Exercise 10: Moment and Gesture

I have enjoyed this exercise and get a great deal of satisfaction out of capturing the 'decisive moment' but have had as many if not more failures as success.



I recently took photographs at the wedding of the daughter of a friend of ours. I noticed one of the young bridesmaids blowing bubbles and took a series of shots attempting to capture the moment of bubble release. I am pleased with shot and like her expression as she gazes at the bubbles.







A neighbour and close friend of ours is a tree surgeon and I maintain a feeding station down there for some of my bird photography . I also enjoy photographing the life of the woodyard. In this picture I wanted to capture Stuart log splitting. I wanted the maul to be at the top of the swing and I also chose to use a slow shutter speed to give an impression of movement. I am pleased with this picture but I had to take a lot of shots with the camera set to continuous in order to capture the effect I desired.




In the photograph on the left I had been photographing my daughter whilst we were on holiday in Biarritz in the summer. I didn't have any particular effect in mind just a pleasing portrait. She decided to have some fun and I love the expression that I caught.

In the picture on the right we had been watching the surfers (who were better than we were!!!) and Beth was running in and out of the surf having great fun. I stood well back with my 100-400 zoom and photographed her unawares and I think that this is a super natural expression for a young lady who doesn't enjoy being photographed.











These were the surfers that we were watching above and that is what I had gone to take pictures of. I had in mind a classic surfing action shot and to this end I took many images with the camera set to continuous. Many were failures but several were just what I had envisaged with that decisive moment captured perfectly. The picture below right pleases me as it shows the relaxed but tired surfer in a reflective attitude at the end of a good session.













My daughter again. This time an opportunistic shot that again captures a super expression of her having fun with her brother who is out of shot.











The following three pictures were taken on a recent school visit from my wife's school where I was helping as a volunteer. I took these two pictures of Alan, the Deputy Head at lunch time. They are both examples of times when the decisive moment has just been missed. In the left had shot I have caught him with an unfortunate expression and in the second although in some ways I have captured the moment he probably wouldn't appreciate a picture of him about to put a crisp in his mouth. I am more pleased with the picture below of one of my wife's pupils playing on a swing. I had taken lots of similar images but was happy with this one where she is at the apex of the swing.

In the following pictures I had been fortunate enough to be able to watch and photograph the Tour de France. The first two pictures are taken during the prologue time trial and I happened to be standing at the spot where there was the only crash of the day. I had been photographing each rider as he came past with the camera set to continuous and each time managed two or three shots as they passed in front of me. As Stuart O'Grady came by he hit one of the central barriers and came off his bike. These two pictures show the sequence of the accident. Fortunately he was fine and climbed back on to finish the race. A case of being in the right place at the right time.

After the prologue we went on holiday to France and managed to watch two more stages of the race. 'The Devil' on the left is a well-known character of the race and I was able to take some portraits of him. Shortly before the race came through he performed his 'act' for the television cameras and I was able to capture the moment. I could see it about to happen and so was prepared for it. Even though it is a distant shot I think that it captures the essence of watching Le Tour!

This is a shot as the lead group come through and I was able to take only a short series of shots as the action is over in seconds. I was fortunate to capture the moment when Michael Boogerd looks round to study the faces of his breakaway rivals before attacking and making a dash for the finish.




In this shot the main peleton come through and again there was only a few seconds to capture the right moment. Here I have them as they spread out across the road and with none of the lead cars or other spectators too much in the frame - always a problem.

This final shot of Frank Schleck was taken during the final time trial of the race. I had been photographing the riders all day taking some time to judge the correct moment to press the shutter so that the rider was correctly positioned in the frame. Here I have caught it just right and I like his expression which is a mixture of pain and concentration.