Everything In Place/The Precise Moment

The photo was framed and the photographer waited until 'Everything

was In Place' and it was 'The Precise Moment'. One frame taken. A

rural lane -- alleyway, old center city Bangkok near Chinatown.

Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. (If you

rate harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment/Please share your superior knowledge).

Thanks! Enjoy!

;-)) John

For those of you who watch the occurrence of 'threes' in my posted photos -- consider this, which I didn't notice until I posted it.

The cooking utensils which show are arranged in 'three' sets of 'three'. There are 'three' passersby -- one motorbiker and two pedestrians.

It's usually just happenstance.

I find the occurrence of the odd number 'three' in my photographs pleasing, and somehow that number appears an inordinate number of times, usually without my even trying or recognizing that it is there until later when I search for what pleased me.

;-))

John

John I think you missed the three motorcycles, the one riding an the two on the other side of the ally.

Interesting picture but can you explain what where they cooking?

Greetings B.

The motorcycles parked just don't count (too distant and inconsequential).

The cooking utensils, foreground, are atop propane tanks (I think) and are used to make the concoction displayed in the centermost of the various utensils -- what it's called or how it tastes I don't know.

(By the way, abuse@photo.net removed a 1/1 rating on this photo which shows you the uselessness of going to a forum for ratings complaints, and just going to abuse@photo.net for direct action -- they listen if justified. It's a good lesson which many Photo.netters could well learn.)

This is a 'street scene' which I think may not get its 'due' because it will not be seen how ephemeral it was.

One moment the view in the viewfinder was just a bunch of black, cooking utensils with many holes at the side of an alleyway.

The next the view took on life, balance, and proportion, with two nurses at one side walking by and a motorbiker driving and I took one shot and GOT IT precisely for maximum balance.

I wish I could take every street shot so nicely -- high ratings or not.

John

This was a scene where everything was 'set up' waiting for the actors to appear on the stage. In the words of the critics of Henri Cartier-Bresson, it was a 'waiter' -- a photo scene in which the photographer recognizes a scene which has potential and for which he must wait an indefinite time for the actors to move as they must to fill out 'scene'.

In this case, the wait was not long -- one moment the nurses were walking along and it looked like a good opportunity to take a photograph of them walking along at the right, and maybe somebody would walk along from the left street/alleyway/walkway.

The next, the motorbiker buzzed by and I waited to catch him at precisely the exact place for the exact balance to complete the composition.

No lost opportunity, and it all fell into place.

Sometimes the minor photo gods just smile genially.

John

It is, as titled, 'the precise moment' -- which is, of course, a take-off on Cartier-Bresson's 'Decisive Moment'.

Everything just fell into place, as I've explained. I wish it always did.

Cartier-Bresson's photos, which I've studied more extensively now, especially his more mundane photos, published in his catalog on the Magnum photo agency web site, show little of the spark that makes so many of his photos so great.

He chronicled life around him.

Part of what made his photographs so great was that he was so prolific and he was simply bound to take great photographs from time to time.

Sometimes, I take some photographs that I consider pretty good, simply because I take lot of them.

And, as Cartier-Bresson took and edited photographs, his eye got better and better and he began to place himself in the places where he knew he'd get good photographs. And of course, he had his tricks (hiding cameras under handkerchiefs was one, hiding behind pedestrians, another (even shoving them out of the way if need be, I'm told he's been filmed doing), and literally 'dancing' with his camera as he framed a particularly difficult or fast-moving subject, moving from horizontal to vertical and back again.

But sometimes, I am certain, he just sat or stood there, having found the perfect spot and just waited, and waited and waited.

Until the perfect persons came by.

(Remember the photo of the staircase and the bicyclist, taken looking down, or the white Greek house and the boy running by, his extended arms crooked into right angles that precisely mirrored the angles of the buildings?)

So much to learn, so much to do, so much fun to have . . . with a camera.

It's critics like you, Judy who make it worth while.

John

I'm considering 'desaturating' this photo and placing it in my 'Early B&W Folder'.

Any comments?

I consider this a 'very strong' photo with all the elements in place for a 'street photo', although without a strong center of interest -- just a street photo. Any reflections or comments about my thoughts or whether it belongs in my Early B&W Portfolio and whether it would be stronger as a B&W photo?

John

Here is an 'in-line' version of the posted photo, desaturated with brightness increased a little, contrast the same.

John

Here is in-line version)

Here is the same scene, full-sized, attached, requiring a click.

John