Rebirth of top photographers

Chapter 16 Capturing the moment of the funeral

At 04:30 on Thursday morning, at Professor Li's home, Chen Pingsheng was watching the works of Mr. Wang during his lifetime.

They were about to go to the funeral site, and it was only early this morning that Mr. Wang's family sent the electronic file of the photo album.

Chen Pingsheng is taking every moment to carefully observe the style of his works.

He found that Mr. Wang liked to capture the moments of people's expressions or the freeze-frame of people's movements, even if it caused afterimages or confusing compositions. He had a photographic style of key moments.

Since he was going to shoot family albums for others, it was best to have a unified style. Chen Pingsheng planned to imitate Mr. Wang’s style of shooting, which was worthy of the price.

After all, a funeral shoot costs 3000 yuan, and the time is set at your own discretion. Only 18 photos are needed, because there are only 18 spaces left in the photo album. This price is generous at any time.

It also just completed the first phase of the system's tasks.

If it weren't for Professor Li's face, Chen Pingsheng would never have received such an offer.

Therefore, even in the car, Chen Pingsheng was still immersed in his ideas. Seeing his silence, Professor Li knew that the student was thinking seriously, so he did not disturb him.

Mr. Wang's funeral was not held downstairs in the community. Instead, a special venue was found and a funeral shed was set up.

The old man was also a well-known professor who taught and educated people during his lifetime. He not only had many relatives but also many students.After hearing the bad news, students from all over the world came from other places.If it is downstairs, it will bring unnecessary burden to the community.

When he arrived at the scene, Chen Pingsheng found that many vehicles had been parked here.

Today he was wearing a black shirt and dark suit pants, while Professor Li was wearing a black dress.

The old man's eldest daughter, now the mainstay of the family, received them.

When she saw Professor Li, the eldest daughter was dressed in plain clothes, her eyes were slightly red, and she could see traces of crying, but she still said in a steady voice: "Aunt Li, thank you for coming."

"It's okay, kid." Professor Li patted her shoulder.

The eldest daughter looked at Chen Pingsheng again and said politely: "You are the photographer recommended by Aunt Li, right? You are so young, your future will definitely be unlimited."

Chen Pingsheng also said politely: "It's the teacher's fault. I'll go in now."

"Okay, I'll take you in."

The three of them walked into the mourning hall. This place was different from the traditional shed. It was simpler and more grand.It is mainly in wood color and feels more like an old mourning hall in Chinese style.

Because it was too early, the family members were still preparing various matters at this time. Chen Pingsheng did not speak. He first bowed to the black portrait, and then directly raised the camera.

Maybe they were used to the old man's usual taking photos, or maybe the sadness of the funeral left them no energy to care about more things.

Everyone ignored Chen Pingsheng's presence, except for a few children who looked at the strange photographer curiously.

For Chen Pingsheng, this transparent state is better.

This is a photographer’s dream state, because every photographer is pursuing the ability to capture unsuspecting subjects.

Only by taking off guard and returning to the natural state can the subject have a truly beautiful posture of his or her own.

This is different from commercial photography, which requires efficiency and fulfills Party A’s requirements, so photographers often assume more of a guiding role.He will take the trouble to teach the models over and over again how to show the best side of the product or makeup.

But the best does not mean beauty.

What art photography wants to express more is the beauty of human nature, and what it wants to capture is a certain emotion, a certain thought, a certain expression of the subject in a certain environment.

It may not necessarily be the most beautiful, but it must be the most true.

There are too many beautiful photos in a worldly sense, and they are so "easy to take".It's even almost forming a fixed template.After enjoying the beauty for a moment, the viewer immediately enters the next exciting scene.This is no different from a short video.

However, Chen Pingsheng has nothing against this kind of photography. Any shooting style has its target audience and potential needs. Who doesn’t want to see beautiful photos? Even if it’s just the beauty of a person, it is enough to soothe the soul of a viewer.

It's a bit vulgar, but temporary happiness is still needed. After all, not everyone has a strong desire for knowledge.The healthy development of art and secularity is the last word.

Although there were many thoughts in his mind, once he entered the shooting state, Chen Pingsheng subconsciously rejected all the noisy sounds.

I began to capture the expressions and movements on the faces of family members and visitors who came to express their condolences.

This time he continued to use Nikon F5 and also prepared 3 rolls of film, which totaled 108 pictures.

This cannot be compared with the number of shots taken by a digital camera, because film photography is a great test of the photographer's ability to take a single shot.

Each piece is basically the product of careful consideration.

However, during the filming process, Chen Pingsheng also discovered his own weaknesses.

His shooting field of view and instant capture ability are much weaker than before.When I was filming Yao Village before, because I thought very clearly, the difficulty was all in the guidance.

For my first street photography, I also relied on patience and basic aesthetics, and it didn’t require too many instantaneous snapshots.

But by the time of the funeral, patience and reflection no longer cut it.Because every visitor comes in and leaves quickly, he must always keep an eye on the movements of everyone on the scene and find the most worthy of photographing moments amid the rapid changes.

Once you miss it, you may never find it again.

In particular, the ambient light is constantly changing as the sun rises, which further tests a photographer's composition ability.

For the first time in his life, Chen felt powerless.

This made him deeply realize how important attribute points were to him.

Especially the set of photos he planned to shoot for the competition could even be said to be a hundred times more difficult than the funeral in front of him.

If he could wait for dozens of seconds to find and shoot the funeral scene, then he only had 0.5 seconds to capture the scene in that series of works.

Therefore, he must continue to receive business orders to obtain attribute points and improve his basic abilities.

Otherwise, for him, that group of works would only be like a mirror and a castle in the air.

As time went by, fewer and fewer mourners came and went, and Chen Pingsheng finally felt at home.

At this time, the sunlight was projected into the house, forming a clear line between light and dark on the wall. The old man's eldest daughter was too tired and knelt at the door, her body covered in shadow.

As soon as Chen Pingsheng moved the lens to her, he suddenly saw a person's shadow in the viewfinder from far to near, just at the other end of light and dark!
He immediately adjusted the parameters quickly with his hands, but never took his eyes off the viewfinder.

The eldest daughter seemed to hear something. She turned to look, and the movement paused for a moment. At this time, the shadow printed on the wall revealed its true posture due to the close distance. It was slightly stooped and bloated, and seemed to be an old man.The eldest daughter's expression changed several states in an instant, and finally settled in a state where she looked calm, was slightly lost in thought, and felt sad again. Looking at the person walking out of the light, she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something.

"Click" Chen Pingsheng decisively captured this scene.

Sure enough, just a few tenths of a second later, the figure walked in quickly, and the eldest daughter also came to her senses and regained her courtesy.

If Chen Pingsheng had been slower, he would have missed this crucial moment.

If he didn't get it, he would definitely regret it.

Because he felt that no photo could explain the funeral better than the one just now.

Fortunately, he got it.

Chen Pingsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead, and suddenly the camera beeped.

It turned out that before I knew it, 3 rolls of film had been shot.

(End of this chapter)