Is a shot taken at 1/4 second shutter speed still a "moment"?

mostlyboringphotog

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How about photos taken with Bulb setting?
 
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How about photos taken with Bulb setting?
All still pictures, regardless of shutter-open duration, are "moments", in that they represent a condensation of a certain amount of time at a certain place into a single impression. Whether they are "momentous" is another matter, however.

Dave
 
Moment of truth?

Moment of silence?

Moment of inertia?

What do you mean by "moment"?
 
Where is my 5.39 x 10^-44 s setting on my shutter speed dial???
I'm reminded of a photo taken with a pinhole camera with an aperture something like of f/infinity-1 that recorded a year of light on a bridge scene in England, I think it was. Just as with your infinitesimal shutter speed, that represents just a moment of time for that city, and whatever came before it and whatever happens after.

Aaron Ralston scratched on the cliff wall next to the boulder that had inexplicably fallen at the moment needed to trap his arm, "Geological time includes now". Indeed.

Dave
 
How about photos taken with Bulb setting?
And that, too.

Moment does not mean sub-millisecond. A sunset can be a moment, as can the play of shadows on a mountain side be. A moment will be gone, eventually. That's why we want to capture it. But it can be gone in seconds, minutes or even hours.

Regards, Mike
 
so what is a moment ?

--
The Camera is only a tool, photography is deciding how to use it.
The hardest part about capturing wildlife is not the photographing portion; it’s getting them to sign a model release
 
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To have an idea of what a moment means you need context.

If my wife tells me that she will be ready in a moment, I expect that to be less than 45 sec , however if I spot an interesting camera shop and I tell her that I'll be a moment, that would be 45 minutes .

Then there is the other type , so photographically speaking capturing a moment is not directly related to time but atmosphere or emotion, an event.

The photo of the guy in front of a tank in Tiananmen square captured a moment in time , how long was that ?
 
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To have an idea of what a moment means you need context.

If my wife tells me that she will be ready in a moment, I expect that to be less than 45 sec , however if I spot an interesting camera shop and I tell her that I'll be a moment, that would be 45 minutes .

Then there is the other type , so photographically speaking capturing a moment is not directly related to time but atmosphere or emotion, an event.

The photo of the guy in front of a tank in Tiananmen square captured a moment in time , how long was that ?
Wow, when my wife is going to be a moment it is around 30 minutes.
 
To have an idea of what a moment means you need context.

If my wife tells me that she will be ready in a moment, I expect that to be less than 45 sec , however if I spot an interesting camera shop and I tell her that I'll be a moment, that would be 45 minutes .

Then there is the other type , so photographically speaking capturing a moment is not directly related to time but atmosphere or emotion, an event.

The photo of the guy in front of a tank in Tiananmen square captured a moment in time , how long was that ?
Which should really be the kind of thing these discussions come down to unless a photograph expressly depends on reflecting absolute reality.

Otherwise a lot of the focus on absolute reality for me comes across more as being reacting against a technique they haven't been willing/able to master
 
How about photos taken with Bulb setting?
I think your question leads down a wrong path. A 'moment' is a concept of human perception and memory in which time is totally elastic and sometimes irrelelvant.

When people use the word 'moment' in a photographic context as in 'capture the moment', I would argue that what is meant is to capture something that is perceived as transient or fleeting. For most people that would mean a juxtaposition of subjects/background that is ephemeral.
 
No. Now is an upcoming thing...
 

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