08.07.2012

TAOP.
"The Decisive Moment".

Last Wednesday I went, with friends, to Ramsgate Harbour for an evening of photography.
The light had a warm evening glow and was nice and low.  The water was flat and harbour greasy.  I found some interesting boats and took a number of shots.  I was limited by the layout of the harbour to my position.  It was a pleasing image but there was something missing.  The trouble was that the water was too flat and was leaving an empty hole in the lower left quarter.

During the day I had read "The Mind's Eye", Henri Cartier Bresson's writings on photographs and photographers, and had been thinking about his "Decisive Moment".

While I was  framing this image I was trying to employ the various components of composition I had learnt through this course.  The lines of phi, the balance of high against low, the balance of mass against space, the use and placing of colour, implied and actual triangles, curves, and the mirroring of shapes within the frame.  When I saw the small boat manoeuvring in the harbour and leaving a curved wake I just had to wait until the missing ingredient was added.  I took shots leading up to this moment as well as some after but for me this was the decisive moment when the picture I had in my head appeared in front of me.