Capturing the Moment

Well I'm not Cartier-Bresson but I think I've managed to capture a couple of "moments" in the images below:

This one I think is amusing.  I had spotted this young girls with her stick.  Obviously bored with waiting for her family and was entertaining herself. I felt that something interesting might happen. So I loitered around watching her. I had looked away for a moment, then saw the policeman that was going to walk past her and the stick was in the air (prior to this she had been making sweeping gestures with it along the ground).  I didn't have time to focus properly so the picture is out of focus.  However I got all the "players" in just the right position. The girl looks as though she is either going to beat him, knight him or even fish him. The policeman's colleagues with their folded arms are looking into the scene almost as if waiting for her to strike him. It was all over in a split second. All the parties moved on moments later.

Another lucky moment.  I was standing looking up the stairs as the light was so lovely I wanted to create a picture in it. Three adolescent boys were standing behind the wall. One suddenly leaped over. I clicked (again with no time to focus) but caught him just as his feet landed and before he had time to straighten up.  A woman I assumed was mother prevented the other boys from following this ones lead.  I like the light, the two boys hands on the wall and the angle I captured the one who jumped. I'm happy with the composition of this picture.  The boys feet are right on the edge of the frame (but all there) he is still mid action.  Also the hands of the other two give that sense they are about to follow.  The light highlighting them against their dark clothes.

Experimenting with light

Using the same person take between four and six photographs using different light.

The days have been consistently grey lately so artificial light will have to be used to meet the brief.

The first portrait (below) was taken in the morning using light from a large window on the model's right side (left looking at the photo) I have used a reflector to reduce the shadows on the other side of her face.

The second image was taken the same day but this time I have a tungsten lamp on the model's right side. A mixture of tungsten and ambient daylight has given a warmer feel to the image. I have adjusted slightly in photoshop.  When I took this portrait tungsten white balance was too blue and daylight was too yellow.  I opted for daylight and adjusted in the raw file.

A couple of days later this was taken in the afternoon. A very grey flat day so I used the yellow wall to add some warmth to the picture.  I took a couple of images just before this one next to a grey wall it was very blue and flat. A very useful bit of knowledge gained here that a coloured wall can be used to reflect some colour back into a picture.

We were still having grey days so for the next image I have used flash and a gold reflector as my light source. To remove any distractions I have used a black backdrop.  I think this portrait would have benefited from a little bit of rim lighting around her hair.

On the morning my model was leaving town we finally had a bit of sunshine and a bit of blue sky so en route to the train station I stopped her in front of the brick wall, the sunlight is shining on her face. I have used a small white reflector to bounce back a little light to reduce the shadows under her chin.
This is my favourite of all the images.