I stumbled upon my subject matter quite by accident. Saturday morning I headed to the peaceful retreat of the work’s office, far from the madding children! I set up my laptop and accompanying paraphernalia, desperately trying to summon some inspiration from who knows where! About 200 metres from the office are a small pair of purpose made fishing lakes. I thought I’d take a walk around them to try to come up with an idea. Having got ‘up-close & personal’ with total strangers for my last assignment, I really wanted to try something different (and less stressful). Over a pair of visits spread over 8 hours in a single day, the following images literally presented themselves to me on a plate.
The only two fishermen on the lake, a father and son team. I stopped and chatted with them for about fifteen minutes, they’d been there since six in the morning (it was now ten o’clock) and they hadn’t caught a thing. The son was keen to impart his knowledge of fishing to me so I politely listened for a while. I explained briefly what I was looking for and checked that I wasn’t disturbing them or the fish if I walked around the lake. We said our goodbyes and I ambled off. After no more than three or four minutes I heard a splash and turned and looked across the lake (10-15m) to see the head of a large fish poking out of the water, and travelling along above the waterline, long enough for me to get off about three shots. What a great start! Sure that I’d got at least one good photo there, I felt compelled to stay and see if I could get enough material to fill an assignment. I continued on around the lakes. Just as I was approaching the fishermen again the father got a bite. I couldn’t believe my luck, I was no more than six meters away.
f9.5 @ 1/350. ISO 800, focal length 75mm, subject distance 8m. Lens 75-300mm
I’d never seen anything in these two little lakes before, and eagerly anticipated the landing (expecting something about six inches long to come out, in spite of the bending rod) whilst hurriedly changing from my long zoom to the shorter and higher quality one. As the fish neared the bank, the son deftly slid the landing net into the water and under the fish. As he slowly raised the net out of the water I was astonished to see this beautiful 4-5 lbs Common Carp (Or at least that was what I was told) materialise! For me it was a key moment, the last piece of wrapping finally removed to reveal this wonderful prize. Again, i’d covered the moment with a volley of shots.
f9.5 @ 1/90 sec. ISO 800, focal length 93mm, distance to subject 4.5m. Lens 24-105mm.
After carrying out the obligatories, it was time to release it back into the lake. I knew that there was potential for another ‘decisive moment’ as the fish was half way between being captive and free. So I readied myself in anticipation, and waited for the exact moment the recovering fish swam out of the net. Hey Presto! Another great shot.
f8 @ 1/180 sec, ISO 800, focal length 105mm, subject distance 2.7m. Lens 24-105mm.
I was conscious that if I wasn’t careful this could turn into a Photo Essay, but I still feel that there were three ‘Decisive Moments’ in what I just witnessed. So I was happy with the way things were going. I moved on, walking round to the top lake, and took some ‘nice’ pictures of the swans, but they weren’t doing anything decisive! So I headed back. In between more surfing fish heads, I noticed that the Bulrushes were all shedding their seeds. As they were in abundance, it didn’t take me long to find one that was just about to naturally relinquish its payload. After about five minutes of squatting (an eternity for my ageing knees!) I was again able, after many false shots, able to capture the decisive moment that the gentle breeze teased the seedling cloud free of the Rush.
f8 @ 1/750 sec ISO 800, focal length 200mm, distance to subject approx 2.5m. Lens 75-300mm
Having already failed with one attempt at capturing this beautiful buzzard on camera, I tracked it across a field to its next resting branch. Unfortunately the image that I got was not the same as the one I had in my mind’s eye. The bird was sat on the outermost dead branch and clearly outlined. When I got within 50ft of it, I took a shot every few feet, just to get one ‘in the bag’, lest it take to the sky before I could get close enough for a good shot. The shot I had envisaged was of it as it had just left the branch, with its feet dangling and wings wide-spread, flying left to right of the frame. What I hadn’t bargained for was it turning away from me and taking to the air in one movement. What I got was, I think, still a decisive moment………. almost!
f5.6 @ 1/4000 sec. ISO 800, focal length 300mm, distance to subject 35ft approx. Lens 75-300mm. Adjustments made in Photoshop to brightness and contrast.
I went back the following weekend an hour after sunrise to try to get some more shots, and came away with this wonderful shot. The fast shutter speed has frozen the droplets of water high in the air as the duck is using both its wings and feet to break free of the water. In the foreground there was a small branch sticking up just left of centre. It was very blurred as it was quite close to the camera. I managed to remove this in Photoshop using the healing tool. This is probably ‘the’ shot of the series. This incapsulates ‘The decisive moment’, the point between land and water, the point at which the duck is neither in the water nor flying! One second, one moment, one blink of an eye later and the duck is airborne. The instant before the picture, and the duck is ‘on’ the water, running, flapping furiously to break free of gravity!
f5.6 @ 1/4000 sec, ISO 800, Focal length 300mm, distance to subject 40ft approx. Lens 75-300mm
I was going to include the following two images in my assignment, but soon realised that, although they are nice pictures, they lack the feel of a decisive moment, and were, in all honesty, just making up the numbers. They would only detract from the images that go before them.
Reflective thoughts of this assignment.
Technical and visual skills.
When I first started walking around the lake I had purposely fitted my longest lens as I knew that the wildlife would be keener and quicker to flee than I would be to get near enough to get a good photo. My initial thoughts proved to be right. However once I encountered ‘The strike’ I was quick to realise that I needed to change lenses if I was going to get close up when the fish was landed. This paid dividends when it came to recording the ‘presentation of the prize’. So I was quietly pleased with myself for having the presence of mind to change lenses. Although image five didn’t work out as I had expected, I had anticipated the flight of the bird, even though it flew in a different direction to that which I had thought it would. Of the six images presented, I have only cropped one so as to improve the presentational quality (image six). Looking at the preceding images, I am happy with the balance, and proportional structure of each image. With images one and five, I would have liked to have been able to show more contrast in the sky, as there was some cloud there which would have created atmosphere and depth to the respective images. One technical lessen that I learnt, at the expense of a good image, was that if you want to focus on a moving object (particularly in the sky) then it is best to set your focus ring to ‘Manual’. My camera/lens was unable to focus quickly enough as things moved, it was always searching/hunting, without anything to focus on for longer than a single moment. The image of the Bulrush confirms my lack of in-depth knowledge of my own lenses. I wanted a shallow DoF., but went to the extreme, not knowing just how shallow it would be. Consequently the seed cloud is out of focus and takes the edge off of the image as it is supposed to be as important as the Rush.
Quality of outcome.
The first three images stand alone as ‘Decisive moments’, however I would have liked to have balanced the overall assignment with some other shots, which would have added variety to the assignment. That said you cannot pre-determine what will happen when you are dealing with nature. So I accept what was presented to me on the occasions I was there, and present them in the best way I know how. I also learnt that when dealing with birds (in the sky) you have a far better chance of getting a decent shot if you set the lens to manual focus! Image five would have been so much better if I’d have known that when I first encountered the bird.
I do feel that, even though I am happy with each individual image, the cohesion could have been stronger, ironically, by having a more diverse group of images.
As this project evolved whilst walking around the lakes, it is fair to say that I had no pre-conceived ideas of what it was I was setting out to achieve on this assignment. This isn’t always a bad thing (and on this particular occasion it worked relatively well), but I would have felt happier throughout the day if I had had an idea of what it was I wanted to end up with.
At the moment I have some quite strong thoughts about what Henry Cartier-Bresson produced under the banner of ‘The decisive moment’, and I feel justified/vindicated by producing my own ‘Decisive moments’ from nature. There is no possibility of ‘setting up’ a decisive moment when dealing with nature (unlike many of HCB’s shots), and as such I feel that I have produced an honest body of work.
I am not generally enthused by ‘nature’ photography, but this assignment has taught me an awful lot. Not least that, you have to think on your feet and be alert to all/any possible shots that may come your way. A good example of this is that whilst I was totally absorbed by what was happening in the lake (this governed by the fact that there was nothing else happening outside of the lake), I was able to spot the seed clouds about to separate from the head.
I took my images to the high street retailer ‘Boots’ to get them printed, after trying long and hard with my own printer (which is a general purpose printer), but with very limited success. Having used ‘Boots’ before, I was quite sure I’d get a reasonable result. The last image was a little too light, so increased it by half a stop and re printed to get an effect I was happy with. I have subsequently bought a high end printer and reprinted all of the images, which has significantly improved the overall presentation of this assignment.
Demonstration of creativity.
This whole assignment was born out of a desire to be away from the crowds, having completed my last assignment ‘in the thick of it’. Street Photography can be considered the home of ‘Decisive moments’, and as such, I was looking to find a different scenario that would yield its own, more unique types of moments. From this point of view I am happy with what I stumbled upon. It was very rewarding, but was also very taxing and left me exhausted at the end of the day.
Context.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is widely accepted as the ‘inventor’ of the style or technique called ‘The decisive moment’. Having looked at a vast number of his images now, I have come to the conclusion that an awful of them have been staged or set up. I would go so far as to say that even his most famous ones have been staged (Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare. Paris 1932 and Hyeres, France 1932 to name but two). I have learnt whilst carrying out this assignment that you cannot stage wildlife photographs. By finding a good backdrop and waiting patiently you can increase your chances of a good image, but there is of course, no guarantee.
I see! 