PREVISUALIZE
Previsualize the scene and get in close
When you stumble on a new scene, make the decision as quickly as possible as to what you want from your subject. Human subjects get bored pretty quickly and you will loose that all important look of surprise or interest. Expressions are fleeting things and they are so valuable to your composition.
We stopped at this roadside cafe in near Occosingo in Chiapas, Mexico and I saw this little girl looking at us. I grabbed my camera, did a quick exposure test for my hand (flesh colour), indicated to her mother if I could take a shot, framed and took one frame. From stopping to the shot was about 10 seconds, it’s that quick. If I had deliberated I would have lost the moment. It was a gloomy day in Chiapas, so I did not want to show grey sky. I included the yellow sign to some colour and visual context to the location. These are poor reproductions as I have scanned them from one of my old books seeing I had lost the originals frames. But nevertheless it does help to illustrate the idea.
The frames below illustrate two points of view.
(1) Boring. It is a view that offers very little connection to the people in the scene. It shows a dive boat and its wake, that’s about it. So it’s just a record.
(2) This puts you the viewer into the scene, thereby changing the dynamics to make a more interesting image.
If you have time, like on a journey like this, rearrange the elements to tell a more intimate story.
All photography and text © Jon Davison 2021