Images explained - Little stories about making decisions
Create order in the chaos
In Vietnam you can see cock fights here and there. This scene is from Hanoi, 2007. The streets were very busy with men watching the fights. They were scattered around small arenas. At one of them I noticed some kind of canvas with cheering people. Then I knew what I wanted.
I waited until they were in the right position and then I found the treasure I was looking for. All the chaos was reduced to a simple composition.
The photo shows the cocks with the audience, but the spectators are not real.
There is an interesting contrast with the actual crowds where no smile could be seen, whereas the people in the photo were cheering and laughing. The fact that the photo is upside down relates to that. 180 degrees different, same as the emotions: seriousness versus happiness.
I found this far more interesting than shooting the fight with the actual people around them. That would have been too easy.
There was an overwhelming amount of distractions and here all the elements are reduced to just two.
Photography is not just a matter of aiming your camera and pressing the button. For collecting memories this is perfectly alright. But if you want to decide what exactly ends up in your photo and how, you have to spend some more time and make decisions.
What is it what you want? Are there any distractions or irrelevant parts you definitely don’t want in your image? Do you want to be creative by changing your aperture or shutter speed? Or even move the camera (or just the lens) while pressing the shutter, to add a certain effect? What is the best moment to press the button?
This is a series of images where I explain what it is what I wanted and how I executed my plans.
These are things I talk about on my photography tours. If this appeal to you, check out the tours or go straight to www.photo-voyager.com to make your booking.
