George Weir Photographer

In a Minute...

The trip to Virginia was worth it for Emily & Duncan's wedding on Saturday, even though more than a couple a guests were surprised when I answered the oft asked question, "Doesn't this remind you of Scotland?" in the negative explaining that where I come from we have hills :) while agreeing that the location was indeed very pretty.

Anyway, on to the subject of the post; "In a Minute"

In slightly less than a minute I captured thirteen frames of Emily just before her wedding ceremony.

None have been edited out yet from this sequence as I thought I'd share them in their entirety so that those who are interested may have a glimpse in how my "eye" was seeing this scene.

The ceremony was a little late in starting, Emily and her father waiting on the stairs. I like the image but was not happy with the emergency light at the top of the frame.
Emily let out a breath, as brides often do to help compose themselves and I grabbed it horizontally, and then went back to see if I could re-frame the first shot any better,

Almost :)

Now I'm seeing the banister on the left and I think "h'mm, interesting"

and use it lead the viewer into the image using the the wider lens.

At this stage I'm happy with what I have so far, and am looking for another "view" or in other words, I want to find another "image".

I step back and to my left, crouch down on my knees and see

this, which gets me thinking "Yup, there's something here", I'm back to my longer lens now and I'm "seeing" vertical images.

If you've heard me talk you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of vertical images for the most part, however in this instance I was using the bars to fill the frame.

Now, I'm asking myself "What about dad? Can I include him in the shot?" and so I switch back to the horizontal and I'm also lying flat on the floor. The next five images were all shot with my camera upside down to my eye

and the first one falls into my little "gifts-given-through-my-camera" category.

This one's not bad, I like dad's look, however I don't like the fact that Emily's left eye is obscured by a railing.
The same can be said for this frame, so I wiggle a little closer and re-frame the shot.

Yes, I now have a better view of both of Emily's eyes, however dad is neither here nor there,

Not much difference, except that dad is now turned towards the camera and we can see more detail in his face and expression.

I'm back to vertical again and concentrating on Emily and her expression.

So, that's thirteen frames in fifty-one seconds. For my final edit I will probably end up with six of them.

For those who are interested the above images were captured with 35mm and 85mm lenses. Metering by hand-held spotmeter.

Oh yes, I did capture images of the groom :)

The Smile Shutter

An article in this morning's NY Times reviews yet another new camera from Sony. Aside from shooting multiple frames and then deciding which is the best there's another feature in this wee beastie that caught my eye. It's the "Smile Shutter". Yup, the camera will automatically take photographs when people smile.  Of course this begs the question;   Does this mean that the "Frown Shutter" (no photos will be taken unless the camera decides that the subject looks happy) is another wondrous feature we can look forward to with baited breath?

Not for a moment am I suggesting that photographs of people smiling are to be avoided, some, many, in fact most people look wonderful when they smile. However, in between all the smiles forced or natural, there are many great images which also capture mood, emotion, and a subject's character. This is simply one area where a photographer's skill comes into play. Another area of his or her skill is in deciding not only where the image is but also "when" there is an image worthwhile capturing. Yes, I'm referring to Cardinal Retz's words made famous by Henri Cartier-Bresson,  "There is nothing in the world without a decisive moment."

I'm convinced, voice of the conspiracy theorist, that there are camera manufactures out there working on a "DM" (Decisive Moment) mode to add to their camera lines. They, the ubiquitous they, are probably also working on a "PJW" (Photo-journalist-mode) version as well. As long as they leave the manual mode for Luddites like me I'll be happy to make all of these decisions myself. Unless of course they do manage to come up with a super-duper beastie that will bring me coffee in the morning, record my preferences for the day and then go away and capture great images for me.

A few images captured without the benefit of the 'Smile Shutter".