Friday, November 26, 2010

Decisive Moment (1)

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Which picture?



Selecting a picture from a succession of images moving past the camera.


In the days of film, choosing the “decisive moment” (Cartier Bresson) used to be difficult, but now with speedy shutters, and digital storage, it is not.

Rowers on a river. The single scull approaches the landing.


In the first shot the single scull is too far away and the double scull is too close to the landing.


In the second shot, the single scull is just positioned right with a pleasing cluster of boats and landing.


In the third shot the scene has fallen apart. It is unbalanced and there is no connection between the single scull and the double scull.


On the computer screen we may have two or three or as many as a dozen shots to sift through.


See a short video on Cartier-Bresson here on the decisive moment.



Canon 5DII, 70-200 (200), f4, 1/3200, Colonia del Sacramento 101010


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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Receding into the Distance (2)

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A variation on the theme of lamps receding into the distance.

Red foreground, red receding background.

Leonardo da Vinci's thoughts flicker in the lanterns.

"There are three aspects to perspective. The first has to do with how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance: the second, the manner in which colors change the farther away they are from the eye; the third defines how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are."

Canon 5DII, 70-200mm (120), f4,1/3,200, Kyoto 100601
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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Frame within a frame

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To sit on a verandah is to sit in a frame.
This verandah has yet another a frame outside it.

Over a period of 50 years the house owner trained the magnolia to grow its branches to embrace the verandah.

Magnolias are obliging this way; you just need plenty of space underfoot to accommodate their roots.

Sitting there, looking out to sea, you feel you are sitting in a frame within a frame.

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