Thursday, August 29, 2013

PICK OF THE WEEK: Eyes Have Been Caught

Eyes Have Been Caught (Almere The Netherlands August 2013

This week I'm coming to you from Nottingham in England. We're here for a month, but as yet I've just made a quick foray into the local streets and a quick few images at the local shops. So, stay tuned for more from here.
So, to the Pick of the Week. Eyes Have Been Caught. Made a few days ago, not long before we left The Netherlands while I was walking in the local mall. Huge it was too by the way; one of the biggest pedestrianized spaces I've ever seen.
Walking past this cafe, I was drawn to the couple. I saw the guy with his hand gently holding the girl's elbow. That, I thought, was a nice image, so I moved closer to the window. As I did, the guy turned to look at something and the girl's eyes followed. That, I thought, was an even nicer image. So, just about to press the shutter button, I saw another couple walk into the frame from my right. That, I thought, was going to make a really terrific image. But just as I pressed the shutter the walking man turned to look in the same direction as the couple in the cafe. And that is the image I was lucky enough to end up with.
The magic of street photography is something I know I talk about a lot, but you know, that's the way I look at it. Of course plenty of time spent looking and being on the street hones the intuition so that one develops what could be called a sixth sense for when things are coming together. This is a case in point. But, then, something extra sometimes enters the situation to take the image beyond the usual, to make a special photograph. A moment that we could if we were so inclined (which I am not) call decisive.
I did not "know" on any kind of conscious level that the guy in the cafe was going to turn to look at something, or that another couple would walk into the frame. And I certainly couldn't possibly know that the man in the street would turn his head just at the "right" moment when I was pressing the shutter button on my camera.
Maybe some street photographers will tell you that they do know all this is going on. And, who knows, maybe they do. But, for me, it is all going on at some other level, which I might call magic. Though, naturally, I know it is not magic. It is intuition. It is being really present in the "zone" of the moment and of the place and of what is going on around me - and within me too. But this is a whole topic of its own which I plan to write about  soon.
And, even if I am in that zone, it doesn't always provide me with an image like this. Sometimes life just rolls on by as it should and does not choose to offer me such a gift. That, for me is part of street photography too. What I end up recording is only a tiny tiny fraction of the totality of what is going on. That is why, for example, I have no idea at all what these people are looking at.
Peace to you all

2 comments:

  1. You have a quick eye Mr Donohoe! That is a great image... Love it. She's probably thinking, "What could have diverted your supposed undivided attention from me?" :-)

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  2. thank you..that is kind of you. A moment earlier before he looked around he was talking to her and she looked really not interested at all..I have that one too haha..thank you again

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