Capturing the Moment in October – Edition 1

This week’s ‘Capturing the Moment’ showcase is the first for October and features the photographic talents of Shel Serkin, James Inglis, Anthony Tulliani, Michelle Robinson, Anne-Martine Parent and Janine Graf from the Mobiography Flickr Group. I hope you enjoy this weeks selection. Thank you to all the group members who contributed this week.

Mandy

‘Mandy’ by Shel Serkin – “I stumbled across Mandy while wandering around Coney Island this past summer. The crowds were huge that day, but I saw an opening, a chance to shoot her isolated and alone. I ran across the street and got the shot just as one group walked out of frame and just before another walked in. Shot on an iphone 5 with oggl.”

World War I

‘World War I‘ by James Inglis – “With Remembrance Day barely a month away I’ve started to honour those that died for us by documenting the various cenotaphs in the towns and cities around me. I found the “World War I” stair on the Township of Langley, BC cenotaph to be very powerful, especially since the 100th anniversary of the start of the war is next year. The fact it was raining added an even more somber effect to the photo.

I took the photo with an iPhone 4, ios 7 camera+ app and then converted the photo to B&W.”

In Lieu of Walking

‘In Lieu of Walking‘ by Michelle Robinson – “This photo was taken in Singapore Changi Airport. My daughter and I had just gotten off a 7-hour flight from Adelaide, South Australia and we were making our way to another terminal to catch a flight to Hong Kong. It was a rare moment when the ‘travellator’ was empty and I thought “why not do a vanishing point shot? It’s been a while!” – I chose to crouch to include my daughter’s feet for added interest. The image sparked a small debate on Facebook as to what ‘travellators’ are for: are they for walking faster? Or are they for people who don’t want to walk the distance between large major airports? We’d have to ask the folks at Heathrow as I believe they were the first ones to have them (?).

Not a complex edit for this image as I don’t like to app on-the-go too much unless I’m sure about a) quality and b) know I’m going to use the full image un-cropped. I use Procamera 9 times out of 10. The image was tweaked slightly in Snapseed ie I lowered the brightness and increased the contrast as I knew I was going to post it on EyeEm (most of my low/no edit shots & street go to EyeEm) using the Capa filter which can give an over-exposed result if one is not familiar with the filter qualities. ”

Street art by Roa

‘Street art by Roa‘ by Anne-Martine Parent – “I visited friends in Ghent (Belgium) at the end of September, and they introduced me to this street artist, Roa. He started doing his street art there in Ghent, which is where he’s from, but has now produced artworks in many different places in the world.

My friends showed me some of his work, in Ghent and in Brussels, and of course each time I would take photos of it. They are all quite big artworks in black and white representing animals (as most of his works are). The one in this picture was the second one I saw (I’m not sure I’ll be able to do anything with the first one, a gigantic bull, because there was so much garbage piling in front of it).

We were taking a walk in Ghent, in the old part of the city, and my friends’ daughter was with us – it’s the little girl in the picture. When she saw that I was taking photos of the artwork, she just ran and stood in front of it, wanting to be included in the picture. I didn’t ask her anything, nor give her any instructions. In fact, I thought that I would prefer the photos with the artwork alone and I took the pictures with her to please her. But when later I looked at the pictures, this one really stood out. Her expression and pose were perfect (I didn’t even realised it when I took the picture) and helped in creating a lively scene. The photos with the artwork alone weren’t as interesting as this one. So it was some kind of « happy accident », not at all intended by me.

I shot the photo with oggl. There is almost no editing; I only chose what I thought was the right combo for the image: BlacKeys XF film (in part because it has no frame), and the G2 lens for its high contrasts. ”

Edges

‘Edges‘ by Mohsen Chinehkesh – “In fact “Edges” is the reflection of my inspiration by the great works of Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand. That day I spent a lot of time with one of my friends digging into photographs of these two street photography heroes. When I came out of my friend’s office I was totally inspired and ready to shake things up. I named this shot after one of the greatest quotes of Garry Winogrand “… In the end, maybe the correct language would be how the fact of putting four edges around a collection of information or facts transforms it. A photograph is not what was photographed, it’s something else.”

we will have our turn one day

‘we will have our turn one day‘ by Janine Graf – “This image was taken during an afternoon at the Evergreen State Fair in Washington State. I took so many images that day of people riding this swing ride; it’s much more fun to stay on the ground and take pictures (unless we are talking about BIG roller coasters!). So what I like to do with this swing ride is fire off many, many shots as the people fly towards me. Later, when time allows, I go through my camera roll to examine what I have, and then crop out my favorite people / favorite bits from the much larger picture. While searching through my roll the other day, I noticed a scene wherein all the seats were empty and knew I must do something with it.

The emotional significance behind this image is that often agonizing feeling of waiting. That feeling of wanting something so badly, but the exact “when” and the exact “how” are a mystery. Sometimes waiting and the anticipation it can build is fun; like when you’re waiting in line for that amusement park ride and you keep getting closer and closer until you’re next in line! And sometimes waiting sucks; a horizon that keeps being pushed back until it’s this teeny, tiny speck you can barely make out and you’re swimming and swimming, all the while fighting off that side stitch that wants to take you out. I have some very exciting events on my horizon, I’m just tired of waiting in line…”

Untitled

‘Untitled‘ by Anthony Tulliani

Do you have a favourite?

Do you have a favourite from this weeks selection? Let us know your thoughts on this weeks featured photos in the comments below. If you haven’t already joined the Mobiography Flickr Group then head on over and join in the fun.