First, thanks to all the reviewers this week, and to a couple of off-list comments. It has been, by recent standards, a lively week for the gallery. A lesson too for me that I need to consider my own review "style" before submitting any more. At to the Street Scene. > My first thought was, "This has to be staged." But then I've lived long > enough to know that, "If you wait, the shot will come!" Or maybe it > really is staged. Will you tell us, Bob? One of my favorite things is > strong light and shadows. (Which I'm not always able to capture in my own > shots.) Which is what first caught my eye, love it. But then I found > myself back to wondering, is this staged? What is that woman looking at > if not the things she spilled. Did she really loose her shoe? Maybe she > did. It's happened to me before. What a great honor to have someone suspect a shot was staged - or should I say, that a shot was worth staging ;o) The thought of the cost: three actors for one meaningless shot ... ouch, my budget does not stretch that far. The truth: serendipity. I had walked from Euston to Waterloo bridge early on Friday morning to prepare for the London Marathon. From the bridge I noticed some steps (to the left of the scene shown) and thought "with the good early light all I need is a gent in a bowler hat for something approaching a "street" shot. The light was giving good lond shadows and the high viewpoint placed them of equal weight to the subjects. After about 10 minutes the only passers by were scruff-bag tourists!!!! Just as I was about to give up, I notice the woman in a red dress coming along the street from the right carrying a black case. Yes! She would do: strong colour - wait till she reached the steps. Quite unexpectedly her shoe caught in the pavement and she stumbled to the ground - her papers scattered over the pavement (sidewalk). The man in the black jacket rushed to help her gather her papers as she reached for her shoe. Still no photo IMO: my 85mm lens would not zoom in any closer and there was too much space to be worth even one frame. Then, by chance, the tall walker strode by from the left. I waited till both he and his shadow were in the frame and took just the one shot of the scene. Presentation wise ... where are the true verticals? I don't know. Looking down and from the left the verticals converged in two directions. I chose to use the line of paving slabs below the walker as a false horizon - also to gie the alker and his shadow equal "height" in the frame. Is the framing dynamic or the cause of sea-sickness? Mmmm .... I debate that too but I have looked at it several ways. I can see why some my not like it: but after all that I'm happy with my choice. I still don't call myself a "street" photographer as quite honestly I prefer to keep my distance from the scene. Bob PS. I mean serendipity instead of luck because I had gone looking for something else ... he sequence of events that lead to the single "moment in time" are almost surreal to a man waiting for something to happen with a camera.
