The Best Photo I've Ever Taken

adetorrent (74)in #filmphotography • 5 years ago

It was a relatively lovely day in London. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, without being cold, if you know what I mean. There was good energy in the air. I was walking along the south bank of the Thames river and everyone was feeling good.

Sometimes, when the tide is low enough, beaches are created on the bank of the river. Londoners never fail to make use of a beach when it happens. Musicians, sand sculptors, exercisers and acrobats/free runners are amongst the usual suspects to be seen at the bank.

I was carrying my favourite film camera, the Olympus 35RC on the day, loaded with a roll of AgfaPhoto Vista 200 Plus film. I always use it in full manual mode, which means I get to set everything; shutter speed and aperture. Of course, the focusing is totally manual.

Talking of focusing, the Olympus 35RC is a rangefinder camera. This means the focusing mechanism, the rangefinder, consists of two sliding images that when aligned, the subject mater is in focus. This could sometimes be difficult when there's too much information in the frame, or in low light.

I saw this scene about to happen and pictured this in my head before it happened. You learn to do that if you do a lot of street photography. You're always watching for movement and possibilities. Plus, with my OCD /pattern obsession thing, I often notice these things.

I must have had about 5 seconds to get into position, set the camera fast enough to freeze motion (1/500 speed), set the aperture to match that speed based on the light and ISO of the film (I think it was f5.6 on the day). According to Sunny 16, it would have been at f11 due to the sunny conditions, but I always over-expose a bit. The focus was on the dot on the ground between the two guys, so they would both be in focus. You only get one shot with this - no power drive, no 15 shots per second spray and pray. One shot.

Just before I finished focusing, the guy on the right leaped into his summersault so I took the photo in the timing to catch him directly upside down. Sadly my finger didn't make it out of the way of the lens and was caught on the top right corner of the original shot. I have cropped it away which is the why the photo looks slightly wide-angle. The original shot showed more of the Thames River and, of course, the tip of my index finger.

I really wish my finger had made it out of the frame in time, it would have been a much better photo than this with a more informative background. I do, however, still love this photo cropped and till date is still one of my favourite photos I've ever taken. In terms of the conditions under which it was taken, and how quickly I had to react and all that kind of stuff, I'd say it's the best I've ever taken.