Gesture

Good composition makes a photo beautiful and sometimes a work of art, gesture makes it alive. This photo is not perfect. The teacher’s arm is cut off and I wished I would have included Mr. Batman a little more, but I love this moment. The teacher is cheering up the little girl who is a grouchy. The little boy is enjoying his water and curious about me. We might not use this in a promotional flier, but to me it captures a tiny moment in one of our Head Start Classrooms.
 
I was also experimenting with a new, smaller camera the Fujifilmx100V. If you don’t know, now you know. Check it out. It’s all the rage on social media. It’s very small and non-intrusive but it has a fixed focal length. At this height, you zoom in and out on your hands and knees. Hence, the composition is not perfect. It’s alive.
 
I love this photo because it has a foreground, mid ground and background. In the foreground two ladies are talking. They look totally engaged with each other, but we don’t see all of them. It’s through gesture which forces the audience to imagine them talking. The middle ground tells us we’re at a luncheon because of the tablecloth and place settings and Martinelli bottle. In the background, there are more people talking. I could have gone wider to see more of our foreground subjects and I wanted to get a moment where they were reacting to each other laughing, but I didn’t get that moment in focus..." #Photoblogfridays

(This was originally posted on CII's Photoblog Friday)