“Just my thoughts” series – The decisive moment.

Cebu Wet Market - having fun in the rain

 

Cartier Breeson coined the term “decisive moment”. There is always a moment where all the elements come together. “Photography is not like painting,” Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

A photographer has to have a keen eye to notice this moment and capture it. It is “when” you press the shutter that makes a difference. Sometimes you may need to move your ass to get that particular angle.

In my opinion, the expressions of the kids playing in the rain with an adult in the background make this image. I hope to capture the innocence and joy of the kids regardless of the backgrounds they were bred in. Here the kids were having simple joys playing with Mother Nature, inventing street games. This is in contrast with some of the urban kids who spent most of their time in front of the computer playing computer games.

I have waited for most of the human subjects to have a separation before pressing the shutter. Of course sometimes, things do not work out that way. Using a smaller aperture like f5.6 or f8 helps to create that depth of field.

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