Re: [Leica] Decisive moments in landscape

[Johnny Deadman <john@pinkheadedbug.com>]

on 5/11/00 1:26 pm, Mark Rabiner at mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com wrote:

> Dan Cardish wrote:
>> 
>> I guess when the camera is locked in place on a tripod, the "decisive
>> moment" has a different meaning to me than when prowling the streets a la
>> HCB.   But I suppose if you allow a decisive moment to last for minutes
>> rather than seconds, I guess it can apply to any situation, such as waiting
>> for the wind to die down when photographing a wild flower.
>> 
>> Dan C.
>> 
> As I understand it HCB would often wait at a spot for a foreground to happen
> in
> front of his background; someone to walk by or something to happen.
> How different is this really than setting up a tripod?
> I've gotten some of my best results this way, not roaming but standing still
> and
> letting the action come to me; in front of my chosen location-backdrop. When I
> do this i often wished I'd brought my tripod along. Sometimes I had!

In the case of tripod shots and landscapes in general, I think there are
decisive moments of light and shade and cloud and moments when everything
comes together (a seagull flies past... the sun hits a window) but another
less-remembered aspect of the HCB mantra is much more important, namely
*seeing* the perfect arrangement in the frame... he talks about bending the
legs or craning forward to change a composition... the same is true on a
tripod. Everyone knows when you shoot half a roll of minor variations of a
single subject with a 35mm camera there is usually one frame that jumps out
at you... the proportions go zzzzzinggg!! Working on a tripod you have to
see this yourself then get the camera there. Often what happens to me is
that I'm walking around or driving or cycling and at some moment my visual
cortex goes YOWZA!!! but because I'm moving it's gone, and the next step is
to slowy approach where I was, looking for the g-spot. And it's amazing but
there's usually only one, and you suddenly feel the same emotion you did a
few minutes back. That is the time to GET THE CAMERA OUT AND SHOOT!

Sometimes you cannot find the spot again. There is often a good reason for
this: stereoscopy. Close one eye. Is the picture still there? Often it
isn't, and that's a sign that you need to do something to make up for the
lack of depth in a monocular view. That might mean... a wider lens, a
cranked viewpoint, a perspective effect, foreground... or it might (and
often does) mean... move on, your candle went out.

The decisive viewpoint, especially with wider lenses, is often literally a
few millimetres wide and high. When you get it and take the picture, the
only other picture you have to take is the same one again just in case. Then
you move on. When the light and the viewpoint and reality all come together,
that's decisive, tripod or no.

A practical proof of the above: try to replicate a great photograph of a
familiar place. Can't be done. Can't even BEGIN to be done. The best you'll
ever get is a postcard. The decisive moment, proved right there.
- -- 
Johnny Deadman

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com