COMPOSITION - the instinctive reaction

Here are two examples of seeing a scene and reacting instantly. Both of these were on the Greek Cycladic island of Syros. In the first example (A), I rounded the corner and saw this amazing blue scene before me, where every compositional element was pointing to the centre; the stairs, the pipe, the light, the path, the curved wall, the doorway. I thought ‘wow’ something just HAS to occupy the centre and fix the focus, thereby completing the scene, so just wait …..  

No sooner than I had thought this than I heard running footseps behind me, and I knew that I had only one chance at this. I had no idea if the person was running to or from, it didn’t matter. I bought my camera to my eye and fired as this small dark shape shot around the corner. I never actually saw him apart from through my viewfinder, but I knew I had the shot. The reaction to this composition took about 3 seconds. So it’s amazing the processes that go through your mind and just how fast they are. It was an instictive reaction to colour, form and movement. And that’s the place you need to get to. It kind of looks like he could have come from either the pipe, the stairs, the light or the steps. It just fits.

(B) This was close to the same location on Syros, and I rounded a corner and saw this scene evolving. I almost knew it was going to happen. The cat with its tail up was just about to react to the girl, at the same time the taxi entered the scene and braked. Now the REASON I reacted was because of the duality in colour and activity. This was an instant decision. To me a reaction was being caused by the presence of TWO large red, white and brown objects, the girl and ship. The car brake lights came on, and the cats tail signalled a similar reaction. That was the reason, NOT the fact there was a ship at the end of the street. It would have still worked without the taxi, it’s just that for me, this completed the ‘duality’ aspect.

So you have to be quick, but when you are on holiday with your camera looking for images, you are primed and ready anyway. So trust your intuition, look at everything around you. know your equipment like it’s second nature, be ready to shoot when you feel an image is forming in your mind, or something just happens the moment you enter a scene, as it does!  This can reveal something about your humour, your vision, your take on the world, and it does not matter to anyone else what your reasons are, they are yours and yours alone and that’s what matters and what you must react to.

I edited the boy out in Photoshop to show how important the dynamic movement of the boy really is. He was gone in an instant, if I had waited I would have this shot (above), of visual cues leading to .....
It’s still an interesting shot in itself but it does not have the same dynamic as with the frozen boy.

All photography and text © Jon Davison 2022.

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