Exercise 10: Capturing the moment

For this exercise I had to find a comfortable situation and concentrate on bursts of activity from which I have to capture the 'best' moment.

I decided to use the opportunities I have had lately to indulge in a few photowalks around London to look for these burst of activity.

The brief for this looked fairly straightforward but I was unprepared for the fact of how difficult it is to actually capture the moment.  The 'moment' is so easily missed as often it happens so quickly it is gone before you had the opportunity to realise it was going to happen.

It took some time before I found anything that was suitable for this exercise.  I came across this lady busking on Southbank near the Globe theatre and decided to shoot.  At first I tried to observe her movements shooting only when I thought a moment was presenting itself.  However, her movements proved to be too quick and unplanned for me so I decided to shoot at any time she was well positioned in the frame and where passers by were out of the way.

This is the moment.  I like the way I have captured her singing and her positioning presents the movement/dance she was carrying out as she played.  Her mouth is open so you can clearly tell she is singing and her eyes look like they are making contact with someone - she is performing for someone.

I found it particularly difficult to capture her with her eyes opening as she was closing them a lot as singers do and it didn't look quite right.

Here is another shot in which you can see St Paul's in the background and the performer's movement.  

As I wandered around Southbank I came across this three piece outside the Tate Modern.  Far from entertaining the public they were irritating them by playing the same song over and over again.  However, they looked like they were enjoying themselves and I wanted to capture this.  

The difficulty here lay in trying to get all their expressions right and to get them looking at the same thing in this case the camera.  I really like the guy on the left, dancing around to his music.  I feel that the moment here was capturing the fun these guys offered.  

The next image I shot in Trafalgar Square.  This man was preaching about God and spreading the word but he was also dancing around to keep warm as it was a cold day.  I took a few shots and here is my favourite. I like the pained expression on his face and the way he is holding the placard makes it look like it is really heavy.  He also looks like he is either reading off the placard or talking to it.  There is a lot going on and so many possibilities.  

And my final image is this young lady on her phone.  I like the way she has two phones one in either hand and how the world is passing her by while she it still.  So many people are oblivious to what is going on around them when they are on the phone.  However, she does spot me and at that is the moment I captured.  

I quite enjoyed this exercise and I feel that my skills for spotting potential moments have improved.  I have learnt to work a lot quicker than I am used to.  I have also learnt to shoot everything you see as these 'moments' are hard to find.