Weekly Photo Challenge: Ephemeral

Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative, Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

This one quote, that nearly every student of photography will be well aware of defines for many the pursuit of photography and the WHY of photography.  The ability to capture a frame, capture a moment in time forever – is a magical experience and something we often take for granted.

This week’s photo challenge from the folks over at The Daily Post, asks us to explore the word Ephemeral.   The word ephemeral means something short-lived, lasting only for a short time and something I think well suited to travel photography.

The famous Twelve Apostles located on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria to me the very definition of something ephemeral.

Take the amazing twelve apostles in Victoria.  These magical columns of rock stand at the edge of the Australian mainland bearing the brunt of the tempestuous Southern Ocean.  The columns took their name as originally stood twelve columns of stone but for the force of nature and the ocean they are slowly being eroded into the shoreline below.   Combined with the spectacular sunset to close the day it is a worthy reminder that we are all ephemeral on this earth and at some point we will all return back to the earth from whence we came.

The ability to travel this world is a special gift, it does not matter whether you only travel to the next village or across the world – the purpose of life is to live it!

When you travel always be aware of your situation – what is going on? Even those most ordinary of situations and events gives you a chance to record an image and a memory of the place. Every moment is by definition short lived – every photograph is going to be different as no two moments will ever be the same again!

If you are anything like me you will return from a holiday with 1000s of photographs, memories of your weeks away in far flung lands – something humbling to think about however – on average most cameras take a photo at 1/100th of a second shutter speed, when you get home and see those 2,000 images remember that combined together they represent only 20 seconds – that’s all! In 24 hours we get 86,400 seconds of life yet in 2,000 images you have only recorded 20 seconds.

Anyway that is my interpretation of Ephemeral – what is yours?  Leave a comment below and for more examples be sure to head over to The Daily Post to see what others have posted.