Friday 13th March 2015
I have completed most of the projects in Part 3 but all the time I have been thinking of the assignment “The Decisive Moment” I have been reading, reading and my head is spinning… This morning my eye was caught by the title “Debunking the “Myth of the Decisive Moment” (Kim, E. (2014) Debunking the Myth of the Decise Moment available at http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2014/05/23/debunking-the-myth-of-the-decisive-moment/) . I’ll have to see what this says and will report in my research. I truly love this guys approach. He demistifies all the great myths with good solid sense. I will try to follow his advice in this assignment: “To increase your odds of getting “keepers” in street photography, try practicing “working the scene” and lingering longer than necessary. Don’t keep your feet still, always be moving. But at the same time be patient.“‘
For this assignment should I go with Cartier-Bresson’s idea of the decisive moment as that moment when everything in the frame climaxes into harmony or with Szarkowski’s who claimed; ” the thing that happens at the decisive moment is not a dramatic climax but a visual one. The result is not a story but a picture.”
Saturday 14th march 2015
Reading through the article “Photography and Time” (Cutler, R. (2012) Photography and time: decoding the decisive moment [online]. Available from: http://www.academia.edu/4826314/Photography_and_time_decoding_the_decisive_moment[Accessed 16/03/2015]). I am not sure I know anymore what a decisive moment actually is. I would have thought that examples of decisive moments would be; the bursting of a balloon, the man falling from the window in the twin towers, the guy standing in front of the tanks in Beijing, the priest with the white flag in Belfast. But it all seems more complicated than that.
- Should I just wander around the streets hoping that decisive moment images form in front of me? This assignment could take the rest of my life!
- I had thought to take my camera to a gig on Tuesday night and try to get some decent images of the band performing. I know them and will ask them if I can take some photos during their performance. I am sure they will be agreeable. There could be possibilities with the audience too. Anything could happen…
- I will be travelling back to Ireland next weekend passing through the UK. I will visit The Photography Show in Birmingham. This might present possibilities.
- The airports might also present possibilities. Cartier-Bressons words are ringing in my ears: don’t go out and look for the shot just let it happen.
- what about decisive moments in nature – I like the idea. I have found an article on this will read it and see if it works.(Meyer, J. (2013) Decisive Moment: how nature photographers can make the most of it available from http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/04/02/how-nature-photographers-can-make-the-most-of-it/3/)
I like the idea of a lapse timed set of images of a flower opening and the final image being the decisive moment. Or frog spawn turning to tadpoles, or a spider catching a fly in its web, or a butterfly inserting his probiscus into a flower to draw nectar.
Sunday 15 march 2015
Just found the ‘modern’ Cartier-Bresson she is called Tany Kely and her photos have given me a ‘eureka’ moment. I think I get it – the decisive moment. I get it better from her (I think it is a woman) images than from Cartier-Bresson. But I cannot imagine being able to fulfil this brief in any reasonable time. Might try the nature idea when I return to Sherkin. I would have a better chance living in the middle of nature.
Monday 16 March 2015
Just got this link in my twitter box and I found it a great help to concentrate the mind on “The Decisive Moment” and what it means.
Head ping ponging between reflection on Assignment 2 and working on this assignment 3
Tuesday 17 2015 (St. Patrick’s Day)
Thinking about, maybe, ‘setting up’ ‘the decisive moment’ since spontaneous shots might be difficult to find. Will, of course, try to find suitable images at the same time. I am also thinking of looking through my archives to see what could be classified as ‘le moment decisif’. I think this will be a good way of knowing what I have taken spontaneously which could be classified as ‘the decisive moment’. I will divide these into vertical or horizontal and see where I have managed or not quite managed to obtain that elusive moment.
The vertical Parisian ‘moments decisifs’
So what would make these images ‘more like decisive moments in anyones definition. The beggar could be receiving alms from a passer by. The spare legs could be in such a place that they looked like the girls’ legs. A person or animal could be looking at the stall holder. Reflected is what it is. The smoker I have always liked as she is. I was inside the restaurant on a November morning and she was outside because she is a smoker… Hats on shadow could be someone else (not me) who just happened to walk into that position.
The horizontal set
In the horizontal set: The runner could be more to the right of the picture and not running out of it. My Rolls fits a sort of C-B moment. Boule de Noel is my idea of a decisive moment. Sorting could have been great but it is not I am not sure why?? La Louvre had a lot cropped and maybe should have the RHS cropped too. I like wet friday but that is me. Don’t flaunt it is a bit kitch. I like cyclist on the bridge again in a C-B sort of way.
Wednesday 25 March 2015
Back in Ireland but not yet home so limited access for working. I visited The Photography Show at the NEC in Birmingham. I attended the “Women in Photography” presentation and will write a small review of it if I can still remember what was said… I also attended a 45 min presentation on Colour Management. This served to make clear to me how little I know about this subject and how much I need to read and research. Because of my lifestyle of living between two places I don’t have duplicates of everything in both houses. Hence I have to ‘make do’. However I feel the most important thing is to learn about device calibration, colour limitations on non calibrated screens. This is one of my problems, my Spyder is in France and I will now be in Ireland with a very simple screen.
Sunday 29March 2015
Arrived on my island yesterday. Now need to get set up to continue this assignment.
Tuesday 30 March 2015
Looking at my collection of images I have decided to use my travelling images rather than those taken at the gig. Decided to call this series “Travellers”. I will print a contact sheet and see how they work together. I will probably have to use the horizontal as I do not have a big enough choice of vertical images.
Have written a rough draft of the assignment submission. Am trying to pin down where I stand on the “Decisive Moment” and how I feel my images fit into the scenario.
Saturday 4 April 2015
Printed contact sheet and cut them up. Played around with them to see what worked.I added them to my physical log book.
I have made my final selection and written my assignment notes.
The St Patrick’s night gig
I decided not to use these, although I liked them, as besides the one of the guitarist playing the guitar behind his head they did not fit my definition of a decisive moment. Maybe the guy wearing the Irish hat while looking in the opposite direction to the band. He was actually watching Olympique Marseille playing football, on the television!!!
Sunday 5 April 2015 (Easter Sunday)
Just tidying up the odds and ends of Assignment 3 but I am loathe to let it go. Sitting in my conservatory on Friday I looked out the window and a fox was wandering around my garden – a decisive moment indeed.
On Thursday I visited our new art centre in Skibbereen, Co Cork and spotted this decisive moment….
20 May 2015
And I am back in France. Just read this quote from Selgado and find it so fitting
To get great shots, he says, you “need a lot of time”. You have to put yourself where things are going to happen, and get into the flow of events, the mood of people. “You know where you’ll go, but you don’t know what you will bring back.” When the subject does suddenly appear, you have to be ready – and fast. “Photography is one 250th of a second,” says Selgado
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