A SPECIAL SHOT FROM THE FRENCH ANTILLES

Hello everybody! I’m back from my trip to the Caribbean, yes, the trip I had talked about in my last post. 

I’d like to start with a picture I composed during my first night at Guadeloupe Island, in the charming town of Deshaies. The town is located in Basse-Terre, the west section of the island, which is part of the Lesser Antilles, an insular oversea region of France. Desahaies is the right mix of traditional fishing village and good services for visitors. Nice little restaurants, great beaches, good hotels, a tiny little harbor. But let’s talk about the picture.

I made this image from the terrace of a restaurant downtown, at dusk, just before dinner. I believe a photographer rarely plan his pictures. I mean, you may know what you want to shoot, where do you want to go and, if you know something about the subject and have read about it, you probably have an idea about different possible perspectives. However, when you start working on the field, something always happens that change your original plan and, likely, helps you increase your creativity.

This is particularly true in travel photography, because although if you read and plan carefully before leaving, you know little of nothing from the photographic point of view about the places you are going to visit. And this is exactly the magic of travelling and of taking picture during your travel. Everything is discovery, nothing is really predictable, and the photographer has to rely even more on his ability to capture a particular and unexpected moment.

Making pictures travelling, no matter how successful your work will be, it is always a great exercise in creativity and in increasing your skills and expertise. This picture is a good simple example of that. Deshaies’ small harbor at dusk was wonderful in itself. I can say that I shot at least ten photos, while light and colors changed rapidly. All decent pictures, but a bit too much postcard-like images. Then something unplanned happened. My wife sat on a small wall separating the restaurant from the harbor, reviewing her recent shots, just in front of me. I was almost starting complaining, when I realized the beauty of the silhouette in front of the sunset. And I composed the image.

Let’s compare the photo with the silhouette with the next one. The second picture is nice too and I like it. But the first one has something unique that makes it special. If I didn’t realize this opportunity in time I will have lost it forever.

Again any idea and/or suggestion is welcome. See you next…