Decisive Moment photo to the extreme

[JoeFriday]

not taken with a film camera, but you gotta check this out

http://teslamania.delete.org/frames/longarc.htm#Pos-Lightning1

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Not for the faint of heart! 🙂

Thanks for posting the link, Brett!

 

[darkkavenger]

I think my Kiev is too conductive... 😕 the Holga should do it 😀

 

[cp_ste.croix]

wow...that looks amazing!

 

[taffer]

Electrifying shot ! 😱

I still remember I was at the balcony one cloudy afternoon / evening and suddently a really low lightning went horizontally all along the street in front of my nose. My flat is the 2nd, so it was indeed quite low.

It left a really strange smell in the air.

It left my face white for several hours as well.

Btw I love the fractal figures in glass blocks at the page's bottom.

 

[JoeFriday]

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.. it smells like.. victory

but I think you were smelling ozone

 

[Kin Lau]

Fun stuff... I've always wanted to photograph lighting.

I remember one storm a few years ago when I was in Ottawa. A transformer was struck about a 1/2 km from our apartment and after the explosion, we watched the surge proceed to heat up and melt the power lines one by one 1/2 way down the street. Very wild.

 

[JoeFriday]

that reminds me of a night in college.. it was a very odd evening because it was snowing hard, but the snow was coming down very lightly.. it was quite beautiful.. and for no particular reason, all of my friends in our dorm couldn't sleep, so we were sitting in my room at about 2am looking out the window at the snow falling.. the view out my window looked out over a nearby river, and directly across the water was a electrical power substation.. we were all just quietly looking out at the view when suddenly sparks flew out of a transformer at the substation and everything instantly went dark, apparently due to the snow.. our jaws all dropped.. it was almost prescient of us to all be looking out the window together at that moment

 

[kaiyen]

This is meant as a thoughtful post, not as disparaging of the thread's title.

There was a tremendous and heated thread on PN a while ago about the meaning of "decisive moment." Poor translation issues aside, I think that the gist was that a moment is decisive in terms of photography because it has meaning. It is more than simply good timing.

Taking a shot of a doorway just as someone walks through it is good timing. Having that good timing lead to some meaning above and beyond the physical composition is key.

I'm not saying that I know how to make such a photo per se, or that the photos I make are decisive vs. just good timing. But it seems like this particular photo is the latter.

just random thoughts,

allan

 

[darkkavenger]

I think that sometimes we're just lucky. 🙂

 

[JoeFriday]

I'd actually agree with you, allan.. the title was mostly a play of words with our favorite phrase.. in this case, the event was decisive in a physical manner for the photographer.. he instantly decided to get the hell outta there.. LOL

 

[taffer]

groan 😀

I guess so, yes.

 

[RML]

Allan, I've never liked the term "decisive moment" for manyr easons. I care more for the term "fleeting moment". To me it describes better what HCB was about. But perhaps it's just me.

 

[kaiyen]

Well, "decisive," if I remember, was a bit of a bad translation anyway. But the point is the same.

Glad that didn't turn into the PN thread 🙂
allan

 

[titrisol]

I've seen things like that.... even ball-lighting high in the Andes.... scary!!!

However I was going to comment on the Lichtenberg figure. There is a cheap/easy way to make one
- Take one of those AOL CDs that come in the mail
- Put it in your microwave oven (You can put a glass with water and lean the CD on it)
- Set timer for 3 secs at high power
- VOILA!!!!

 

[Peter Klein]

{begin dpreview geek mode}

That lightning photo is terrible! I've never seen so much purple fringing in my life! Sell yer camera, dude, it sux. :angel:

{end dpreview geek mode}

Seriously, that photo comes under the dual headings of "Thank God you're still alive," and "Are you f---ing NUTS?" Here's another:

http://www.mhweather.co.uk/mhwphp/mhwphp/photo.php?photo_id=549&start=60&category_path=Thunderstorms

--Peter

 

[sbug]

That's an amazing shot Brett. He is damn lucky to be alive. If anyone is interested in lightning photography:

a: you're a bit crazy
b: this is a helpful site: http://www.uscoles.com/phlightn.htm
c: it is not my fault if you are cooked

Scott

 

[GeneW]

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought you meant these images:

http://www.rapidnewswire.com/atom.htm

The first microseconds of the first atomic bomb blast in NM.

Gene

 

[Alec]

Well, "decisive," if I remember, was a bit of a bad translation anyway. But the point is the same.

Glad that didn't turn into the PN thread 🙂
allan

<style=pn>
Allan,

I believe the French décisif, in Cartier-Bresson's sense, means "pertaining to the decision", whereas the English decisive usually veers towards "having the power or quality of deciding" [Merriam-Webster].

But you do have "decisive battles", don't you? (Some of you even use napalm for making sure - hello Brett!) So why not a more peaceful "decisive moment"? Among HCB's most famous pictures is Gandhi! 😉
</style=pn>

 

[Alec]

I've seen things like that.... even ball-lighting high in the Andes.... scary!!!

However I was going to comment on the Lichtenberg figure. There is a cheap/easy way to make one
- Take one of those AOL CDs that come in the mail
- Put it in your microwave oven (You can put a glass with water and lean the CD on it)
- Set timer for 3 secs at high power
- VOILA!!!!

Don't you fear being sued for that recipe?

Remember the poor microwaved pet 😉