Hello

My wife and I went out for lunch in our local city centre earlier this week, to be followed by shopping. After lunch my wife went off to shop and I went to find some images.

The city centre is one of my regular haunts for images but it felt to me on this occasion that I had exhausted the possibilities until I just relaxed and watched the people milling around the shopping arcades. And the images started to come to me. By one of those bizarre circumstances Otto von Munchow posted Let Images Reveal Themselves on his blog ‘In Flow’ earlier this week but I hadn’t had a chance to read it when I shot today’s image, but his message is so relevant to my experience on this day. Do read Otto’s entry (click the link above), and if you are interested in reading and learning about the Creative side of Photography then Otto’s blog is an excellent place to start.

I found this patch of wall that you see below – a clever graphic – announcing the arrival of a shop called ‘Hello’ in the near future. I shot the graphic and then thought: I need a figure in this image. And out of the corner of my eye at that moment I saw a lady in a red coat approaching. It was the precise colour I needed. Instinctively I caught her. I had just that one chance – no time to check the settings or change them. She’s there, one leg sharp, the rest slightly blurred. Pity about the blur, but I’m trying to persuade myself that the blur is somehow apt.

You have to take your chances when they present themselves to you. Over on iSighting today I’ve posted an entry ‘Taking Chances’ expanding on this idea with three other images from the same shoot. If you have the time, do take a look at that post. Click the link to iSighting, or click on the top entry in the Rt sidebar on this blog.