a detail—and it can be subordinated, or he can be tyrannized by it.
But he composes a picture in very nearly the same amount of time it takes to click the shutter, at the speed of a reflex action.
Sometimes it happens that you stall, delay, wait for something to happen. Sometimes you have the feeling that here are all the makings of a picture—except for just one thing that seems to be missing.
But what one thing? Perhaps someone suddenly walks into your range of view. You follow his progress through the view-finder. You wait and wait, and then finally you press the button—and you depart with the feeling (though you don’t know why) that you’ve really got something.
Later, to substantiate this, you can take a print of this picture, trace on it the geometric figures which come up under analysis, and you’ll observe that, if the shutter was released at the decisive moment, you have instinctively fixed a geometric pattern without which the photograph would have been both formless and lifeless.
Composition in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Originally from The Decisive Moment (full text here).
Anyone who has ever looked through a viewfinder, taken a photo and cared will be able to relate to the above.
Monday, September 27, 2010
The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson (Extract)
For photographers, there are two kinds of selection to be made, and either of them can lead to eventual regrets.
There is the selection we make when we look through the view-finder at the subject; and there is the one we make after the films have been developed and printed.
After developing and printing, you must go about separating the pictures which, though they are all right, aren’t the strongest.
When it’s too late, then you know with a terrible clarity exactly where you failed; and at this point you often recall the telltale feeling you had while you were actually making the pictures.
Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty?
Was it because of some physical gulf between yourself and the unfolding event?
Was it simply that you did not take into account a certain detail in relation to the whole setup?
Or was it (and this is more frequent) that your glance became vague, your eyes wandered off?
The Picture Story in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
What struck about this passage was not the regret that is felt at losing an opportunity to have a great photo, but what we have learnt from why the photo is not as strong as we would like. I have felt this in not only in my photography, but also in my paddling. If you know you have made a mistake and know why, then you have learnt a valuable lesson and you will become better at your chosen activity.
Graffiti - Brick Lane/London - Wed 2 Sep 2009
Window and Books - St Ives/Cornwall - Tue 8 Sep 2009
There is the selection we make when we look through the view-finder at the subject; and there is the one we make after the films have been developed and printed.
After developing and printing, you must go about separating the pictures which, though they are all right, aren’t the strongest.
When it’s too late, then you know with a terrible clarity exactly where you failed; and at this point you often recall the telltale feeling you had while you were actually making the pictures.
Was it a feeling of hesitation due to uncertainty?
Was it because of some physical gulf between yourself and the unfolding event?
Was it simply that you did not take into account a certain detail in relation to the whole setup?
Or was it (and this is more frequent) that your glance became vague, your eyes wandered off?
The Picture Story in The Minds Eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
What struck about this passage was not the regret that is felt at losing an opportunity to have a great photo, but what we have learnt from why the photo is not as strong as we would like. I have felt this in not only in my photography, but also in my paddling. If you know you have made a mistake and know why, then you have learnt a valuable lesson and you will become better at your chosen activity.
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