Capturing The Moment: The Essence of Photography

You will return to this book throughout your career. Each rereading brings fresh insight into how and why time is essential to photography.

Michael Freeman has always been one of the more thoughtful writers about taking photographs. Many of his most recent books have focused on just one small part of the skills of image capture. This one is in the same vein.The book is basically about the right moment to press the shutter button to get the best image. After an introduction that concentrates on the factors defining that moment (urgency, precision and speed) and the different kinds of shooters (Firemen, Builders and Marksmen) he presents a variety of his photographs, categorizing them by the type of moment, like slotting in place, or mid-air moment, or color moment and then discussing the considerations he used in selecting the moment. He further describes which of the factors was applicable to the particular situation and image, and then provides other information, like a series of images from which the principle photograph was selected, or clarifying graphics to support the point he is trying to make.This is a book about composition, and while there may be mention of why the author selected a particular exposure or focus to capture the moment, there is no discussion of basic exposure or focusing or indeed any other kind of basic technique instruction. If you don't already understand these basics, the book will be difficult to understand, making it more useful to practiced photographers.Freeman's photographs are accessible and well chosen to illustrate his points. I often feel that a series of photographs by the author may be telling one how to photograph like him or her, but, as Freeman says, although a "scene is unique...this is supposed to prepare you for something similar". It might seem that the concept of moment is most applicable to documentary photographers but Freeman includes photographs from a variety of genres from nature photography to landscape to portraiture to illustrate the idea's applicability. And even though it was only a paragraph, I took a moment of glee from the way that Freeman indicated his disinterest in Bernd (whom he calls Bernard) and Hilla Becher's deadpan industrial typologies.I do confess that the graphic he includes in every discussion showing the relative urgency, precision and speed, while at first clever, appeared after a while to be overkill, but it only took up a small part of the page, and it did make the author's points.After one gets the basic skills of photography down, it becomes much harder to learn anything new, especially about ways to think about your photographic composition. I found this book was able to get me to consider more about the moment to snap the picture.

Capturing the Moment is about a topic I call micro-composition. I probably picked the term up from someone, but I can’t remember who. Most composition books talk about rule of 1/3, leading lines, and such. This one it much more subtle. It assumes all the big elements are in the right place then deals with the small things like gesture, separation and interaction. These small things can take a good image and make it a National Geographic image.Freeman begins with a short discussion of photographic criticism around the decisive moment. He uses decisive moment as the time the photographer should hit the shutter to get the best image for the scene. Then he moves on to discuss three shooting styles, Fireman, Builder, and Marksman. These are progressively more contemplative in their approach to shooting.The rest of the book is built around his methods for shooting and then selecting the best images captured at different types of moments. Each section show a final image and then has a description of the situation in which it was captured. He show the sequence of images he took for each scenario and tells why the final image is the best in his opinion.This is excellent training for the intermediate to advanced photographer. The beginning photographer may find it more difficult to work through the examples, but we all face this challenge when we sit down to the ribbon of images in our editing program and have to decide which ones to discard and which ones to process. His images are travel type images with people moving in and out of scenes. The same concepts can apply to set up still-life or wild life images. When are the elements in the frame in the right relationship to maximize impact? When is the right time to push the button to tell the story we want to tell?

Are you a professional visual arts photographer? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Michael Freeman, has done an outstanding job of writing a book where he describes in the simplest way possible, that moments are about choosing when to shoot.Freeman, begins by exploring one important range of technique: Selective shooting and collecting a mass of images quickly. Then, the author discusses the kind of moment exists on the viewfinder or screen, and not necessarily in the un-reconstructed world; in fact, often not in the real world at all. He continues by showing you what the moments have in common--that they happen rapidly, and this takes precedence. Finally, the author explains that the decisions remain every bit as critical to the shot, but we usually have the advantage of being able to consider all of the options.This excellent book looks at camerawork, and by that, the author doesn't mean how the camera works, but how photographers work with the camera--any camera. Also, this great book explains that there are slow moments, when the pace of change can be measured in minutes or hours, but when also the decisions need to be more carefully considered.

I'm a big fan of Michael Freeman's books. The quality of the images inside, along with really pragmatic and helpful thorough explanation of the factors involved in creating them, is excellent. I have several of his books now, and they all invoke new inspiration in improving my photography. Relevant and high quality advice - and if you just want to scan through some technically great images too - I'd highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to apply more discipline to their photography. This particular book is great at helping to think about how to get that 'unusual' or wow factor into your images, perhaps with a slight slant on photojournalism.

Aún no lo leo pero le di un vistazo,independientemente, me fascina que tenga una explicación de las tomas que muestra.

Interesting book, full of insights.

An excellent professional view of how best to capture the moment in any picture. One of the best instructional photo books I have read - which include three other books of similar quality by him.