This is such a fun image of the week for you – a wonderful spontaneous moment caught with purely reportage wedding photography – no setting up. The little boy’s mum had already chased him round the tree, so anticipating him coming around again I ran to catch him coming towards me.
I wanted a low camera angle so I could see his face, and I also wanted his mum in the shot to tell the story – she wants her hat back! The trick was not to get his mum directly behind him, so I had to hold my nerve for a split second while he crossed the frame from left to right, and shoot the instant everything fell into place – the decisive moment, as coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson, probably the world’s most famous exponent of reportage photography. I love their smiles – each of them enjoying the chase!
Using manual exposure, I kept the exposure set up I had been using for some other family portraits under the tree, and with the shutter at 200th I knew I’d get a reasonably sharp image. The ISO was 800, and the aperture was f4.5, all on my 24mm lens. I don’t like to tilt the camera normally, but it happened as I half crouched, and I decided not to correct it by cropping. I feel that in this case the tilt adds a little dynamism to the shot, and works well with the diagonal slope of the hat, and each of their raised knees.
I hope you like the image – as always, do leave a comment!
