Photography in the style of Henri Cartier Bresson

The homework for session 2 is to produce a photograph in the style of Henry Cartier Bresson

Rules used to create a Henri Cartier Bresson style of photograph

1. Must be black and White
2. Must contain people
3. Must be in natural light
4. Must be shot at 50mm (i.e. near to what is seen by the human eye)
5. Should have a decisive moment
6. Should not be posed
7. Should adhere to the rule of thirds

Not an easy task! Being January the hours of natural light are limited, especially when I work Monday to Friday nine to five. This leaves me with the weekend. Saturday is already spoken for, so I've just got Sunday to produce something special. Ah well!

As an emergency backup I have a photograph I took about a month ago..

This was taken in a bar in Pilzn (Czech Republic)

This reminds me of an H.E.Bateman style of cartoon.

Perhaps it should be titled "The man who found something on the menu that did not contain pork"

(You need to visit restaurants in the Czech republic to understand this!)

The wood paneling almost divides this picture into 3rds. This was taken at 60mm.

Fortunately for me, Sunday was sunny in parts. I set the custom setting on the GX1 to monotone, zoom resume on 50mm, continuous burst with shutter priority and cycled off to one of Ketterings skateparks.

Decision time ... to go or not?

If a photo is taken on the slant does the rule of thirds grid also need to?

Other skatepark pictures (not necessarily in the style of H.C.Besson)

This wall is probably over 3 metres high

I like the diagonal aspect in this.

Teetering on the edge