Having received Clive’s feedback, I am very much encouraged with my progress. When I first got the submission date, I thought it seemed ages away, I actually enjoyed the time free of coursework to concentrate on the assignment and opportunity to visit my chosen place a few times. I think this improved the results.
Printing the images was particularly interesting as I don’t do a lot of it. Now we have a reasonable printer, I think I will do more of it, cost of cartridges permitting 🙂
I also posted my assignment on the Critiques page of the Student forum, to see what others thought. ( I must admit I did wait until after I’d received Clive’s comments, I think next time I need to be braver).
From comments received, more about the concepts than the images, I was surprised that others don’t grasp the concept of the Decisive Moment. I didn’t think it was that difficult really! For me it’s just a concept for describing what we do every time we press the shutter button (or it should be!) in as much as, when we decide to take a photo, we choose where to take it, where to stand, at what time to be there and the exact moment to press the shutter button. Usually when someone or something such as light makes the image perfect to us.
The decisiveness is in you the photographer, not the moment. The moment just quietly happens and you by, be prepared are there to capture it at just the right time. My husband and I often go out together to take photos, but most times we come back with very different images. It’s about what we see, what interests us and what makes a perfect image for us.
We do quite a lot of event photography, where you can’t control the environment or what is happening, we may even be standing side by side, but our images are never quite the same.
I believe it is me, my vision, my awareness, my choice what the decisive moment is or isn’t, and this section has been about recognising that fact within you. After all the course is called Expressing Your Vision.
I have long passed the desire to just go out and walk around taking pictures of what I pass. I now really want to have an idea of what I want, where I want to go and what I am trying to achieve before I go out. The only thing that I worry about is becoming blinkered, so I must try and balance what I’m trying to achieve with being open to something new if it comes along.