Submit a set of between six and eight high-quality photographic prints on the theme of the ‘decisive moment’. Street photography is the traditional subject of the decisive moment, but it doesn’t have to be. Landscape may also have a decisive moment of weather, season or time of day. A building may have a decisive moment when human activity and light combine to present a ‘peak’ visual moment.
You may choose to create imagery that supports the tradition of the ‘decisive moment’, or you may choose to question or invert the concept. Your aim isn’t to tell a story, but in order to work naturally as a series there should be a linking theme, whether it’s a location, an event or a particular period of time.
Initial Ideas and thoughts.
When I initially looked at the brief for consideration of my next assignment, I thought this would be a lot easier than the last one. I wondered what genre of photography would work well for the ‘decisive moment’, or whether to stick to the traditional concept of street photography. How could I make my images stand out, or be visually different to the norm? How do I ensure they work naturally as a series? What would be the linking theme? I’d never attempted street photography before, so I decided to go into my local town to try it out before making a definite decision. My first taste of street photography was absolutely daunting. It isn’t as easy as it looks. I found myself feeling profoundly conscious of the fact that I was pointing the camera at complete strangers, and sometimes couldn’t even take the pictures! So, I need to do some research into how I’m going to get over this hurdle.
I looked online at various street photographers, there were lots of tips on how to address this. Have your camera around your neck and connect it to your smart phone, that way you are shooting from the hip and no one will notice what you are doing. Always smile at anyone you are photographing. Don’t capture people who look like they are drunk or on drugs, unless of course the picture is going to be the finest visionary image you are ever likely to achieve! Carry some cards around with you so if anyone asks you why you took their picture, tell them the truth. Tell them they looked so interesting that you just had to take their picture. Then ask if they would like to have a copy, and give them one of your cards, and the list went on.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills. Demonstration of creativity.
There is a religious festival called Vaisakhi in Hitchin, my home town, which marks the Sikh new year. It is traditionally observed on the 13th or 14th April every year.
To celebrate this event, large processions take place throughout the streets. It is vibrant and colourful, therefore I thought it would be an ideal theme for my assignment, so I diarised the date.
All the images were taken with a Canon EOS 5D mark IV full frame camera set to shutter priority, with a 24-70mm lens apart from the image with the LED lighting.
I had a few ideas in mind that I wanted to experiment with when taking a couple of the images for this assignment, although I wasn’t sure how they would turn out.
I wanted to attempt zooming out whilst shooting an image, I set the camera to a slower shutter speed so I had a time to manually zoom out. I wanted to hand hold the camera so it was a bit of trial and error. I was pleased however with the result.
For another image I wanted to use small LED lighting as part of the composition. I thought it would be aesthetically pleasing to have starbursts shining through areas on the silver blades which the men were holding. To achieve this I had to set the camera to aperture priority as I needed to have a very small aperture with a long shutter speed.
I converted one of the images to black and white, only leaving the young girl in her beautiful multi-coloured costume, and the dog in colour.
Street photography is more often than not converted to black and white, so I selected a few of my images and converted them to black and white. But what was the point of having such beautiful vibrant colours and not being able to see them? I looked again and concluded that some shots looked better in colour, and some looked better in black and white! So I had a dilemma, what should I do? In the end I decided to go against the grain and use black and white and colour together, after all why not. There are no rules, as Bill Brandt said “I am not interested in rules or convictions. Photography is not a sport,” so I’m hoping it works well. The Vaisakhi procession is a particularly colourful parade and I wanted to celebrate this.
On reflection.
Sometimes I needed to get closer to subjects to really capture the decisive moment. Using a dash of colour with black and white within an image can sometimes be rather indecorous, but resplendent colours in small sections can sometimes work well. The LED lighting that I used to produce the starbursts didn’t create the effect that I had in mind, I would have preferred them to be whiter and brighter.
What I have learnt.
I have learnt that street photography is a unique concept, as you have to have boldness and confidence to take images of complete strangers. Practicing this helps significantly to overcome these hurdles. To capture effective decisive moments you have to be ready, watching and waiting for the moment, selecting the best viewpoint, and then you have to shoot extremely quickly. It is far more difficult than I thought.
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