Decisive Moment/Portraiture Exercise

I feel that the following two photo's display Bresson's idea of the Decisive Moment effectively. The subjects (my dogs) have lots of character and I wished to display this, however they rarely remain still enough to capture, so I had to wait and calculate the precise moment or "a formal flash of time when all the right elements were in place before the scene fell back into its quotidian disorder."  (Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction - P. 73)
The above photo was captured on a walk. I think it's quite an unusual perspective, and the fact that my dog appears to be smiling incites some humour into the image. To get this photo I held my dogs stick above the camera to maintain his attention. He looks quite manic/mesmerised and I felt that this was the right moment to capture.

I feel that this is the most effective photo out of the two, as it placates the viewer right in the middle of the action. I also feel that this is the more interesting of the two, as it serves to establish the Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Black Dog) as an aggressive breed; thus reconfirming its already established stereotype. I find this interesting, as the truth behind this image, is that the Bichon Frise in the photo (White Dog) holds the power in this unusual relationship, and continuously torments the Staff. Dogs often play-fight/bite, during which they inflict no pain or harm; this refers to a term known as 'Mouthing'. My dog's regularly do this together when they are excited, and I wanted to highlight the comedic nature of this. Upon viewing this photo from an outsiders perspective, I have now realised that the photo would appear to be quite menacing, and that comedy is only generated when one understands the truth of the situation. I was apprehensive when choosing this photo, as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is somewhat blurred, however I now feel that this reinforces the movement and active elements in the image; causing him to look quite cartoon like.

For homework we were required to photograph somebody we knew in a portraiture style. I was quite confused between portraiture and documentary and ended up documenting a lot of my Boyfriends day rather than encouraging him to 'pose' for the portrait. The photo's display a sort of narrative and none are staged by myself. I photographed these on my mobile which I think added made the process less formal but I did notice a slight change in the behaviour of my boyfriend, as he didn't tend to make eye contact with myself or the camera and was perhaps feigning acting natural or casual. Behaviour with reference to the camera's gaze is something which I find really interesting and hope to focus more on in my future project.