Sunday 31 July 2011

PnP Exercise 10: Moment and Gesture

One thing I have noticed is that the exercise in this part of the course seem to overlap quite a bit, so that shots that are taken for one exercise also seem to capture the spirit of another. So several of the shots discussed in this post are examples that could have been used to illustrate this exercise. Similarly, any of the shots here could also be considered for other exercises – perhaps the key is intent, although inevitably I think there’s a bit of luck involved as well. So the shots I include here were taken with this exercise in mind.

First up a shot where I had plenty of time to catch a ‘moment’, as one of the subjects was choosing postcards and the other is a model.
Bashful
The shorts belong to my wife – I’d never have the nerve for this shot with anyone else.

Next up is a shot I took in old Geneva. Hopefully the attraction is fairly obvious. I think the arrow on the road adds something to the photo, and I also like the way both the woman and the dog appear to be walking in step.

Woman and dog

Next up a shot from Interlaken. I saw this guy waiting outside the shop and thought he mirrored the models in the window nicely – was about to take when he obliged by moving his arms and legs into an even closer mimic. Sometimes you need a bit of luck!

P7101545.jpg

Conclusion

I think the key to getting this kind of shot is having time to ‘get your eye in’ and taking plenty of photos. All these shots were taken while my family was otherwise engaged so I was concentrating on the photography.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think the last shot works particularly well. I agree that keeping your eye in is hugely important. First, learn to see what's there: next, learn to capture it. Both much easier to say than do. I find that it takes a great deal of time and effort to get a few good street shots.