Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson is credited with coining the term "decisive moment." "I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant." The challenge that photographers face is being ready for that decisive moment and following through - taking the photograph at just the right moment. 

The women were walking down a side lane toward me, approaching the sacred Lake Pushkar. Ranging in age from pre-teens to grandmothers, for some, many, most, it would be there first journey to the Lake, second only in holiness to the Ganges, corresponding to the November full moon.  I could see that there may be a photograph and quickly positioned myself head-on.  And just as I got ready to take my first shot, Lake Pushkar came into their view.  Their expressions say it all -reverence, awe, and excitement - the decisive moment.  Did I know that their expressions would take on such meaning?  No.  But I was ready for whatever came. 

And, honestly, I didn't know what I had frozen in time for quite some time.  The photograph was not shot as a panorama.  It was not until much later that, as I kept coming back to the photo, I really mentally zoomed in on the image and their expressions - and cropped the photo into the resulting panorama, focusing on the women's faces. It has subsequently become one of my favorite images - full of meaning and having the ability to convey meaning. 

Another Travel and Life Option

An intriguing article in the Wall Street Journey last week explored the option, for some folk at least, of selling everything and just traveling.  And we're not talking about twenty-somethings - but retirees in the 60's +.  Not a cheap option, but not all that expensive either. The couple featured in the article were spending around $7700/month when living in their home in California (and that budget did not include travel).  On the road, there monthly expenses ran from $3450 (in Mexico) to $6800 (in London).  Does require some source of funds (duh), and pretty good health.  And, of course, wanderlust. Sound good?   

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443720204578004131575356160.html

More Travel Websites Worth a Look

In preparing "Journey On! Taking Your Travel Experience to the Next Level," I did a lot of research on valuable websites (in case you haven't checked lately, there are a lot of non-valuable websites out there!) and discussed the key ones.  The web, of course, represents at its best constant change.  The NT Times Frugal Traveler pointed out some of the newer sites that are worth a look in today's NY Times.  All sound worthwhile.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/10-travel-web-sites-worth-bookmarking/?nl=travel&emc=edit_tl_20121013

Audio Slide Shows

Our family took a classic American road trip this past summer - from our Northwest home to Nevada's Great Basin National Parks, then on to Utah and Arizona to visit Cedar Breaks, Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Kodachrome, and Capital Reef parks.  Camera in hand, I took more than a few photographs and was overall pleased with the results. 

Then comes the question: how best to share the photos with others?  One technique is via an audio slide show - in this case, the audio is provided by a music score.  I choose what I considered my best photographs from the trip and imported them into Windows Live Movie Maker.  The software name notwithstanding, it does slide shows in addition to movies. 

Once in Movie Maker, I inserted title slides announcing the next park, an overall title slide and a credit slide at the end.  Movie Maker allows you to set various transition modes (how one slide moves on to the next), the timing of each, etc.  Fairly simple to learn and use. 

Next came the music.  Since I wanted to share via YouTube, it was really important to take music copyrights into account.  So I went to http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ which has a wonderful selection of mood music to accompany slides shows or even movies.  Use of music from the site only required attribution, which I added to the credit slide.  The music I choose was just about the right length (under 4 1/2 minutes) for the 40+ photographs, so I clicked the box that automatically set the slide show duration to match the music.  And I was done.

The result can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/LYQpD9IxOVY.

Salvaging a Photo

When leading photography workshops, I stress the importance in "getting it as right as possible" at the time you "snap" the photograph, rather than relying on software for the "save."  That said, all digital photos require some degree of enhancement since there's usually a slight gray cast over digital images.

And that said, there are times when an otherwise nondescript photo CAN be saved and SHOULD be saved during the after capture process.  Here's an example taken on a lonely state highway at the "city limits," such as they are, in Baker, Nevada (the home of Great Basin National Park and Lehman Caves). The photo, with the moon just beginning to rise at the left edge, does convey some sense of the long, lonely road; with some subtle colors.  But took much sky and, actually, too much foreground, with the yellow and white lines stopping before the bottom of the frame.

So, with some adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, and cropping the photograph in more of a panorama, it more striking photograph resulted - and one more in keeping with my initial vision. The wider sweep of the desert landscape, darker tones and more "dusk." 

So, before you discard a photo file, take another look and see if there's an image within the image that's worth keeping. 

New Chihuly Museum - A Photographer's Dream

I was a sceptic when it was announced that a museum dedicated to the work of Dale Chihuly, the master glass artist, would be built in the shadow of Seattle's Space Needle. While I had enjoyed photographing within the Museum of Glass in downtown Tacoma, I had now particular intention of visiting the Chihuly Museum in Seattle which opened this past summer. But a perceptive friend invited me along for a photographic adventure.  And am I glad!  As I recall, there are seven interior rooms, each with a motif or theme, followed by a glass-enclosed atrium and then an outdoor glass garden. And each room and space has photo opportunities galore. 

   



This photo was taken in the first room, made up of tall glass tubes of varying colors. Fascinating and photo-worthy in itself, I experimented with zooming the lens at a slower shutter speed to obtain this color abstract.  The photo that follows was taken in the glass atrium with glass flowers hanging from the ceiling and framing the iconic Space Needle that seemingly looms overhead.  In three hours or so, I shot 200+ photographs and could definitely go back another time and obtain different images and just enjoying the artistry of Dale Chihuly and his artistic associates.  Check it out!



 



Zero In on Subject

Our eyes zero in on subjects without us really know it.  Its only when we take a photograph that we see all of the extraneous material that our "eye" did not see but our camera lens DID!  Sometimes it takes a while to fully comprehend what the subject is.  Or, just maybe, there are several ways of presenting the same subject - one in a more "environmental" setting and one that is close-cropped, centering on the "real" image. 

One of my favorite photographs from last fall's journey to Rajasthan and the Pushkar Mela was of a young girl, perhaps 10 years of age - though looking more wizened than that.  The daughter of itinerant salespeople, she naturally composed herself for this first image. The "environmental portrait" included the tools of the family trade and the jumbled surroundings of sand and litter.  And those "Raj Girl Eyes" always have drawn me in. 

Recently, in looking at the photo again, I realized that there was a second image - and I think a stronger one - that zooms in on the face and the eyes. The wizened beyond years look is more pronounced because our eyes are now longer distracted by the surroundings, but can zero in on the face. Both images are, in my humble opinion, wonderful.  Each has its place. And as you review and edit and view and edit some more, look at options to more tightly zoom in the the "meaning" and "subject" of your photographs.